Day 1b of the EPT German Open

It seems as though most high rolling poker players like to arrive fashionably late as Day1b of the EPT German Open saw a far stronger field than the tournament’s opener. Daniel Negreanu obviously considers himself so stylish that he can make an entrance after play has started.

The forced absence of Boris Becker saw a few pros taking advantage of his illness by making a bid for the limelight. Unfortunately for some, they became famous simply for their tragic early demise.

ElkY will not be enjoying back-to-back triumphs on the EPT as his dwindling chip stack forced him to go all-in on AT, only to find an opponent more than happy with an A-T-J flop to match his pocket jacks. In one of the final hands of the day, last year’s winner and ex-comic book collector, Andreas Hoivold, went down in a blaze of glory after his pocket cowboys took a peppering from the quads of Nicolas Levi.

With 411 players starting the tournament, including 8 from ‘unknown countries’, there appears to be little sign of poker’s popularity dimming. The bulb has gone on the challenges of 262 players but there are still 149 vying for the light. The current bright young thing is France’s Chabot Cyrille, with an impressive stack of 111,100.

Day 1a of the EPT German Open

Dortmund was the scene of some fierce competition yesterday and, for once, it wasn’t due to the Sparkassen Chess-Meeting which the city has hosted since 1982. However, the action was certainly psychologically gruelling as Day 1a of the EPT German Open saw 198 players begin their battle for the crown.

Although the Casino Hohensyburg is yet to see the start of Boris Becker’s stride for poker glory, some 123 players have already started the long march home. Alongside ‘Boom-Boom’, some 200+ treasure seekers are joining the field today so there is a strong likelihood that the eventual winner will have to dig deep to scoop 1st prize, which is likely to top last year’s $880,000. Losers with a history of diving (like Boris) could well find themselves in the casino’s moat.

EPT German Open

Last night, poker went even more razzamatazz as the EPT wiped its feet on Dortmund’s doormat. Players were bussed from hotels to the Bay Club at Nightrooms for a welcome party and were given a hearty howdy by a fire-swallowing performer. It didn’t stop there. Party-goers needed plenty of the free booze to help them stifle their fear when they saw a girl with a serpent draped around her shoulders and waist. She must have been more innocent than she looked as she had presumably misinterpreted the words “Have you tried the coil?”

As the night was long, a few players may have uncurled from the foetal position this morning wondering if they were force-fed charcoal. Hopefully they will have cleared their grates by 3pm for the first day of the German Open. Hosted at the Casino Hohensyburg, it has a buy in of €8,000 and is capped at 500 competitors.

Plenty of TV known pros will be opening their wallets, including ‘ElkY’, who will be hoping to win two EPT events in a row. However, a lot of the camera lenses will be directed towards Boris ‘Boom-Boom’ Becker, who is making his poker debut tomorrow. He’ll be trying to add this event to his out of court fame and it will be interesting to see if his predatory character will sting its way through the field. However, if he maintains his evasive history, he could well have his fire swallowed by one of the more regular performers.

Winter Fun

For those of us who have always had a life consuming desire to visit the Italian border, today offers the perfect excuse to gather our international papers and jet off to Slovenia. The second ‘Winter Fun’ poker tournament begins at the Hotel Casino Perla, Nova Gorica and it offers five daily events, culminating on Friday with a €550 NL rebuy tournament. All of the games are limited to 70 competitors so pack that passport with haste.

Anyone left standing (or knocked out) could sample the hotel’s two styles of sauna (poker players may not be welcome at the Finnish variant as ‘conversation should be relaxed and controversial topics should be avoided’). Alternatively, if risking your stack doesn’t float your boat, try the local kayaking club which boasts ‘competitors classified as world leaders in this sport’ and could offer the best way of tackling the river.

Final Day of the World Poker Open

By winning the World Poker Open at the Gold Strike Casino, Mississippi, ex-collegiate wrestler Brett Faustman has proved himself king of the takedowns. An amateur poker player and family man ‘who talks too much trash’, he can now ‘afford a nice meal’ as he has hauled in $892,413.

He was on vacation and won his entrance fee through a $1000 satellite. By rocketing his way to the final table, he seemed to take his wife by surprise as she was not around to watch his triumph. Although she had trouble with the airlines, Faustman, poker’s newest high flyer, still had a small cheering squad to watch him slam Hoyt Corkins into 2nd place.

The runner up had limped on the button for 80k but Faustman slapped him with a 250k raise. Corkins called and was forced to grapple with a flop of 9-9-3. He was further pinned down by a 280k bet but, after some not inconsiderable mental anguish, he decided to push. When he was called, his rubber ducks were left drowning by his opponent’s QQ. Although his leotard days may be behind him, Faustman could again enjoy a triumph by technical superiority.

Final Standings and Prize Money

1.Brett Faustman - $892,413

2. Hoyt Corkins - $458,267

3. Men Nguyen - $241,193

4. Freddy Deeb - $168,835

5. Gabe Costner - $123,008

6. John Spadavecchia - $96,477

Day 3 of the World Poker Open

Day 3 of the World Poker Open at the Gold Strike Casino, Tunica, Mississippi, saw the massacre of 21 players to leave a final table of 6, who will later today fight for the 1st prize of $892,413.

Erick Lindgren started the day as chip leader but was left feeling like the Tin Man after his hearts’ flush draw was bypassed and Men Nguyen’s set of queens held firm. Lindgren’s heart failure was soon followed by a fatal error. He pushed on A-7 and was beyond resuscitation when he was called by Nguyen’s A-9. In this event of season six of the WPT, he was stuck, like Jack Bauer, at 24.

After spending Day 2 bravely battling against the forces of alcohol, John ‘The Razor’ Phan, finally heard ‘last orders’ in 22nd place. He probably needed a beer: earlier, he had flipped over AK but it was left under the table by Brian Faustman’s KK.

We knew the names of the six bums on seats when Freedy Deeb eliminated Michael Bass in 7th place. Although he won’t be seated at the final table, Bass can cushion himself with $72,358.

The poker room’s furniture will be occupied from 4pm CT today.

Chip Counts for the Final Table

1. Freddy Deeb - 1,345,000

2. Brett Faustman - 1,282,000

3. Men "The Master" Nguyen - 729,000

4. Gabe Costner - 1,181,000

5. Hoyt Corkins - 395,000

6. John Spadavecchia - 256,000

World Poker Open

We get back to business as poker returns to its birthplace of the Mississippi River. The Gold Strike Casino Resort in Tunica, the 21st century’s equivalent of a paddleboat steamer, is currently attracting the sharpers with a 4-day $10,000 event. Appropriately, the author of the book: World Poker Tour – Making the Final Table, Erick Lindgren, is leading the World Poker Open with a stack of 498,000.

Day 2 saw the bubble burst on WeiKai Chang as his 9-6 was mauled by K-9 and the remaining twenty-seven top dogs are now assured of a $12,060 treat. Those still trying to win a lot include the ferocious John ‘The Razor’ Phan, who unleashed a very unpredictable game, seemingly reliant on knocking back the beers.

As he boasted ‘I can get drunk at my job. I really should fire myself. Of course, I think I play better with alcohol’. He proceeded to play almost every hand. His stack fluctuated wildly and he ended the day with a below average count of 169,000 (but with a substantially higher than average blood alcohol content) so we still don’t know what comes first – the beer or the chips.

Day 3 promises more play at 1pm CT and at least one hangover.

Current top ten at the World Poker Open:

1. Erick Lindgren – 498,000

2. Dutch Boyd – 440,000

3. Gabe Costner – 402,000

4. Freddy Deeb – 324,000

5. Men Nguyen – 323,000

6. Barry Greenstein – 280,000

7. William McMahon – 265,000

8. Michael Baas – 247,000

9. John Spadavecchia – 223,000

10. Jimmy Tran – 204,000

GUKPT Leg 1 - Final

Julian ‘Yo-Yo’ Thew can put some more toys in his cupboard after winning the main event of the GUKPT – Leg 1 this morning. The heads up battle had more swings than a school time conker fight, but Karim Louis was the one gazing at his shoelaces when his AQ was left dangling by a 9-6-2-K-3 board and Julian’s 5-5 crowned him king of the yard.

The Nottingham based professional becomes the first player to win two GUKPT trophies and can add £86,800 to the £59,500 he lassoed by winning last year’s event in Plymouth. Today’s triumph also furnishes him with a £3,000 seat for the tour’s Grand Final and an iPod Nano.

As runner up Karim Louis has now notched up three final table finishes in four months, it should not be too long before we see him adding some silverware to his career earnings, today boosted by £46,200.

The next event in the tour will take place in Walsall, week commencing 11th February. As ‘Yo-Yo’ will be tied up (Ed – is he busy walking the dog?), perhaps some more of us will feel cocky enough to come out to play.

Borgata Winter Open

“Put your hair up nice and set up pretty and meet me tonight in Atlantic City”

Poker players with plentiful supplies of hair gel would do well to take Bruce Springsteen’s lyrical advice from the early 80s, as the jewel of New Jersey is currently hosting a WPT Season 6 event. The Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa (‘a fusion of high energy excitement and infinite possibility’) is the venue for a 17 day poker festival which culminates with the Borgata Poker Classic Championship. The tournament begins on January 27 and places are still available for players that can fork out the ten grand buy in.

Last year saw ex-pool hustler John Hennigan clear the tables, beating 570 marks and pocketing $1,606,223. The prize pool was nearly $2m bigger than the previous year’s and, as the WPT continues to grow, we can expect a bigger booty this year.

For those on a more restricted budget, the festival offers plenty of other options. The first event, with a humble $350 buy in, attracted 1649 entrants and generated a $494,700 pool. Top dog was Justin Peckholdt, AKA ‘juice man’ (his inverted commas) who beat his rivals to a pulp and can now pour $93,152 into his thirsty bank account.

The hotel adds to this mouth watering financial temptation by offering comps to suitably cheeky players and by providing unbeatable relaxation. The ‘Spa Toccare’ promises that ‘a new you emerges just in time to wave buh-bye to your worldly cares’. Expect that mission statement to be challenged to the full in the next two weeks by less than relaxed players who have just waved ‘buh-bye’ to their chip stacks.

First Leg of the GUKPT

It’s an exciting week for British poker players as the first leg of the GUKPT kicked off in Brighton on Monday. Railbirds and soap enthusiasts alike will be wondering if it can build on the success of last year’s rookie season, when former EastEnders heartthrob, turned “Geezer wot was on Celebrity Love Island”, Michael Greco, won a cliff-hanger in Cardiff. His £100,000 scoop splashed poker onto the mainstream news. It also empowered him to the extent that he would never be tempted by offers of televised trips to the outback so millions could watch him being force-fed lizard.

This year, he’ll be hoping the high profile tour attracts plenty of greedy fish mesmerised by the dangling of cash and an exciting new addition. Winners of any tournaments at the ten, nation spanning events will be awarded an ‘invitation only’ seat at a £75,000 ‘Champions of Champions’ extravaganza in December, exact date and venue tbc. The amount of chips that players receive at the beginning will vary, depending on the buy in of the event won, so this particular climax may yet provide conclusive proof that size does matter.

Full GUKPT Details

Leg 1
Brighton
January 14th-20th

Leg 2
Walsall
February 11th-17th

Leg 3
London
March 1st-9th

Leg 4
Manchester
April 21st-27th

Leg 5
Newcastle
May 14th-18th

Leg 6
Luton
August 2nd-10th

Leg 7
Bolton
September 1st-7th

Leg 8
Thanet
October 13th-19th

Leg 9
Blackpool
November 8th-16th

Grand Final
London
November 20th-30th

Helsinki Freezeout

Helsinki is not a city resting on its laurels. Having successfully hosted Finland’s first ever Eurovision Song Contest in 2007, (and who can forget the winning ‘Molitva’, by household legend Marija Serifovic, its three and a half minutes of life-enriching Euro-pop providing a Kennedy assassination moment for a new generation?), the city continued to play its cards right by offering a Hold ‘Em Freezeout tournament at the Grand Casino last week.

The tournament is appropriately named as January often sees brave Helsinkians strolling on the frozen Baltic Sea. Sadly, however, not many tourists decided to break the ice off their wallets, fork out the €2500 entrance fee and sample the intimate delights of the capital’s Christmas street, as the €500,000 event was dominated by Finns, with just one non-national reaching the final table.

In a region dealing up eighteen hours of darkness during the winter months, the last man posting the blinds was J-R Lampila, whose €160, 825 payday now snowballs him to number 73 in the bright lights of the ‘Finland All Time Money List’. For those of you who were left ‘Making Your Mind Up’, it just has to be ‘Nul Points’.

Final Day of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

In hindsight, maybe it was always on the cards. ‘Starcraft’ is a game based on resource management, requiring offensive and defensive tactics to win. Ok, poker’s resource is chips, not ‘vespane’ gas and most tournaments don’t feature galactic species called ‘Terrans’, a hive-mind called ‘Zerg’ and ‘Protoss Warriors’, but expertise at inter-galactic warfare was an asset at the final table of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

An ex-master of the ‘Starcraft’ universe, Frenchman Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier used his tractor beam to haul in the $2m 1st prize and thus conquer The Bahamas.

Regular readers may recall that David ‘The Dragon’ Pham has started the day as odds-on favourite but he fell foul of ElkY’s champion luck. The fire went out in 4th place when The Dragon’s two pair was called on the turn: ElkY flushed on the river and captured the Big Mo.

So, after a gruelling five days, the ‘flop of no return’ came when Hafiz Khan went all in and was quickly called by ElkY’s pocket snowmen. Khan had been rumbled and knew he was headed for bankruptcy. He sheepishly turned over a pitiful 9-3 and ElkY took a tiny step towards poker-world domination.

Final Table Standings and Prize Money

1. Betrand ‘ElkY Grospellier $2,000,000
2. Hafiz Khan $1,094,976
3. Kris Kuykendall $800,000
4. David ‘The Dragon’ Pham $600,000
5. Craig Hopkins $450,000
6. Joe Elpayaa $300,000
7. Christian Harder $200,000
8. Richard Fohrenbach $150,000

Day 4 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

There are exciting times across the water. The day of reckoning is nearly upon us and someone has the Big Mo.

Yes folks, as the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure goes into its final day, David ‘The Dragon’ Pham is flying high and terrifying the other seven remaining players. He displayed his mettle throughout Day 4 by helping thirty-two players to pack their bags and contending with the psychedelic colours of the ‘Tiki Lounge’, which seemed to be hosting a ‘Mr Loud T-Shirt’ competition.

It was Pham who silenced William Thorsen’s cry of ‘all in’ and created the final table. When Thorsen’s pocket fours were upstaged by The Dragon’s rockets on a 66x flop, the Swede went down in flames, although he did manage to land on a fire-smothering cushion of $120,000.

With the primaries now over, the gruelling final day starts at 10am ET. Will The Dragon continue to soar? Tune in tomorrow for a full report of the carnage.

Full Final Table Counts:

David Pham 7,390,000

Bertrand Grospellier 3,060,000

Joe Elpayaa 2,755,000

Haffiz Khan 2,560,000

Kris Kuykendall 2,150,000

Richard Fohrenbach 1,855,000

Craig Hopkins 1,770,000

Christian Harder 905,000

Supervison and Security

A recent ‘Guardian’ piece explains the term ‘helicopter parents’, so-called because they hover over their children, interfering and directing their lives in a way that would embarrass standard pushy parents.

According to Paul Redmond, Head of Careers at Liverpool University, ‘Several high-profile graduate recruitments have reported incidents where parents have contacted them to negotiate a starting salary. Others have had parents contact them to complain about a ‘child’ who has been overlooked for promotion.

Here are ten other types of parent to look out for:

The Stealth Bomber – Mostly provides undetected parenting, but with little respect for personal boundaries. Can take child by surprise with dropping of emotional nuclear bombs.

The Bus – Open-door parents, whose ‘all-aboard’ attitude is great for the community but sometimes leaves offspring with ‘standing room only’ and hanging on to straps.

Cycle – practical and healthy, less good for intimacy needs. Leaves offspring with confusing ‘you’re on your own’ philosophy and hated by children of ‘cars’.

The Seg-Way – Will spearhead new and innovative approaches to child development, even at the cost of mass ridicule. Can come across as misguided, well-off, hippies who need more sarcastic friends.

Yacht – calm, relaxing parents that provide a stable environment for healthy development but are reliant on outside forces for direction and power.

‘Orse ‘n Cart – plodding, dour parenting, enlivened by the enjoyment of an outdoor lifestyle and a ‘get your finger out’ approach. Tend to produce un-ambitious children with permanently damaged subconscious / nasal passages.

The submarine – patrols offspring unseen, only surfacing at times of great emergency. Sometimes responsible for otherwise inexplicable disappearance of girl / boyfriends.

Coach – no thrills. Delivers children to destination adulthood intact, if with a few stops along the way; but they may feel slightly ill and have a nagging sense of emotional hunger.

Tube - can be efficient but prone to regular breakdowns. Produce competitive kids that are voracious readers but with inability to make eye contact.

Unicycle – Erratic parents whose eccentricity entertains outsiders but they terrorize those in close proximity, i.e. the kids. Prone to changing direction and bruised tibias.

Day 3 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

Want to know if someone is a nerd or an informed poker player?

Today, ask him/her what is so special about the number forty. The nerd will say it’s the only number in the English language that has its letters in alphabetical order; the poker player will tell you it’s the number of entrants still remaining in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

During Day 3, the bubble burst on the 1st tier of the payout structure and 70 players trousered $16,000. By the close of play, a further 10 had bravely shouted ‘all in’, only to find themselves all out. Don’t feel too sorry though: these chip-less wonders were soon revived by the scent of a $24,000 pay-day.

Remaining challengers for the crown will face a couple of hard nights as they try to prise David ‘The Dragon’ Pham’s claws from his 2,003,000 horde. The Vietnamese-American is attempting to snag the $2m 1st prize and add it to the $6m career earnings back at his Californian lair. As he also has two WSOP bracelets, expect him to guard his chip-stack ferociously.

Poker Tournament

Here’s a dilemma for you: you’re a poker player, it’s a New Year and you have gorged your way through the holidays. It’s time for change. It’s time to embrace all 2008 has to offer.

Do you a) add your coin to the pond of good intentions and join a gym, vowing 2008 will feature more probiotics;

or b) follow in the footsteps of Christopher Columbus and set sail for The Bahamas, pony up the $8k entrance fee for the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure and try to conquer your way to the first prize booty of $2m?

Hmm… a treadmill or a venue called Paradise Island…..

Yep, on Jan 5, 1,136 players decided to forego the allure of the gym and went back to work at the Atlantis Resort and Casino, a place where the waters are as enchanting as AK suited.

After two days of intense flopping, only 153 are not lounging by the pool. Currently top of the coconut tree and least likely to be sipping cocktails is ex-IT worker Eric “Rizen” Lynch, He has draped his towel on a seat at the final table by amassing a chip stack of 526,900. In 2nd place, with 435,000, is ex-Starcraft player, Frenchman Bertrand Grospellier. With 120 getting paid, there are still three days until sun-set.

Keep watching this space and pumping that iron!

Party Politics

Here's a quotation from a politician:

'He possesses a pleasant manner, is nice looking and does the right things, in the right way - what more is required?'

It's from the 30s.

Divine Intervention

This is lifted from The Guardian and therefore supports the suggestion that blogging is a parasitic activity, but I couldn't resist posting it.

It's a comment from Jay Jay Okocha, on his transfer from Bolton to Hull City:

"I always ask God if it's his will and, if so, then let it be. That's the message I got and that's why I am at Hull City."