The third official day of action at the European Poker Tour Loutraki Main Event, following two Day 1 starting flights, is now in the books. Toni Judet entered Day 2 of the PokerStars-sponsored major tournament with the second-biggest chip stack and took the lead as the day continued, eventually closing for the evening with over 288k. Judet displayed equal measures of calm and prowess, putting on a truly impressive performance that would equal a win if he’s able to keep momentum.
Judet wasn’t the only big-name pro competing in Loutraki, Greece on Day 2. At one table alone sat Rupert Elder, Salman Behbehani, Heinz Kamutzki, Jude Ainsworth, McLean Karr and Kenny Hallaert. Behbehani, Kamutzki and Hallaert were all eliminated within the first few levels of play, and the table was reorganized shortly thereafter.
Ainsworth and Karr were then seated at a table with Jan Bendick and Roberto Romanello. Tom Marchese, who won his seat via an online qualifier, was ultimately unable to attend. Ainsorth, Elder and Romanello all survived to fight on Day 3 with chip stacks exceeding 100k. Karr survived as well, albeit with a much leaner chip stack.
At this point, approximately 100 runners remain in EPT Loutraki to compete for the first-place prize of 347k Euro. That indicates a fairly fast rate of action given that 232 players started the day, and 336 players started the tournament in all.
Other notable players entering Day 3 with decent chip stacks include David Vamplew, Ana Marquez, David Peters, Johnny Lodden, Kevin MacPhee and Jason Wheeler. Aside from Judet, the very biggest stacks belong to Jacques Torbey, Robert Cezarescu, Fahredin Mustafov and Zimnan Ziyard.
Jeff Sarwer, Pierre Neuville, Jan Bendik and Mats Gavatin weren’t so lucky, hitting the rail on Day 2 and forfeiting their 4,400 Euro buy-ins.
Late last week PKR Poker sent out a press release stating the site would be making a major addition to their roster of sponsored pros. Now building up an announcement for close to a week, and then announcing that Hevad Khan (no offense to Hevad) is your latest sponsored pro would be absurd, so the poker world was left wondering just who this “top player” was going to be?
Well early on Thursday we learned that PKR Poker was not overstating its latest signing, as it turned out to be UK star and Poker Triple Crown Winner Jake Cody.
Cody, only 23 years-old, has already captured a WPT title, an EPT title, and a WSOP bracelet –a feat he accomplished in less than 2 years—and is considered one of the best tournament poker players in the poker world. Cody has lifetime live tournament earnings of around $2.8 million.
Cody will join an already stacked roster at PKR Poker, which boasts a number of the games top young talents including EPT Snowfest winner Vladimir “Beyne” Geshkenbein (who also made a super-deep run in the 2011 WSOP Main Event), WSOP Europe bracelet winner Scott “PKR_Scott” Shelley, Germany’s Sascha “locodice” Walter, France’s Marc “Waswini” Bariller, Sofia “wellbet” Lovgren (PKR’s resident lady of the felt), and the UK’s James “James666” Sudworth.
PKR Poker will be welcoming Cody to the site as he hosts two tournaments weekend, and also with a special offer that will give one lucky PKR player the chance to take on the Triple Crown winner in a heads-up clash. Here are a few more details from the PKR website:
You’ll get your first chance to meet Jake in this weekend’s Bounty Day promotion, where he’ll be taking to the PKR felt as the host of two events. Also on Sunday night, Jake will be taking on one lucky challenger in the next ‘Pwn a Pro’ heads-up clash, to be featured in the upcoming issue of Stacked magazine. If you’d like to take Jake on for $500 (you even get $200 if you lose!), register now for tonight’s JakeCody’s Pwn a Pro lotto, which starts at 21:30 GMT.
The first-ever Nations Cup will be hosted by the International Federation of Poker starting today in London. The event is just one component of the London Mind Sports Festival.
The event will include 12 teams, each consisting of some of the most successful professional poker players from around the world. The event will follow a unique game variant entitled “duplicate poker,” intended to minimize the effect of luck on the outcome of each game.
In an interview with PokerNews.com, the IFP explained the rules of duplicate poker as follows:
“Rather than competing against those at their table, duplicate poker pitches players against opponents dealt exactly the same cards in exactly the same position on neighboring tables. With all players in a particular seat given the same allocation of cards the only determining factor in the result of the tournament is how skillfully each player uses them.”
The event will have a nationalistic flair, with each team representing a country including Ireland, Australia, the United States, Denmark, Holland, Germany and Spain. Zynga, the company responsible for some of the world’s most popular online games including FarmVille and Mafia Wars, is also fielding a team.
A number of noted pros have already confirmed their participation in the event, including Sam Trickett, Liv Boeree, Vanessa Selbst, David Benyamine, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Tony G and the recently-elusive Gus Hansen. Eoghan O’Dea and Sam Holden will also play, hot off their appearances at the WSOP Main Event final table.
Immediately after the Nations Cup, the International Federation of Poker will host its World Championship. That event, scheduled for the 19th, will include 130 poker pros vying for the $250,000 first-place prize. The World Championship will be filmed for eventual television broadcast.
A total of 191 players showed up to play on Day 1b of European Poker Tour Loutraki, sponsored by online poker site PokerStars. Team PokerStars Pro faltered on Day 1a and sent considerable reinforcements on Day 1b in the form of Jude Ainsworth, Randy Lew, Johnny Lodden, Eugene Katchaov, Arnaud Mattern, Toni Judet, Theo Jorgensen and Vanessa Rousso.
No member of the PokerStars army could keep up with chip leader Mari Puccini, however. Puccini, a native of Germany in spite of his last name, racked up over 159k throughout seven levels of play, enough to top Day 1a chip leader Julian Herold.
Vanessa Rousso was among the Team PokerStars Pros to face elimination on Wednesday, as her pocket nines failed to improve on the board against pocket jacks. Arnaud Mattern met the same fate, having his chip stack crippled when his trip jacks ran into the riverbed straight of Loykia Lypraloy.
Toni Judet and Johnny Lodden both fared much better. Lodden survived with 40k, while Judet is a genuine contender on the leaderboard with over 143k.
Of course, with 191 players paying their 4,400 Euro buy-ins, there were sure to be a few non-Team PokerStars Pros in the action as well. Kevin MacPhee, former winner of EPT Berlin, bagged up 74k at the end of play, thanks to a 4-bet pot he won by calling an A-Q bluff with pocket kings. Jan Collado was close behind, finishing the day with 72k chips despite losing a 50k pot to Jude Ainsworth.
A number of noted pros weren’t so lucky. Heath Herring of MMA fame, Randy Lew of PokerStars Team Online Pro, Vitaly Lunkin, Jens Thorson and William Thorson all hit the rail at one point or another.
130 Day 1b survivors and 102 Day 1a survivors will reconvene on Thursday, at which point the ranks will be thinned out even more.
The World Poker Tour is currently in the midst of their tenth season, and as the New Year fast approaches the long-running poker tournament series has now released the second half of their Season X schedule.
Amongst the eight tournaments announced are the WPT Ireland and the WPT Vienna, both new destinations on the WPT, as well as the $25k Championship at the Bellagio in May. For the second straight year the WPT Championship will also feature a $100k buy-in Super-High-Roller tournament, which will officially bring Season X to a close.
The announced tournaments will take place from January through May, at which point Season XI will begin. Here is a look at the complete schedule:
| WPT Ireland* | City West Hotel Dublin, Ireland |
January 5 – 8, 2012 | €2,500 |
| WPT Venice | Casino de Venezia Venice, Italy |
February 6 – 11, 2012 | €4,950 |
| LA Poker Classic | Commerce Casino Los Angeles, CA |
February 24 – 29, 2012 | $10,000 |
| Bay 101 Shooting Star |
Bay 101 San Jose, CA |
March 5 – 9, 2012 | $10,000 |
| WPT Vienna* | Montesino Vienna, Austria |
March 26 – 31, 2012 | €3,500 |
| Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown |
Seminole Hard Rock Casino Resort Hollywood, FL |
April 18 – 23, 2012 | $10,000 |
| WPT Jacksonville | Jacksonville Poker Room Jacksonville, Florida |
April 28 – May 2, 2012 | $5,000 |
| WPT World Championship | Bellagio Las Vegas, Nevada |
May 19 – 26, 2012 | $25,500 |
| WPT World Championship Super High Roller | Bellagio Las Vegas, Nevada |
May 23 – 25, 2012 | $100,000 |
For more information on the WPT or any of these stops you can head over to www.worldpokertour.com
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