The first day of action at the PokerStars European Poker Tour London is now over, and an initial starting flight of 280 runners was reduced to 162 by the end of the day. Tournament organizers are expecting at least 500 additional competitors on Day 1b, the Main Event’s final starting flight.
The name currently atop the leaderboard is Lukasz Golzyt, who earned over 211,000 chips. Hot on his trail are Sandor Demjan, Lev Marymsky, Raul Paez, Umberto Vitagliano and Mustapha Kanit, all of whom handily survived the day with chip stacks ranging from 120k to 152k.
Several notable professional poker players hit the rail early on, including John Duthie of Team PokerStars, Dave “Devil Fish” Ulliott and Guillaume Darcourt. Xuan Liu and current WSOP final table competitor Phil Collins dropped from the runnings as the day went on as well.
A number of big name pros survived the day, albeit in some cases with smaller chip stacks. This includes Fatima Moreira de Melo, Mickey Petersen, Arnaud Mattern, Darren Elias, Nick Binger, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Jake Cody.
Barry Greenstein is perhaps the most notable player to hold a highly competitive chip stack. He’ll enter Day 2 with just under 74k chips. The legendary Doyle Brunson handily survived the day as well, closing out action with 45,200. Amazingly, this is Brunson’s very first foray into a European Poker Tour event. The field was undoubtedly excited with Brunson’s decision to attend, as plenty of young up-and-coming pros decided to ask for his autograph and have their pictures taken with the Godfather of Poker.
Day 1b will follow the same format as Day 1a: eight levels of play, 15-minute breaks every other level, and no dinner break. Once Day 1b begins, we’ll have a rough idea of the total prize pool as well as the cash reserved for 1st place.
Despite following a tournament format, the recently completed World Championship of Online Poker at PokerStars seems to have incited renewed interest in the site’s high stakes cash game scene. The past week was a busy one for big-bet online poker, and no player faired better than Brian Hastings, who earned nearly $367k playing 49 sessions comprising 5,054 hands.
The still-unidentified “socutiesf” was nearly as successful, earning $350k after playing a seriously prolific week that included 23,083 hands spread across 224 sessions. Phil Galfond had an excellent week as well, booking almost 18,000 hands over 150 sessions to add almost $293k to his bankroll.
The week began with a highly active 6-Max PLO table at the $50 / $100 stake level. Galfond sat for nearly 12 hours and 8,000 hands, facing off against big name pros including Jens Kyllonen, Vaga_Lion, gavz101, Rafael Amit, Ilari Sahamies and the aforementioned Hastings, and winning $153k in a single day.
Galfond’s old friend Andreas Torbergsen made an appearance at the table as well, though the cards weren’t exactly falling in his favor. In fact, Torbergsen was the biggest online poker loser of the week, playing 51 sessions and 4,219 hands to drop just under $235k. Sahamies didn’t perform much better, losing over $196k and dashing his hopes of ending September with $1 million in profit.
Jared “Harrington10″ Bleznick was back in online poker headlines this past week after an extended absence. We haven’t heard from Bleznick since before Black Friday, but it now appears that the American player has moved to Mexico in order to further his online poker career. He received a warm welcome back to the game when he scored a $20k pot heads-up against “terryhsu” at Tuesday’s PLO tables.
Sep 30 2011
Chris Ferguson’s lawyer gets plenty of questions on Facebook
written by: Steve Comments: Comments Off
On the day that the Aldernay Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) decided the fate of Full Tilt Poker’s online poker license, followed by statements by both the troubled site itself, as well as the Department of Justice, another principle involved in the saga that is Full Tilt poker found himself under heavy questioning on his Facebook wall from former Full Tilt Poker players.
No, it wasn’t Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, or Chris Ferguson; it wasn’t even Rafe Furst; instead, disenfranchised Full Tilt poker customers started firing questions at Ferguson’s lawyer Ian J. Imrich’s law offices page –where the noted attorney had been busy posting PR pieces regarding Full Tilt Poker.
There is no telling how long Imrich will allow these questions to be asked, or even if he will answer, and in the end it could wind up being little more than a place to vent for the Full Tilt players who thought to look the attorney up on Facebook. If you recall, just before the DOJ amended the civil complaint against Full Tilt poker, another Full Tilt attorney, Jeff Ifrah, was busy taking queries on the online poker forum 2+2, so you never know, Imrich may just start talking –unlikely, but with Full Tilt you never can tell!
Thus far Imrich has been silent after a couple dozen posts by disgruntled Full Tilt poker customers, with varying stages of outrage! If you’d like to drop Ian J. Imrich a line on Facebook you can do so here: Law Offices of Ian J. Imrich, APC
On October 16, 2011 a team of five North American poker players led by Phil Hellmuth will be looking to avenge a loss that took place two years ago when Annette Obrestad’s European team bested Daniel Negreanu’s American squad in the inaugural Caesar’s Cup tournament.
This time around the respective captains will be Phil Hellmuth and Bertrand “ElkY” Grosspellier, whose duties include not only playing in the tournament and deciding who will participate in each match, but also in selecting their entire roster.
Like Negranu before him, Hellmuth chose experience, and along with himself the American team will feature Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Huck Seed. Team America has an average age of 51 and can boast of 39 WSOP bracelets amongst the five players. They also have one of the most successful heads-up players in poker in Huck Seed.
ElkY decided to pick a squad that featured players currently on top of their game, selecting Jake Cody, Max Lykov, Gus Hansen, and Dario Minieri. The European squad has a mere four WSOP bracelets, but does have two Triple Crown winners in ElkY and Cody, as well as three-time WPT champion Gus Hansen.
The tournament will be played in a unique format that will see heads-up matches as well as a series of matches featuring partner-betting, where the betting will alternate between two team members.
For more on the 2011 Caesar’s Cup you can head over to www.wsop.com
Phil Hellmuth and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier have officially announced their chosen teams for the World Series of Poker Europe Caesars Cup, currently scheduled for October 19. The event is designed as a face-off between two 5-player teams, with Hellmuth serving as captain of Team Americas and Grospellier acting as Team Europe’s leader.
For Team Europe, Grospellier selected Maxim Lykov of Russia, Dario Minieri of Italy, Gus Hansen of Denmark and Jake Cody of the United Kingdom. Grospellier hails from France.
Grospellier based his decisions on recent wins in favor of overall experience. Each member of his team, which has an average age of only 27k, has earned a single WSOP bracelet.
In contrast, Hellmuth chose to stack his team with some of the most experienced and successful North American players in poker history, even if several of them are lacking in recent tournament victories. His team includes Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Huck Seed and Daniel Negreanu. The team has an average age of 51, and has won an incredible total of 39 WSOP bracelets.
In an official WSOP press release, Hellmuth exhibited his usual boisterous humor when he joked that “decades of experience” would easily win out over “clicking a mouse while sitting in your pajamas,” referring to the fact that much of Team Europe’s overall experience has been gained in the online poker world.
The last Caesars Cup was played in 2009 in London, where Team Europe ultimately won. Grospellier, Minieri, Hansen, Hellmuth, Brunson and Negreanu participated in that event as well.
The WSOPE Caesars Cup is set to take place in Cannes, France at the Casino Barriere de Cannes Croisette, with other WSOPE events set to take place there and at the Hotel Majestic Barriere. The event will utilize a heads-up format and nothing will be at stake aside from bragging rights and the title.
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