Home Blog Page 100

Elio Fox Wins 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $50,000 Super High Roller

0

Elio Fox won the 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) $50,000 no-limit hold’em super high roller, defeating a field of 25 total entries to win $500,000. This was Fox’s fifth live tournament title of 2018, having also won the $10,000 turbo bounty event at the World Series of Poker this summer for his second career gold bracelet.

The $50,000 no-limit hold’em super high roller featured a $1,000,000 guarantee this year, which was surpassed by nearly a quarter of a million dollars when 25 entries were made. Day 2 started with only three players remaining including Christopher Hunichen (5th – $100,000) and Almedin Imsirovic (4th – $130,000) having been eliminated late on day 1.

High roller tournament regular Dan Shak held the chip lead, with Fox close behind and Giuseppe Iadisernia as the shortest stack. Iadisernia called a shove from Shak in the small blind, holding the KDiamond Suit10Spade Suit against Shak’s AHeart Suit7Spade Suit. Neither player improved their hand on a 6Heart Suit4Diamond Suit2Heart Suit3Spade Suit8Diamond Suit runout and Iadisernia was sent to the rail in third place ($190,000).

Shak took 1,350,0000 into heads-up play against Fox, who began with 1,150,000. Their final showdown didn’t last very long, with Fox able to overtake the lead before the final hand of the tournament came down. With a board of KClub SuitKDiamond SuitJSpade Suit10Heart Suit Shak checked to Fox, who bet 80,000. Shak check-raised all-in and Fox called holding the AHeart SuitQHeart Suit for the Broadway straight. Shak had JHeart Suit3Spade Suit, and could make a full house to win the hand. The 5Spade Suit on the river locked up the pot and the title for Fox. Shak was awarded $305,000 as the runner-up finisher.

Official Final Table Results

Place Player Earnings (USD) POY Points
1 Elio Fox $500,000 306
2 Dan Shak $305,000 255
3 Giuseppe Iadisernia $190,000 204
4 Almedin Imsirovic $130,000 153
5 Christopher Hunichen $100,000 128

 

Jeremy Meacham Leads the Final Table at 2018 WSOP Global Casino Championship

0

Bagging over one million in chips Wednesday evening, poker pro Jeremy Meacham led the six finalists for Day 3 of the 2018 WSOP Global Casino Championship. The prestigious tournament returns to Harrah’s Cherokee Casino Resort for the fourth year in a row and the winner will take home more than 280,000 and a WSOP gold bracelet.

The 14th season the World Series of Poker concludes this week with the Global Casino Championship, which runs from August 7 through August 9. On Tuesday, a total of 127 players from the United States and the world gathered for prestigious bracelet event and paid the $10,000 buy-in, accumulating a total prize pool of $1,050,000. The attractive prizes for those who managed to make it to the 20 cash places were perfectly in line with the venue, the luxurious Harrah’s Cherokee set near the beautiful Great Smokey Mountains.

Only 53 players out of the 127 entries continued to Day 2 of the championship and were led by the experienced player from the Czech Republic Martin Kabrehl. Despite his great collection of titles, however, King’s Casino Rozvadov Casino Champion Kabrhel finished on the money bubble when he was eliminated by Arkadiy Tsinis. Those who reached the final 20 spots were guaranteed $12,889 and among the famous names to walk out early were three-time Circuit ring winner Joseph Cheong (20th), six-time Circuit ring winner Joshua Turner (19th), and three-time gold bracelet winner David “The Dragon” Pham (14th).

Renowned Canadian player and nine-time Circuit ring winner Ari Engel finished 12th, while Kurt Jewell from the US left in the 8th place. Following him, Blake Whittington was eliminated by Tsinis and received $37,627 for his 7th place finish. The final six competitors will return to the poker table Thursday at noon, led by Jeremy Meacham who comes with the biggest stack of 1,460,000 chips.

Only 6 Players Return at the Final Table

Meachan, a player from Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, bagged more than 1 million chips on Wednesday but the fight for the top place and the gold bracelet will not be easy for him. He is followed closely by Loni Harwood from Staten Island (1,427,000) and Kevin Stamen from Cincinnati and his 1,393,000. Miami’s Arkadiy Tsinis has 1,220,000 in chips and fifth in the chip ranking is Warren Sheaves from Chapel Hill, NC, who has a significantly small stack of 494,000. Armin Stocker from Switzerland is on the bottom with 409,000.

The final Day 3 of the 2018 WSOP Global Casino Championship starts at noon on August 9 and by the evening, the event would already crown its winner. The player who manages to survive until the end will pocket a cash prize of $282,113, while the prize for the runner-up is $174,360. Everyone else will take home a minimum of $48,926, quite a nice guarantee for being at the final table of the prestigious 2018 WSOP GCC event.

Maryland Poker Rooms Pass $25M In Rake For 2018

0

Maryland’s world-class poker rooms reported $3.7 million in revenue during July, according to state figures made public this week.

Through the first seven months of the year, the rooms raked $25.7 million.

July 2017 saw revenue of about $3.7 million as well, so rake was nearly unchanged year-over-year there. Through July of last year, rake was $26 million. Revenue was off about a percentage point.

Maryland has four poker rooms, as two of the state’s six casinos don’t offer poker.

The state’s largest poker room in terms of tables belongs to Live! Casino, which has 50 tables. Recently, MGM National Harbor unveiled an updated poker room which included the addition of tables. That casino now has 46 poker tables.

Maryland Lottery and Gaming officials also said this week that July 2018 gaming revenue for the state’s six casinos totaled $146.5 million, an increase of 5.6 percent compared to the July 2017 total of $138.7 million. That includes slots, table games and poker.

Anthony Zinno Eyes Record-Tying Fourth Title At Wpt Choctaw Final Table

0

Day 3 of the Season XVII WPT Choctaw Championship remains in guides and the occasion’s final table is established. Blazing a trail is Brady Holiman with 10.84 million, as Anthony Zinno chooses his record-tying 4th World Poker Tour title.

Holiman and Zinno are signed up with at the final table by Timothy Domboski, Viet Vo, Christopher Smith, and Zinno’s fellow WPT Champions Club member Tony Ruberto.

Holiman used continual stress throughout the later phases of Day 3. His aggression enabled him to protect a broad void over the remainder of the area, as well as he’s greater than double the chip pile of any individual else. Domboski is closest to Holiman with 5.3 million.

Entering the WPT Choctaw Championship, Holiman had almost $42,000 in live tournament earnings. Currently ensured greater than $95,000, he’s readied to make without a doubt the biggest real-time tournament score of his profession. Holiman, a Texan, is making his very first World Poker Tour cash.

For Zinno, he is the quickest pile returning with 2.245 million, yet his experience and also success lack inquiry. Zinno is making his 22nd cash as well as flaunts more than $2.64 million in revenues on the WPT Main Tour. He has 3 WPT titles to his name, to accompany his Hublot WPT player of the Year award, and a victory would tie Zinno with Darren Elias for the most World Poker Tour titles in history at four.

Ruberto is the other WPT champ to get to the last table. After winning the Season X WPT bestbet Jacksonville occasion, Ruberto is in line for his 2nd WPT title. Like Zinno, Ruberto will certainly need to originate from all-time low of the pack to claim victory, as he has 2.675 million in chips. Ruberto entered in Day 3 as the chip leader atop the last 31 players and also will be in 5th position heading into the final six.

Of Domboski, Vo, and Smith, Vo is the most achieved player with more than $1 million in live tournament earnings. Vo was the Day 1a chip leader, in this Season XVII WPT Choctaw Championship.

Day 3 saw remarkable players Men Nguyen (11th), Joseph Elpayaa (12th), Jeff Banghart (13th), Alice Zheng (16th), Ben Mintz (19th), Bryan Piccioli (22nd), and Nick Pupillo (30th) all struck the rail. For Nguyen, his run followed he opened Season XVII of the WPT Main Tour with a third-place in the WPT Gardens Poker Festival Main Event. Through two events, Nguyen sits second in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race with 1,100 points.

The final player to breast on Day 3 was Jacob Haller. With a stack of less than 10 big blinds, Haller called all in for 930,000 from the big blind after Ruberto shoved all in from the button. Ruberto had the Qs8s against the 9h7c for Haller. The board ran out QdTd3sAc6d to bust Haller in seventh place.

The final six players will return on Tuesday, August 7, to play for the $469,185 first-place prize. Those six are guaranteed at least $95,780, and action will resume at 12 p.m. local time at Choctaw Casino & Resort.

WPT Choctaw Official Final Table:

Seat Player Stack Big Blinds
1 Brady Holiman 10,840,000 108
2 Christopher Smith 4,495,000 44
3 Timothy Domboski 5,300,000 53
4 Tony Ruberto 2,675,000 26
5 Anthony Zinno 2,245,000 22
6 Viet Vo 4,770,000 47

 

Poker Stories Podcast: Steve Zolotow On The Mayfair Club, Life Of Gambling

0

Poker Stories is a long-form audio podcast series that features casual interviews with some of the game’s best players and personalities. Each episode highlights a well-known member of the poker world and dives deep into their favorite tales both on and off the felt.

Steve Zolotow has been gambling for the better part of six decades, and that’s only a small part of what has been an extraordinarily eclectic life. Born into a famous family of writers that hobnobbed with the Hollywood elite, Zolotow dropped out of the Ivy Leagues to pursue a life of gambling, drugs, women, and even an acting career.

It was gambling that led Zolotow to the Mayfair Club, which started as a bridge and backgammon space before becoming a secret poker club that produced legendary gamblers such as Erik Seidel, Jay Heimowitz, Mickey Appleman, Howard Lederer, Stu Ungar, Paul Magriel, and Dan Harrington. When he wasn’t wagering up to $1 million a week with his sports betting operation, Zolotow was playing high-stakes poker with VIPs like Larry Flynt. Zolotow also has two World Series of Poker bracelets, having taken down a Chinese poker event in 1995 and a pot-limit hold’em event in 2001.

Highlights from this interview include a family of famous writers, ignoring Marilyn Monroe to play with horses, sharing a bed with Elizabeth Taylor, getting acting compliments from Lee Strasberg, dropping acid and dropping out, getting beaten out of the army, a three-some proposal leads to a marriage proposal, Stu Ungar cleans up in bridge, poker comes to the Mayfair Club, how to Moss-proof your loose change, how X-22 almost lost his Cox, up to $1 million a week in sports bets, avoiding jail time in Las Vegas, a Chinese poker bracelet, avoiding going broke, $2k-$4k stud with Larry Flynt, real estate sticker shock in NYC and SF, losing a $300k pot to Lyle Berman, and why you can’t drown a fly.

You can check out the entirety of the interview in the audio player at the top of the page or download it directly to your device to play on the go from iTunesStitcherGoogle PlaySpotify, or your favorite podcast app.

Catch up on past episodes featuring notables such as Daniel Negreanu, Justin Bonomo, Nick Schulman, Barry Greenstein, Michael Mizrachi, Bryn Kenney, Mike Sexton, Brian Rast, Scott Seiver, Freddy Deeb, Chris Moneymaker, Maria Ho and many more. If you like what you hear, be sure to subscribe to get the latest episodes automatically when they are 

Bruno Fitoussi announced as a new ambassador for partypoker LIVE

0

partypoker LIVE is delighted to welcome Bruno Fitoussi as an ambassador for live occasions in Europe.

French-born Bruno ‘King’ Fitoussi, brings over Thirty Years’ experience to the freshly developed function and will certainly sign up with ElkY (Bertrand Grospellier) on the European team of ambassadors. Fitoussi will be utilizing his huge experience of the sector to share player responses straight with the partypoker LIVE team in order to help form the routines and also items for partypoker in Europe.

Fitoussi, additionally called ‘the King of Europe’ has taken pleasure in success in a few of the world’s greatest poker competitions. Most significantly in 2001, he won the World Heads-Up Poker Championship (First version) whipping Amarillo ‘Slim’ Preston in the final. Fitoussi was additionally the runner-up of the WSOP HORSE $50K (Players Championship) in 2007 as well as 15th in the WSOP Main event in 2003. Fitoussi has been chosen four times for the prestigious WSOP Hall of Fame.

Based in Paris, Fitoussi was the poker specialist for Twenty Years at the Aviation Club de France (ACF) and has commentated on numerous poker competitions on several TELEVISION programs.

Talking in his brand-new function as an ambassador for partypoker LIVE, Fitoussi said: “I am thrilled to join the partypoker LIVE team – partypoker has always held a special place in my heart, so to be working with them is a great privilege for me. I have a vast wealth of industry experience that I am excited to share, and I look forward to getting involved with all aspects of the business.”

With a stuffed program of occasions over the coming months, Fitoussi’s very first competition will be MILLIONS UK. He claimed: “I can’t wait to come back to Nottingham to Dusk Till Dawn for MILLIONS UK, and the Caribbean Poker Party in The Bahamas is a ‘must do’ for any poker player. To end 2018, I will head to Deauville for the WPT Deepstacks in December [3-9 December].”

MILLIONS UK is taking place at Nottingham’s Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club from 29 September – 7 October 2018. The Caribbean Poker Party is being held at the brand-new Baha Mar resort in The Bahamas from 9 – 18 November 2018.

 

World Poker Tour Heads to Choctaw Casino to Continue Season XVIII Schedule

0

After a prolonged break for the Globe Collection of Texas hold’em as well as a brand-new stop for the trip in The golden state, the Globe Texas hold’em Scenic tour will certainly going back to acquainted ground starting today. Friday notes the beginning of the WPT Choctaw, which has actually rapidly turned into one of the even more prominent quits on the event regardless of just getting on the routine for the last few years.

$1 Million Guaranteed Prize Pool

The $3500 buy in event will certainly feature two days to attract the most poker players feasible for the event, indicating they will certainly need to break 285 players to get to the $1 million guaranteed prize pool. The event itself has a few of the standards of 21st century tournament poker, consisting of unrestricted re-entry for players as well as, if a player plays Day 1A and also isn’t really satisfied with their stack, they could give up that stack and also play Day 1B of the event (they can’t, nevertheless, keep back that Day 1A stack as a guard need to they bust on Day 1B). Late enrollment will certainly be shut at the beginning of Level 11 (or the beginning of Day 2).

The current technology that is brushing up the tournament poker world will certainly likewise be applied in the WPT Choctaw Main Event. The “big blind ante” will be in effect, indicating that the big blind will certainly pay the whole of the table’s ante instead of each player at the table paying an item of the stake.

Ultimately, the WPT will be bringing along their “Activity Clock” to relocate the rate of play. The “Activity Clock” will be applied when the competition is one table from the cash and give each player 30 seconds making their choices. If a player desires even more time to determine just what to do, there will be “time expansion” chips offered that will certainly provide a player one more 30 secs to choose. Once more, this development has actually been hailed for getting the speed of play as well as remove unneeded tanking, specifically accurate bubble.

Choctaw Event Wildly Popular

The WPT Choctaw and also its host casino, the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, OK, has actually been hugely preferred considering that the initial competition the WPT held on its grounds. The WPT Choctaw was initially a part of the Season XIV schedule with the same $3500 buy in. A remarkable 1175 entrances were gotten for that occasion, creating a virtually $4 million prize pool. The final table attribute Jake Schindler and Darren Elias, yet they would certainly lose to Andy Hwang and Jason Brin, with Brin ultimately winning the inaugural WPT Choctaw champion and the $682,975 first place prize.

Last year’s tournament was the smallest yet for the WPT and the Choctaw Casino Resort, but it still had some drawing power. 924 entries were received for the tournament, building a $3.1 million prize pool. Jay Lee took down the WPT Champions’ Cup for this event in 2017, defeating Jeb Hutton in heads up play to take home $593,173.

What to Expect in 2018?

Lee must be back to protect his title, yet the numbers concerns for the WPT Choctaw could be a little bit complicated. The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, CA, is starting its 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, which is among the greatest competitions that drops beyond a significant competition circuits’ territory. While the Main Event for the Hard Rock tournament does not start till a week after completion of the WPT Choctaw (August 10), players might wish to reach Florida and get warmed up with some of the initial occasions on that particular routine. Therefore, there could be some result on the WPT Choctaw.

Cards will hit the air at noon (Central Daylight Time) at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Oklahoma and, by the end of the night, we should get a bit of an indication as to the potential of the field from its Day 1A drawing.

Illinois To Hold Online Poker, Sports Betting Hearings

0

The state of Illinois will continue its years-long consideration of legalizing online poker sites with a pair of hearings slated for the coming weeks. State Rep. Bob Rita said in a press release that on Aug. 22 in Chicago, lawmakers will consider expanding the Illinois gambling market. The discussion will include sports betting opportunities that were made available thanks to a mid-May Supreme Court ruling.

The state has a casino gambling market currently worth about $1.4 billion annually.

Rita leads the the Illinois House subcommittees on Gaming, and Sales and Other Taxes. The other hearing will take place on Oct. 3 in Springfield, with no vote expected until after the mid-term elections. The scheduling of the meetings was first reported on by OnlinePokerReport.

“As I have said from the beginning in working on this issue, gaming expansion presents many tremendous opportunities to create revenue, jobs and economic growth in Illinois,” Rita explained.

“The gaming landscape has changed significantly since I took on this issue five years ago, and I want to use these hearings to understand how those changes present new opportunities for us to put the right package together as we look to meet budget needs and provide a spark for our economy,” Rita added.

In addition to online poker and sports betting, gambling expansion talks have included the possibility of putting a Las Vegas-style casino in downtown Chicago. Earlier this summer, there was reporting from the Chicago Sun Times that indicated state lawmakers have an appetite for a far-reaching, omnibus gambling expansion package that would tackle all, or most, of the issues or ideas on the table in one fell swoop. That would be similar to what Pennsylvania did last year, when it legalized sports betting, online casinos and approved additional brick-and-mortar casinos across the commonwealth under a single bill.

According to another Illinois lawmaker, residents of the state spent $1.5 billion gambling in neighboring states in 2017, which provides impetus for updating the Illinois gambling industry.

“If you go to an Indiana casino, right over the border, you’ll see 95 percent of the license plates are all Illinois plates,” State Sen. Dave Syverson told the Illinois News Network early this year. “Other states are building casinos right on the border of Illinois and they’re marketing and attracting Illinois people that go there and spend their money.”

A potential brand new $400 million tribal casino just across the border into Wisconsin also has Illinois lawmakers concerned and ready to expand gambling. A key decision on that tribal project could come soon from the federal government.

“We’re talking about a couple hundred yards over the border, building the largest casino in the Midwest,” Syverson said of the possible Ho-Chunk Nation casino in Beloit. “Their casino would have a water park, they would have a convention center, they would have a hotel, they would have a concert venue. It is a concern. It would devastate [tourism in] northern Illinois.”

Illinois seriously considered online poker last year, but the bill ended up dying in a House committee. It had previously cleared the Senate by a 42-10 vote.

An estimated $300 million in revenue could be generated by online casino games in Illinois. Online gaming would be taxed at a 15 percent rate under last year’s proposal.

Mikita Badziakouski Wins 2018 Triton Poker High Roller Series Jeju $2,000,000 HKD Main Event

0

Mikita Badziakouski won the 2018 Triton Poker High Roller Series Jeju $2,000,000 HKD ($254,839 USD) No-Limit Hold’em Main Event, defeating a field of 55 total entries to win $41,250,000 HKD ($5,255,077 USD). This was the Belarusian’s second straight main event victory on the Triton tour, having won the $1,000,000 HKD marquee tournament in Montenegro back in May for more than $2.5 million USD.

This was Badziakouski’s third title and sixth final table finish of 2018, bringing his year-to-date live tournament earnings to more than $10.5 million USD. The 600 Card Player Player of the Year points he earned as the champion of this event were enough to see him climb into 25th place on the overall POY leaderboard with 2,916 total points.

Badziakouski scored his first knockout at the final table of this event when he moved all in holding the AClub Suit7Club Suit on a 5Spade Suit4Club Suit3Club Suit flop. American poker pro Jason Koon made the call with the ADiamond Suit6Diamond Suit. The turn was the QDiamond Suit and the river the 5Heart Suit, and Badziakouski’s seven kicker played to earn him the pot. Koon took home $8,470,000 HKD ($1,079,042 USD) and 250 POY points as the fifth-place finisher. This was his 12th final table finish of the year, and with three titles and $11,238,518 in earnings so far in 2018, he has climbed to fourth place in the Player of the Year standings.

With that Badziakouski took a big lead heading into four-handed action. He then knockout out Sam Greenwood in fourth place ($11,550,000 HKD/$1,471,421 USD) to extend his advantage even further. Not long after that Richard Yong got his last chips in with ASpade SuitQClub Suit against Badziakouski’s AClub SuitKDiamond Suit. Both players paired their ace on the flop, but in the end the king kicker played and Yong was eliminated in third place with $16,720,000 HKD ($2,130,058 USD).

Chan Wai Leong had survived to heads-up play, but would begin at roughly a 5-to-1 chip disadvantage to Badziakouski. In the end the final hand came down to a classic preflop coinflip situation, with the short-stack shoving with the 6Heart Suit6Club Suit and Badziakouski calling with the AHeart SuitQClub Suit. The board ran out ADiamond Suit10Heart Suit7Diamond Suit5Spade Suit2Spade Suit and Badziakouski paired his ace to earn the pot and the title. Chan earned $25,520,000 HKD ($3,251,141 USD) as the runner-up finisher.

Check out a video of the final hand of the tournament below:

https://twitter.com/tritonpoker/status/1024603875419086848

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Position Player Country Prize (HKD) Prize (USD)
1st Mikita Badziakouski Belarus HKD 41,250,000 $5,255,456
2nd Chan Wai Leong Malaysia HKD 25,520,000 $3,251,376
3rd Richard Yong Malaysia HKD 16,720,000 $2,130,212
4th Sam Greenwood Canada HKD 11,550,000 $1,471,528
5th Jason Koon United States HKD 8,470,000 $1,079,120
6th Sergio Aido Spain HKD 6,490,000 $826,858

 

Kenneth Kee Wins 2018 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju HK$1M Triton Hold’em Event

0

On July 25th Kenneth Kee finished as the runner-up in the first event of the 2018 Triton Poker High Roller Series Jeju, losing heads-up to Nick Schulman in the $100,000 HKD shot-deck no-limit hold’em event. Less than a week later Kee found himself heads-up again, this time facing Cary Katz for the $1,000,000 HKD no-limit hold’em short-deck title. The second time was the charm for Kee, who emerged victorious to win the massive first-place prize of $22,500,000 HKD ($2,925,000 USD).

Kee overcame a field of 60 entries in this event, which cost around $127,000 USD to enter. Kee knocked out Ivan Leow, who won the $500,000 HKD short deck event just days earlier, sending the Malaysian home in sixth place with $460,200 USD. He then scored a double knockout, picking up the ASpade SuitADiamond Suit and getting involved in a three-way all-in, with Mikita Badziakouski holding the KDiamond SuitKClub Suit and Peter Jetten the QDiamond SuitQClub Suit. Kee’s hand held up and he sent Badziakouski (5th – $600,600) and Jetten (4th – $819,000)to the rail.

Kee kept his streak alive by busting Richard Yong in third place ($1,185,600) to take more than a 3-to-1 lead into heads-up play with Katz. The American ultimately moved the last of his chips in from the button with the JDiamond Suit10Spade Suit and found himself quickly called by Kee’s QSpade SuitQDiamond Suit. The board ran out KDiamond Suit9Diamond Suit7Diamond Suit6Heart SuitKSpade Suit, eliminating Katz in second place ($1,809,600 USD).

https://twitter.com/tritonpoker/status/1023854043523936257

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded in this event:

Place Player Earnings (USD) POY Points
1 Kenneth Kee $2,925,000 720
2 Cary Katz $1,809,600 600
3 Richard Yong $1,185,600 480
4 Peter Jetten $819,000 360
5 Mikita Badziakouski $600,600 300
6 Ivan Leow $460,200 240

MOST POPULAR

HOT NEWS