The World Poker Tour and partypoker Live will be co-hosting five poker events next year, including the popular WPT Barcelona and the first ever WPT festival in Russia. The two brands announced they are extending their partnership in 2019, offering players in Canada and Europe various live poker formats at all buy-in levels.

On Tuesday, the World Poker Tour (WPT) released details regarding their schedule for 2019, revealing brand new festivals that will be held in co-operation with partypoker LIVE. In an official statement, Adam Pliska, CEO of the World Poker Tour, announced that they will be expanding their relationship with the online poker room and will be adding more locations to the current list of events. Most notably, the two brands will co-host WPT Russia, the first ever WPT festival in the country.

The announcement has naturally attracted the attention of European players who will be able to take part in various WPT500, WPTDeepStacks, and WPT Main Tourevents. WPT and partypoker are currently among the largest and most respected poker brands in the industry, and their names and reputation only drew in thousands of poker pros from all over the globe. The popularity of their events means, of course, much larger prize pools than the prizes advertised in standard live tournaments.

WPT also said that at some of the events, players will have the opportunity to use partypoker LIVE Dollars. This is a flexible currency, introduced by the online poker network, and it can be won in online satellites and later used by players for buy-ins, travel expenses and hotel reservations for the partypoker LIVE events.

WPT and partypoker LIVE Schedule 2019

There are currently five events scheduled for 2019 and they will be co-hosted by WPT and partypoker LIVE. Casino Sochi in the Russian summer resort will be the opening stop on the schedule, with WPT Russia running from January 18 to January 27. The Main Event will start on January 21 and will feature a $3,300 buy-in and a guarantee of $1,500,000.

Next on the schedule is the beautiful city of Barcelona in Spain, which will welcome WPT Barcelona between March 9 and March 17. The venue will be Casino Barcelona, a regular host of premier live poker tournaments, and players will be able to take part in a wide range of events, including WPTDeepStacks, WPT500, €10,000 High Roller and WPT Main Event.

In April, WPT heads to the United Kingdom for the 17th Season of the WPT European Championship, which will take place from April 6 to April 14 at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker and Casino in Nottingham. It will be headlined by the £3 Million GTD Main Event that will start on April 8.

The next stop on the WPT schedule is King’s Casino in Rozvadov, the Czech Republic, a popular venue that has welcomed plenty of major poker festivals and brands over the years. From August 9 to August 18, it will be home to WPT Germany, a large festival that promises more than €6 million in guarantees.

The fifth and final stop on the tour will be Canada next fall. WPT and partypoker LIVE will be returning to Playground Poker Club in Montreal with an exciting festival that starts October 25 and ends November 3 and a centerpiece CA$5,300 Main Event.

US’ poker pro Zachery Schneider came out victorious Monday night at the $1,700 Main Event during the 2018/2019 WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond. After three days of grinding poker play, he managed to survive the strong 1,094 entry field and take the title, securing the second WSOP ring in his career.

It was an easy victory for Schneider, who started Day 3 of the tournament with the second biggest stack and once the final table was set up, he came second in the chip count once again. The 25-year-old professional poker player then eliminated four of the nine finalists and overtook Nick Pupillo in the heads-up battle. There were no serious hurdles to get over, he later admitted after taking the WSOP Circuit Main Event title and the first-place prize of $302,492.

This is the 11th WSOP event cash and the second ring for the young poker pro from Harvard, Illinois. Almost exactly three years ago, on October 25, 2015, Schneider finished first in the WSOP Circuit $5,300 NHL High Roller Ring Event, which took place at the same casino, the Horseshoe Hammond, just 25 miles away from Chicago. Back then, he won the first World Series of Poker ring in his career along with a cash prize of $101,250.

Monday’s win was a huge success for Schneider, who said that he was not such a good player and it was not until the final table that became confident in his own skills. During the entire tournament, he was not entirely serious on the felt, he added, so the first-place finish was, apparently, a surprise for him. It was also his largest live reported cash ever and now his total earnings from live tournaments total nearly $450,000.

Apart from Zachery Schneider, another 116 players made it to the money levels and received guaranteed $2,718. The tournament drew in 1,094 contenders for the title over the two starting flights on Friday and Saturday. Entering the $1,700 buy-in event, they contributed to a total prize pool of $1,657,410. Day 1 ended with most players eliminated and the chip leader from the first flight returned as the big stack on Day 2, along with 235 other survivors. By the end of the night, the field was reduced to only 23 players, who would continue playing on the third, final day.

Horseshoe Hammond Main Event Final Table Action

Day 3 of the tournament kicked off at noon with Sam Miller leading the way with his stack of 3,535,000. He was followed by Schneider, who had bagged 2.8 million in tournament chips the previous night. Two-time gold ring winner Nick Pupillo came third in the temporary leaderboard with a stack of 1.85 million in chips. Soon after cards went into the air, Miller lost his lead to David McDermott, while the first elimination was Kevin Johnson who took home $11,386 for his 23rd finish.

Following several eliminations and a fortunate win against Porfirio Mendez (19th, $13,524), Schneider took the chip lead and right until the heads-up battle, he did not go too far from the first position. After Don Hines was sent home in 11th place for $24,182, the final table was set up led by Nick Pupillo who had a huge advantage with his stack of over 9 million. Zachert Schneider came in second with 7,555,000 in chips, while the rest of the players could not reach the 3 million. Miller was the short stack with only 385,000 and he was almost immediately eliminated in the 10th place for $24,182.

Royce Matheson finished 9th ($29,999) after being defeated by Schneider, while the 8th place in the tournament was for Jake Baumgartner ($37,640) who was sent home by Pupillo. He then eliminated Mark Wahba (7th, $47,750). After the dinner break, Giuliano Lentini left the tournament (6th, $61,258), followed by the person who eliminated him, Young Hoon Koh (5th, $79,506). By that time, the two main contenders were Pupillo and Schneider and after David McDermott (4th, $104,417) finally gave in, Sami Shurbaji and the two players were the only survivors. Shurbaji moved all in against Schneider and lost, collecting a nice cash prize of $138,825 for his third-place finish.

Schneider started the heads-up against Pupillo with a 2 to 1 advantage and did not have to try a lot to claim the title. In the final hand, Schneider defeated his competitor with Queen-7 against Pupillo’s 4-2 on a flop of Queen-6-5, a 6 on the turn and a King on the river. Pupillo was eliminated in the second place and took home $186,823, while Schneider was crowned Horseshoe Hammond Main Event Champion and received $302,492.

Late last year, the LCB Team was investigating Play7777, as the online casino had been found to be using fake games. During the investigation, the team was able to discover another site owned by the same company, WOG Network N.V., was also showing suspicious activity. Because the two sites were affiliated, LCB did some digging and found that the platform of BlueLions is fake, with pirated software being used to provide gaming for members.

Fake Gaming Options:

The video slots of BlueLions were found to be completely fake, after an investigation into the gaming options of the brand. The games are visually exact copies of the original games on offer, but they are hosted on a pirated domain. This was the only clue that LCB had to determine the real source of the content. The team inspected the codes and were able to say that the casino is NOT one to be trusted. The team knows just how to look for discrepancies to determine if an online casino is participating in unethical activity.

According to LCB…

There is not a single game at the BlueLions site that is authentic. The platform is quite large, and the team was able to determine that several software companies were listed as providers for the site, though the games were fake. Such providers include: Merkur Gaming, Ainsworth, Net Entertainment, Quickspin, Playtech and more.

The site was able to determine that Quickspin slots were being hosted by a private CDN server and Merkur Gaming content were coming from a site known as skillgame365. The unfamiliar domains are a sure sign that the games are fake and that BlueLions is not to be trusted, along with Play7777.

Rogue Casino Information:

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With massive live and online poker tournament events planned for the coming months, partypokeris set to finish 2018 off with a bang. First up on the agenda is the WPT Montreal Festival, which will see the World Poker Tour teaming up with partypoker LIVE for an exciting series that features combined guarantees of $8,165,000 CAD, with the series running from Oct. 21 – Nov. 4.

We’re thrilled partypoker LIVE and WPThave agreed to a four-year partnership – two iconic brands of poker coming together to offer players all over the world more choice of where to play,” said Chairman of partypoker Mike Sexton when the schedule was revealed in August. “We’re excited to announce the first event will take place at Playground Poker Club in Montreal, where we will work together to offer three components of the World Poker Tour – WPT Main Tour, WPTDeepStacks, and WPT500.”

As Sexton mentioned, there will be events from each of the WPT’s most popular buy-in levels, including a lower buy-in, WPT 500 $550 CAD event with a $1,000,000 CAD guarantee running Oct. 21 – 30 and a $1,650 CAD buy-in WPT DeepStacks event which also features a $1,000,000 CAD that takes place from Nov. 1 – 4. The centerpiece of the whole affair will undoubtedly be the $5,000,000 CAD guaranteed, $5,300 CAD buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, which will run from Oct. 28 – Nov. 4.

The main event features an online starting flight that kicks off on Oct. 28 on partypoker. The live portion of the tournament gets underway the following day, Oct. 29. Those players that make it through to day 2 will combine into one field for Thursday, Nov. 1. The final table is set to take place on Sunday, Nov.4, with a live stream of the event available from the WPT and partypoker LIVE, through the My partypoker LIVE app.

There will also be a $1,000,000 CAD guaranteed high roller, with a $10,300 CAD buy-in. That event will run Nov. 2 – 4.

Players will be able to buy into all of these events using partypoker LIVE Dollars (PP LIVEDollars). PP LIVE Dollars are a flexible currency that can be won in satellites on partypoker and used by players to pay for event buy-ins, travel, hotels, and even visas.

Once the WPT Montreal series comes to an end, the next big series on the agenda is the Caribbean Poker Party (CPP), which is set to take place from Nov. 9-18 at the Baha Mar Casino & Hotel in Nassau, Bahamas. There are 13 events set to take place during the festival, but the whole affair is centered around two gigantic tournaments: The $10,000,000 guaranteed $25,500 buy-inMILLIONS World and the $10,000,000 guaranteed $5,300 buy-in Caribbean Poker Party Main Event.

“There are many coveted titles in poker, from the EPT and WPT Grand Final titles, to WSOP and WSOPE Main Event and Players Championship bracelets, and not forgetting our own MILLIONSGrand Final crown,” said partypoker LIVE president John Duthie. “However, a $10,000,000 guaranteed, $25.5K buy-in tournament is just as important as any of those. We can’t wait to hand the trophy over to our first winner in November. Let’s hope it’s one of the 100+ online qualifiers partypoker will be sending, as that would be quite some story.”

Following on the heels of that huge series in the Carribean will be the MILLIONS Online. As previously mentioned, the $20 million guaranteed $5,300 buy-in online event will run from Nov. 25 – Dec. 5 and is expected to be the biggest online tournament ever, with $2.5 million going to the eventual champion.

Roland Israelashvili, a quiet poker pro most casual fans aren’t familiar with, has made the money in the first four WSOP Europe events, putting him at 94 career World Series of Poker cashes. That’s good for seventh all-time, and just one behind the great Men “The Master” Nguyen.

Also over in Rozvadov, Czaech Republic, Florian Sarnow final tabled two events within 24 hours. The German finished second in the €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty for €37,678 on Wednesday. He then registered for the €550 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed and ended up in eighth place (€5,198).

Thursday was another exciting day at King’s Casino.

Who is Roland Israelashvili?

You’re likely familiar with Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, and the others atop the all-time WSOP cashes list. But you probably couldn’t pull 58-year-old Roland Israelashvili out of a lineup.

All-Time WSOP Cashes

1. Phil Hellmuth (USA) 135
2. Chris Ferguson (USA) 117
3. Daniel Negreanu (Canada) 108
4. Erik Seidel (USA) 107
5. Barry Greeinstein (USA) 102
6. Men Nguyen (Vietnam) 95
7. Roland Israelashvili (USA) 94

The New York native finished 17th in the turbo bounty (€1,960) and 40th in PLO (€1,224). He now has four cashes this series in four events, but only for a total of €7,889. Despite cashing in every event, he’s turned just a €4,039 profit after subtracting the €3,850 in buy-ins.

That’s par for the course for this min-cash specialist. Despite having cashed in 94 WSOP events, he’s never won a bracelet. In fact, he hasn’t even made a final table since the 2013 Little One Drop (third place for $295,433). And that covers a span of more than 60 cashes. It was also his highest finish in any World Series of Poker bracelet event.

Israelashvili now has 18 cashes between the 2018 WSOP in Las Vegas and Rozvadov. All but two have been for less than $10,000.

Every other player in the top seven in career cashes has at least three gold bracelets to their name. Hellmuth, of course, leads the way with 15.

We’ll call him the Kansas City Chiefs of the WSOP; always competitive, but never championship material.

Also at the WSOPE …

Florian Sarnow Final Tables Twice in 24 Hours

Florian Sarnow’s only bracelet event cash was an 840th place finish in the 2016 Colossus in Las Vegas heading into the 2018 WSOP Europe. But on Wednesday and Thursday, he not only added a pair of cashes to his tiny resume. He final tabled both events.

The impressive run began with a runner-up finish in hold’em (€37,678). He got back to another final table the following day, this one PLO, and hoped to get over the hump and win his first bracelet. Unfortunately, for the German, he was the first to bow out at the eight-handed final table (€5,198).

After collecting his PLO winnings, he jumped right into Event #5, €1,100 Monster Stack. Busy day.

As Event #3 (€550 Pot Limit Omaha 8) of the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe reached the final table and suspended play for the evening, Event #4 (€1,100 NLHE Turbo Bounty Hunter) played 13 hours straight, right through to a winner.

Mykhailo Gutyi from Ukraine was that winner. He outlasted the 387 player field to take home the €61,299 first place prize and his first WSOP gold bracelet. In addition to the normal payouts, players received €300 from the prize pool for every player they eliminated and Gutyi provided his fair share of the knock outs earning 16 additional bounties.

The first of the final table to fall was Italy’s Luca Marchetti. With fewer than 10 big blinds Marchetti open shoved holding the Th9h. Florian Sarnow looked down at QsQc and reshoved for more. The flop came out 2cKsJc providing Marchetti with two outs to the straight. When the turn came Kh Marchetti was drawing dead. The inconsequential river was the 7d and Marchetti fell in ninth place for €3,765.

Minutes later Andrey Ivlev was forced to push his final two big blinds in the middle while under the gun holding 8s2c. From the small blind Vangelis Kaimakamis reshipped his final six big blinds with Th9h. The flop was 7d4hTs putting Kaimakamis way ahead. The 8d turn opened the door for Ivlev, but the 5s completed the board ending Ivlev’s tournament in eighth place for €4,904.

The hits kept coming with the turbo structure as the now short stacked Philipp Zukernik moved in from the big blind holding Qh4d over the open raise of Gutyi. Gutyi raised with AdKc and so when the board ran out TsKh2h8sAh, Zukernik hit the rail in seventh place for a €6,531 payday.

The very next hand claimed Kale Halstead’s tournament as he shipped his short stack with 5s5d. Gutyi got involved in back-to-back hands making the call with his Qh9c. The board ran out 3h8hTh9hJh giving both a flush. However, Gutyi not only held a heart in his hand for a higher flush than the board provided but he actually held a straight flush to win the hand. Halstead was eliminated in sixth place for €8,891.

Darko Stojanovic was the next to bounty to be claimed as he three-bet shipped 10 big blinds from the big blind over a button open from Kaimakamis. When Kaimakamis called Stojanovic was forced to show down the 4c3h which was in rough shape against Kaimakamis’ 8s8c. The flop brought a set for Kaimakamis in the form of a Ks8d4s flop leaving Stojanovic drawing dead and out in fifth place for €12,367.

The speedy eliminations continued as twenty minutes later Angelos Pettas hit the rail. Under the gun, he moved all in holding Ah4d. Gutyi took a moment but made the call from the big blind holding 5h5d. The flop came 4c2c8s giving Pettas some extra outs as he paired the four. However, the board ran out 3d2d which was of no help to Pettas and he earned a career-high cash of €17,565 for his fourth-place finish.

Gutyi, who held the chip lead three-handed, shipped his stack from the button holding KsQh. Kaimakamis spent about a minute in the tank before making the call for his tournament life with KhTh. Dominated, Kaimakamis needed some help. The flop of 6h2s4d didn’t change anything. The Qs on the turn left Kaimakamis drawing to a ten. The 9c fell on the river and Kaimakamis settled for third place and went home with €25,468, his second cash of the 2018 WSOPE.

At the start of heads-up play, Gutyi held a 3.5-1 chip lead over Germany’s Sarnow. Although Sarnow had doubled through Gutyi on the second hand of heads-up play, Gutyi still held a slight chip advantage when the final hand went down.

Sarnow limped the button with the Th8s and Gutyi checked his option holding the Qd2d. The flop was a dangerous one as it came Td9d3d giving Sarnow top pair and Gutyi the flopped flush. The action went checked around. When the Tc rolled off on the turn all the chips made their way into the middle. Gutyi bet, Sarnow raised, Gutyi shoved and Sarnow called it off needing spike an eight for the board to pair to survive. The 4d river ended the tournament with Sarnow finishing as the runner-up for €37,678.

Sarnow made two WSOP Europe final tables in one day. He made the final table of Event #3 earlier in the day and then late registered for Event #4. He will return tomorrow to compete in the €550 Pot Limit Omaha 8.

Gutyi takes home his first WSOP gold bracelet and the first place prize of €61,299 for a career-high cash.

Final Table Results of WSOPE €1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty Hunter: