Online Poker Tournament News

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POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Oct 28) - OLEKSANDR VASEFIRER MAKES BAD HERO CALL

This past week saw the EPT Warsaw Championship Main Event play out at the Casinos Poland at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. After the action was complete, French businessman Christophe Benzimra was crowned the ’09 champion. The final table was great battle with a few epic hands. One hand in the late stages of the final table that contributed to Benzimra’s win was against the eventual third-place finisher, Oleksandr Vasefirer. The two had been battling each other in previous hands and something had to give between them.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Sep 30) - FUNG MAKES GOOD CALL AT WSOPE

The World Series of Poker Europe is in full swing in London right now and action has dwindled down to 27 players. Some big names like Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Liz Lieu and Men “The Master” Nguyen still remain in the event, while so many others have hit the rail. Also still in the thick of it is young Ukrainian poker phenom Yevgeniy Timoshenko. He spent the day battling Steve Fung, who is currently one the of the chip leaders. The two took turns taking chips from each other, and the battle displayed some good poker instincts for both players.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Sep 23) - BILL GAZES HITS A Joker ON THE RIVER

The World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open is underway in Atlantic City, New Jersey this week and action is heating up for the 516 entrants who are chasing the $5 million prize pool. During Day 3 a hand was played out that we’ve all had to deal with at some point on the tables, and Bill Gazes was the unlucky victim. This hand was one of those “be careful what you wish for” situations, where it looks like you’ve hit your hand, only to end up being behind to an even bigger one.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Sep 16) - FABIAN QUOSS CHECKS FOR PROFIT

The 2009 WSOP was filled with great plays from great players. Getting good value on your big hands is essential to having a good finish in one of these entrant-laden events. Fabian Quoss did just that at this year’s WSOP when he had a big hand against Danny Illingworth in the $5K No Limit Holdem Event #15. The hand began when Quoss opened the betting from under the gun with a raise, raising the action to 100K pre-flop. Danny Illingworth was sitting in the big blind and decided he would defend them with a call.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Sep 09) - martonas WINS A BIG POT WITH A SMALL KICKER

Online cash game action has been charged up to a crazy level this month. Online regular “martonas” has been dumping huge pots to players like “durrrr” and Patrik Antonius like he has an endless supply of cash. But as we know poker has its ups and downs, and “martonas” has had a few moments this past month that certainly helped him to recover a lot of those losses. This particular hand began with five players at the table, playing a $500/$1000 No Limit Holdem cash game. Also at the table was French professional David Benyamine, Cole South, an online player named “POKERBLUFFS”, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Sep 02) - DURRRR HITS A BIG RIVER

Cash games online have a lot of familiar players grinding it out at the highest levels every day. One of the most familiar is Tom “Durrrr” Dwan. This week he was seated with four other players at a $500/$1000 NL Holdem cash table when a big hand went down. Seated at the table were “Durrrr”, “Patrik Antonius”, “Cole South”, “pokerhontas2k6”, and “martonas”. Both Durrrr and martonas had over $300K in front of them when the big hand played out, which began when Cole South raised the blind to $3K to go.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Aug 19) - HARRINGTON CRIPPLED ON THE RIVER

The World Series of Poker main event is Dan Harrington’s backyard. Few have even come close to the achievements that Harrington has had at the main event. In ’09 Harrington was well on his way to another deep run in the main event when he ran into a hand that slowed his progress to a crawl, and began what was a sub-par effort for “Action Dan” - finishing in 252nd place for a payday of $32,963. But as we all know, even the best poker players need some luck to win.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Aug 12) - BENYAMINE RIVERS ON ANTONIUS

This past week has seen some wild pot limit Omaha poker action online. The biggest online cash game players in the business are going at each other with a vengeance, resulting in numerous players winning over $400K over the last couple of days. With stakes at this level one hand can be the difference between a profitable and a losing session. And for these guys, profit comes in six-figure increments. But as we all know you can get your money but it doesn’t mean that it will hold up in the end.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Aug 05) - NIKI JEDLICKA WINS $563K AGAINST ANTONIUS

Patrick Antonius and Niki Jedlicka play high-stakes cash games in online poker every day. It’s nothing for these guys to play six-figure pots, but every now and then some of the pots grow to an amazing size. One such hand occurred a couple of weeks ago when the two high-stakes players were sitting head-to-head against each other with more than $330K each in front of them. The two had been going at each other for a while and the fireworks began when this hand occurred.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jul 29) - THE 2009 WSOP PHIL HELLMUTH MELTDOWN

It wouldn’t be the WSOP without a classic blow-up hand from the Poker Brat, Phil Hellmuth. He’s become famous for his rants after losing a big hand, and tournament organizers had to toughen up conduct rules this year because of his antics last year. This year’s outburst occurred on Day 4 when Hellmuth was sitting with a decent stack of about 300K. He got into a hand with Abraham Mourshaki that ended up costing him two thirds of his chip stack, and essentially knocked him out of contention.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jul 22) - KOPP GETS OUT-FLUSHED AT WSOP

Every young player who plays at Pinnacle Poker, or any other online poker room, dreams of making it deep into the Main Event of the World Series of Poker. That’s exactly the place that young internet professional Billy Kopp found himself just last week. After outlasting 6,482 players, Kopp found himself on the verge of making it to the 2009 WSOP Main Event November Nine. He needed to outlast only three more players and he would have been heading back to Vegas in November with a chance to become the champion of poker for this year. He had over 80 times the big blind, was one of the bigger stacks remaining in the event, and looked like a shoe-in to make it to the November Nine. Instead, this happened.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jul 8) - MEL JUDAH GETS A BAD BEAT AT WSOP

The World Series of Poker’s Main Event is in full swing and there have been some crazy hands played already. With thousands of players at the tables, the bad beat stories are as common as poker chairs. One particular bad beat was suffered this past week by EPT star, and two-time WSOP bracelet winner, Mel “Silver Fox” Judah.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jul 1) - NEGREANU PLAYING AN ODD GAME

Daniel Negreanu has been playing great poker in this year’s WSOP and has already recording seven cashes for over $285K in winnings. Negreanu’s ability to read his opponent’s hands can be uncanny at times, and this gives him a big advantage against any opponent. Another trait about Kid Poker’s game is that he can change things up at any time, periodically playing a hand in a very different way. This type of play confuses the best of opponents, and gives him an extra edge that few players in the game have.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jun 24) - LENNAARD HITS QUADS

The 2009 WSOP is starting to wind down and so far there have been some interesting poker hands played out. An exciting hand happened at a final table last week during the $2K No-Limit Holdem Event #36 when Ken Lennaard hit a monster hand at the right time. There was over $200K up for grabs between first and second place, and the two players battled long and hard to determine the WSOP bracelet winner. With only two players and nine cards in play, the hand that occurred must have had some real slim odds of developing.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jun 17) - GLEN McCAFFREY TAKES ADVANTAGE

The WSOP has been in full swing for a few weeks now, and there have been some interesting poker hands played out so far – none as interesting as a string of hands played by Glen McCaffrey during the $1500 No-Limit Holdem Event #24. The event was down to the last four players, with the real big money on the line, when an odd thing happened. McCaffrey was in a hand with Andy Seth playing on the button when he made a small raise into Seth’s big blind. Seth made a raise back at McCaffrey, who then pushed in what looked like the rest of his chips.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jun 10) - CHARLES FUREY LOSES A HEARTBREAKER

The 2009 WSOP has had some heartbreaking moments already, but none as heartbreaking as the one suffered by Charles Furey. During the $1500 No Limit holdem / Six Handed Event #9 last week Furey was battling for the biggest payouts at the final table when he ran into some bad luck. He had managed to make it through a field of 1,459 players and was sitting at the final table with only four others when things took a turn for the worse. Only the top four players would win over six figures, with fifth place getting $35K less than fourth place.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jun 03) - SUCK OUT AND RE-SUCK

The World Series of Poker is underway in Las Vegas and the event is already breaking records from last year. So far in ‘09 we’ve seen one player defend his title as the $1500 Omaha Hi/Low Split champion, and we’ve also seen the size of some of the player fields growing beyond what was expected. One interesting poker hand that happened in the $40K no limit holdem event was crucial to the development of the head-to-head match.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (May 27) - ZIIGMUND WINS $700K POT

Two of the biggest online poker cash game players have been battling it out of late playing heads-up Pot Limit Omaha. Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies were playing a big $500/$1000 Omaha game when this hand occurred which ended up being the second biggest poker hand ever played in online poker history. It was also the biggest hand that Ziigmund had ever won.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (May 20) - TIMOSHENKO WINS BIG WITH A BRUNSON

The 2009 WPT Championships were won by another young gun named Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Yevgeniy has been tearing it up a bit over the past few months, winning over $2.8 million since August of 2008. His recent WPT Championship win was worth $2.15 million, and the young Ukrainian immigrant played like a man with 30 years of poker experience as he outplayed Ran Azor and professional player Bertrand Grospellier.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (May 13) - REYNOLDS MAKES A GOOD CALL

The EPT San Remo Season 5 event was played out last month with a prize pool that was just shy of $6M. The first-place prize of 1,508,000 EURO went to Constant “The Butcher” Rijkenberg of Amsterdam. In fourth place was Sioux City, IA, USA native William Reynolds, who made a big call at a crucial moment in the final table. He ended up finishing fourth and earned himself a 377,000 Euro payday. Not a bad few days work in a posh casino.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (May 06) - TULCHINSKIY READS A BLUFF

The EPT Grand Final was played out last week at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Resort. The final table was a see-saw battle with players doubling and tripling up almost every poker hand. One final table hand showed that at least one player’s instincts were working in high gear when he made a big call on an opponent while head-to-head. The hand took place with eight players remaining in the tournament and was between Mikhail Tulchinskiy and Eric Qu.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Apr 29) - RAN AZOR DEFIES HUGE ODDS TO WIN A MILLION DOLLARS

The 2009 WPT Championship $25,000 main event final table was a hard-fought affair which included top-ranked professionals Scotty Nguyen, Shannon Shorr, and Elky Grospellier, fighting it out for one of the biggest prize pool of the year. The eventual winner was 21-year-old Asian Poker Tour Macau Champion Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who walked away with the $2,149,960 first-place check. He won a long head-to-head battle against second-place finisher Ran Azor, who earlier only got head-to-head with Timoshenko by beating out some longshot odds.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Apr 1) - CROWE TRIPLES THROUGH HARMAN AND YOUNG

Owen Crowe has been making a name for himself lately on the live multi-table tournament scene. In last year’s WSOP main event Owen finished in 15th place for a $463,201 payday. Earlier in that WSOP he made his first final table, finishing 8th in event #36 for another $81,000. Since then he’s won almost $30K and is currently poised to have a deep finish in the $25K WPT Championship Finals, and he currently sits in 10th place with 1.5 million on chips. He’s faced elimination numerous times on the fourth day of the championships, but after a couple of races that went his way he’s right in contention.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Mar 25) - LARSLUZAK TAKES MORE FROM IVEY

Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro has been making headlines for most of 2009 while playing in high-stakes online poker cash games. The first news was that he had lost over $825k in the month of January, and then continued to lose a total of more than $2M by mid-February.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Mar 18) - NAUJOKS NAILS EPT GERMAN OPEN

The EPT German Open wrapped up last week, and after the dust settled Sandra Naujoks had her coming out party to the tune of $1.3 million. Known as the “Black Mamba”, Naujoks has been making a name for herself in live tournaments over the last year, with five cashes for over $1.5 million in winnings. The German Open victory marked her second big win since October 2008, when she won the CAPT Baden / PokerEM in Austria for $247,623. Her latest win was a display of her superior play, and she became only the second woman to post an EPT championship.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Mar 11) - SCOTT NGUYEN ADDS TO H.O.R.S.E LAURELS

Scotty Nguyen has done it again. As the reigning WSOP H.O.R.S.E. champion, Nguyen has added the inaugural $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic to his long list of poker tournament wins. The event attracted 96 competitors which included big names like Howard Lederer, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, Annie Duke, Barry Greenstein, Men Nguyen, Jerry Buss, John Cernuto, Allen Cunningham, Layne Flack, Mike Matusow, Gavin Smith, Eli Elezra, Nick Schulman, Allen Kessler, Jennifer Harman, Cyndy Violette, Tony Ma and Tim Phan.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Mar 4) - DEEB SNIFFS OUT AMATEUR BLUFF ON WAY TO WPT CROWN

A collection of celebrities and online poker players gathered together to play the WPT Celebrity Invitational last weekend at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, CA. The final three players included world-class player Freddy Deeb, Tom Hall and Nick Gonzalez. Deeb was easily the best player at the table, and it quickly became apparent that it would take lots of luck for Hall or Gonzalez to beat him.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Feb 25) - DURRRR HITS BIG RIVER CARD FOR ANOTHER HUGE PAYDAY

The biggest cash online poker games can produce some monster hands. Another example of this truism occurred recently between players named “durrrr” and “Ziigmund”, while they were playing at a $500/$1,000 pot-limit Omaha table. Durrrr had $434,986 in front of him while Ziigmund had only $253,000. The hand began with Ziigmund raising it pre-flop to $3,000 which durrr quickly re-raised to $9,000. Ziigmund would not be pushed off the hand and he re-raised it again to $27,000. Durrr wasn’t going away and he called the raise. The two saw a flop with $54,000 already in the pot.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Feb 18) - RHEEM DOMINATES YOUNG FOR HUGE PAYDAY

David “Chino” Rheem solidified himself as one of the world’s top young professionals by capturing the 2008 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic main event last December. Poker aficionados will remember Rheem as a member of last year’s November Nine, where he eventually went out in seventh place for $1,772,650. Rheem showed everyone that he was a talented online poker player in that tournament, and now everyone knows that he’s a winner who can finish out the final table for the victory.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Feb 11) - DAO GETS TOO AGGRESSIVE

The final table of the 2009 Harrah’s Tunica Poker Tournament / WSOP Circuit Event showcased a hard-fought, final-table battle between two good players. David Dao and Kai Landry found themselves in the final two seats of the $5000 main event with a first-place prize of $183,974 and a WSOP main event seat on the line. The action was aggressive from the start, and many poker hands had one or the other going all-in pre-flop.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Feb 4) - HANSEN vs ZIIGMUND

Sometimes when we’re playing at Pinnacle Sports Poker we get what we want, but it turns out to be the worst thing that could have happened. An example of this took place this week in a high-stakes cash game online between two of the biggest names in online poker.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jan 28) - PATRICK ANTONIUS LOSES SAME HAND FOUR TIMES

The 2009 Aussie Millions poker tournament was a big success again this year. It attracted the biggest names in the poker world, not only for the main event but also the $100,000 buy-in event and the million-dollar high-stakes cash game. The big cash game had some prominent names from the live and online poker world. During one game there was a poker hand that you won’t see very often. Two players played a dramatic $225,000 hand that would test the emotions of any player.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jan 21) - PHIL IVEY AND ILARI 'ZIIGMUND' SAHAMIES FLIP FOR $384K

If you want an idea of how big some online poker players’ bankrolls are, check out this hand. Two of online poker’s highest rollers, Phil Ivey and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, had just finished playing a lengthy session which had Ziigmund down over $200K. With a little over $191K in front of him, Ziigmund asked Ivey if he wanted to flip a poker hand.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jan 14) - PATRICK ANTONIUS MAKES LUCRATIVE CALL WITH K7

Patrick Antonius has been on a crazy run in online poker during the last few days. He’s been winning huge pots and showing well over a million dollars in profit this week.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Jan 7) - PATRICK ANTONIUS SUCKS OUT FOR BIG WIN

We’ve all seen Patrick Antonius in big tournaments and in high-stakes cash games on television, but many observers of the poker scene don’t realize that he also plays in the biggest online poker cash games .

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Dec 30) - HELMUTH WINS EVEN WHEN HE LOSES

It’s not enough that the guy has 11 WSOP bracelets, or that he manages to get in front of every television camera that’s anywhere near a poker game. Now Phil Hellmuth is getting paid for hands that he loses. What are we referring to? We’re talking about UltimateBet.com awarding the Poker Brat a $5,600 cash-game pot that should have gone to someone else.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Dec 24) - THE PROFESSOR SCHOOLS THE TEACHER

Both Gabe Kaplan, whom you may better know as 'Welcome Back Kotter' teacher, Gabe Kotter, and Howard “The Professor” Lederer would be considered “old school” poker players. Both have been very good players for decades, and the two showed how well they know each other in a hand on a recent episode of Poker After Dark. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Dec 17) - 'YUKON' BRAD BOOTH HITS STRAIGHT FLUSH

During a recent game of High Stakes Poker, “Yukon” Brad Booth made a hand that we all dream about hitting in the biggest televised cash game. After Minh Lee made it $2,300 to go with A-4 off-suit, both Daniel Negreanu and Brad Booth called to see a flop. Booth had 9-8 of diamonds while Negreanu was holding Q-9 offsuit. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Dec 10) - DAVID BENYAMINE BLUFFS JAMIE GOLD

On the television show High Stakes poker, the players often have some type of prop bet in play to juice up the action a bit. One of the most common props is the old 7-2 bet. All the players agree that anyone who wins a hand with 7-2 will collect some money from everyone at the poker table. During this period David Benyamine decided he would try to take down a pot while holding the worst hold’em hand. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Dec 3) - NEGREANU SNIFFS OUT A SET AT THE WSOP

Daniel Negreanu is widely considered one of the best all-around poker tournament players in the world. He displayed his uncanny ability at putting opponents on hands at the World Series of Poker. In a situation where most of us would have lost a ton of chips, Negreanu was able to get off a big hand with ease. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Nov 26) - HELMUTH HISTRIONICS HAMPER HIS PLAY

Most Pinnacle Sports Poker players know that Phil Hellmuth made a serious run at the World Series of Poker main event championship this year. He ended up going out in 45th place, but not before throwing a few tantrums at the Rio along the way. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Nov 19) - MONTGOMERY SUFFERS BRUTAL BEAT

The final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker had lots of entertaining hands. We saw some hero calls and some bold moves, but no hand could compare to the crushing beat that Scott Montgomery suffered to get eliminated in fifth place. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Nov 12) - WSOP NOVEMBER NINE: DEMIDOV MAKES BIG LAY DOWN

The WSOP November Nine certainly was a group of good poker players. Throughout the final table coverage there weren’t many mistakes made by the players, and some showed amazing poker instincts in pressure situations. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Oct 21) - 2008 WSOP: QUAD ACES BUSTED BY ROYAL FLUSH

The 2008 World Series of Poker main event had one hand that you’ll be lucky to see again in your lifetime. You could play at Pinnacle Sports Poker for decades, and still only have a slim chance of witnessing something like the following exciting outcome. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Oct 16) - 3D POKER: WAVE OF THE FUTURE

Online poker is in constant evolution towards providing a playing experience that closely resembles a live game. Software creators understand that the more realistic their programs are, the more popular their poker games will be. 

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Oct 15)- ROMANELLO MAKES INSANE LAY-DOWN AT WSOP

Roberto Romanello showed that there’s more to him that just selling fish at his fish-and-chips restaurant in Swansea, Wales. While sitting at a table at this year’s WSOP with Mike “the mouth” Matusow, Roberto Romanello made one of the best lay-downs you’ll ever see on a poker table, whether live or online at Pinnacle Sports Poker.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Oct 8)- MARTIN TAKES EPT LONDON

Michael Martin went on a ridiculous run of luck at the right time to win the EPT London main event. The guaranteed £1 million first-place prize seemed to be out of his hands when he was down to only two blinds, but fate had something else in mind for the young American.

POKER TOURNAMENT NEWS (Oct 1)- FISCHMAN DUMPS AT WSOPE

With less than 30 people left in the 2008 WSOPE Main Event, Scott Fischman played a hand that would make most people wonder, “What was he thinking?”