In 2016, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) features the return of the Macau Millions after a brief hiatus. The 2016 APPT schedule will also include stops at the Aussie Millions, Macau Poker Cup 24, APPT Seoul, APPT Macau, APPT Manila, APPT Melbourne, and the concluding event at the 2016 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) hosted at City of Dreams in Macau.
Few random stories of note: Kentucky continues to shakedown PokerStars/Amaya… DFS illegal in Illinois… PokerStars to launch sportsbetting site with unique name: Bet Stars… Sheldon Adelson semi-secretly bought Las Vegas Review Journal… Phil Ivey ending the year on a redonk downswing?
Introducing Colossus II! The WSOP announced that their $565 buy-in Colossus tournament will return to the mix for the 2016 WSOP. Even though the WSOP schedule has yet to be released, the Colossus II will kick off the series witha $7 million guaranteed prize pool. The suits wised up this year and will be awarding $1 million to first place.
The 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure features a special blackjack tournament with a 100K Guarantee. The buy-in is $500 and the winner also gets a seat into the PCA Main Event. So essentially, this is the first-ever blackjack/poker satellite.
Fedor Holz had won nearly $2 million in 2015 before he took his seat at the final table of the WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas. The young German had been running great all year and capped off his miraculous 2015 by shipping the WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas for approximately $1.6 million. Daniel Negreanu finished in third place.
Can anyone stop Fedor Holz? The young German pro also known as “CrownUpGuy” has been on a torrid streak over the last two years. Only seven other players stand in Holz's way of winning $1.5 million at the WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas. Holz is sitting atop a massive stack with 40% of the total chips in play at the final table. Eight players remain including Daniel Negreanu, and only the top 7 places get paid out at this WPT high roller event.
Kevin '1sickdisease' Eyster picked up his second-career WPT title when he won the WPT Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Eyster's pay day was worth almost $1.6 million, which was the second-largest Five Diamond in history. Eyster also jumped into first place on the WPT POY race ahead of Cate Hall, who busted in fifth place.
The final table for the WPT Five Diamond World Classic at the Bellagio is underway. The winner ships approximately $1.6 million. That's a whole lot of cheddar at stake. On the 14th hand at the final table, Eddie Ochana busted in 6th place when his K-J lost to Jake Schwartz 's A-J. Down to five players and Jake Schwartz is way out in front with a sizable lead. For live updates, head over to WPT.com.
Who's gonna ship $1.6 million? The WPT Five Diamond World Classic at the Bellagio is down to the final six players. Jake Schwartz is the chip leader with 7.2M. Also making the cut: Kevin Eyster, Ben Yu, Eddie Ochana, Cate Hall, and William Jennings. The final table resumes Saturday at 4pm PT local time in Vegas.
After four days of action at the WPT Bellagio Five Diamond World Classic, the field is down to 21 players with Eddie Ochana out in front as the chip leader (2.3M). The $10,400 buy-in event attracted 639 runners and the top-heavy event paid out the top 63 places. The first-place winner will earn $1,587,382. Action for Day 5 resumes Friday with a final table set for Saturday.
Three champions have been crowned at the EPT Prague. Last week, Steve O'Dwyer took down the €50K Super High Roller and he made history by becoming the first two-time SHR Champion on the EPT. And tonight, Hossein Ensan from Germany chopped heads-up and won the €5,300 Main Event ,while American Kenneth Smaron shipped the €10K High Roller.
Day 5 at the EPT Prague €5,300 buy-in Main Event saw action play down to the final table. Six players remain with Azerbaijan's Ilkin Amirov holding the chip lead with approximately 10M. Amirov created a stir in the tournament room on Day 5 when he survived a four-way all-in with pocket Kings.
The EPT Prague €5,300 buy-in Main Event has reached its penultimate day. Only 23 Players survived the cut at the end of Day 4. They returned to Day 5 with hopes of surviving one more day to advance to the final table. First place pays out €921,540. Ireland's Marc Macdonnell leads the way.
The EPT Prague €5,300 Main Event Championship is coming down the final stretch. The money bubble finally burst on Day 3 and the top 151 players secured a cut of the prize pool. Day 4 began with 67 players left in the hunt and Abbas Moradi (Canada) holdinging onto the chip lead with 1.3M. Day 4 is underway and with only 40 players remaining, Ori Miller (Israel) has taken over the lead with 1.7M. They will play down to 18 today. First place pays out €921,540. Who's gonna take it down? For live updates of the EPT Prague Main Event, follow the PokerStars Blog. Also, watch EPT Prague Day 4 live stream via Twitch.
Day 3 at the EPT Prague Main Event is under way. The action is currently on the money bubble. Only the top 151 places pay out with €921,540 set aside for first place. For live updates, follow the PokerStars Blog. For any live stream action, watch the EPT Prague on Twitch.
The second day of action at the EPT Prague €5,300 buy-in Main Event championship has been underway a couple of hours. This year's main event attracted 1,044 runners and first place pays out approximately €922,000. Follow the conclusion of Day 2 at the EPT Prague with the Twitch live stream here. Also, head over to PokerStars Blog to read live updates.
The FBI raided two card clubs in San Diego – Seven Mile Casino and the Palomar Card Club – and busted an illegal gambling and money laundering operation. The feds fingered David “Fat Dave” Stroj as the mastermind of the gambling ring, which has apparent ties to the Philly mafia. The nationwide sting netted 25 arrests in California, Arizona, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, and Iowa. The card rooms were used to launder proceeds from a prostitution ring, high-stakes poker games hosted in mansions around San Diego, and an offshore sports book that booked $2 million in bets every month.
Three random news items of note: Congressional hearing on RAWA (bill trying to ban online gambling) failed miserably, PokerStars announced four special $1 million freerolls in the wake of their VIP program controversy, and Portuguese politicians decided to segregate its (small) online poker players base from the (vast) global market.
The EPT Prague is winding down and final tables are set for both the €1,100 buy-in Eureka5 Main Event and the €50,000 Super High Roller. Luuk Gieles is the chip leader at the SHR final table. EPT Player of the Year Dzmitry Urbanovich right behind in second and Steve O'Dwyer is lurking in third. The SHR final table also includes super-short John Juanda. Meanwhile in the Eureka5 Main Event, Sweden's Simon Persson faded a gigantic field to emerge as the chip leader at the final table. Local hero, Martin Staszko is still alive and third overall.
Only 12 players made the cut at the end of Day 1 at the €1,000 buy-in Open Face Chinese Poker Main Event World Championship, hosted at the King's Casino in Prague. The Main Event drew in118 Chinese poker enthusiasts. Only top 15 players were paid out. Day 2 action is underway with Roman Pavliuk as the chipleader. Two players already busted, so ten remain in the hunt for the OFC World Championship. Watch the live stream here.
The PokerStars EPT Eureka Prague in underway. The hugely-popular €1,100 Main Event attracted 1,893 runners. The prize pool is €1,836,210 with €311,000 set aside to the champion. Day 2 of the Main Event is underway, so follow Prague updates over at PokerStars Blog. Also, the Eureka Prague €50,000 Super High Roller is off and running. Currently 29 players in the hunt for a SHR crown. Follow PokerStars Blog for SHR updates too.
Come and play with us tonight, Titan Poker adds $50 to a 1.1$ buy-in tournament at 15:00 ET.
You can get the password 20 minutes before the tournament on this page.
The tourney is shared with Iron Poker, available if you play from UK / Germany or Canada.
Watch the final table of the WPT Prague at the King's Casino in Prague, which has been underway a couple of hours. The final table is streaming via Twitch on a 30-minute delay. First place pays out: $190,347. Follow live blog updates (with delay) here. Watch the WPT Prague Twitch stream here.
Quebec, the feisty French-speaking province who is always threatening to secede from Canada, is attempting to create their own state-run online gambling monopoly by outlawing online gambling operators. Is their blacklist a legit legislative ploy? Or will Canadian federal telecommunications laws take precedent?
Phil Ivey got caught shooting angles at the Crocksfords Casino in London during an epic baccarat winning streak in 2012. Casino operators insisted he was up to no good and refused to pay him. Ivey insisted that he was doing everything within his legal realm to gain an advantage. In short, Ivey's stance was: you agreed to the original terms so now pay up. Crocksfords initially stiffed him for £7.8 million (or $12 million USD) and Ivey sued, yet lost. Now, Ivey has a chance to appeal his case in a British court.
