The EPT Grand Final at the Monte-Carlo Casino crowned another champion. Germany's Ole Schemion shipped the €100K Super High Roller and took home nearly €1.6 million. Schemion beat Italy's Mustapha ‘lasagnaaammm' Kanit heads-up for the win. Iranian businessman Ali Reza Fate began the final table as the chip leader, but he was unable to fend off all of the sharks circling in the waters. Ali Reza Fate finished in third place and won €828,500. Schemion now has close to $10 million in career live tournament winnings.
Eight players left in the hunt for the €100K Super High Roller title at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Iran's Ali Reza Fatehi is the chip leader at a stacked final table featuring Mustapha Kanit, Ole Schemion, Stevie Chidwick, Igor Kurganov, Ivan Luca, Sam Greenwood, and short-stacked Paul Newey. Which one will ship €1,775,500 for first place? The final table live stream is up and running, so watch it... here.
The €100K Super High Roller event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo attracted 46 unique souls who fired 15 additional bullets, at €100K a pop, to create a prize pool worth nearly €6 million. Only the final table players got a cut of the prize pool with €1,775,500 up for grabs for first place. Iran's Ali Reza Fatehi holds a sizable advantage, but he's facing a tough hornet's nest of a final table that also includes Stevie Chidwick, Mustapha Kanit, Ole Schemion, Igor Kurganov, Ivan Luca, Sam Greenwood, and Paul Newey. Can Ali Reza Fatehi overcome a stacked final table and go wire-to-wire for the SHR victory? Or will Mustapha Kanit make a run?
The 12th incarnation of the European Poker Tour Grand Final is currently underway from the Monte-Carlo Casino in Monte Carlo. Starting April 30, PokerStars will be providing a week-long daily live stream with hole cards (on a delay, obviously). You will be able to watch the €100K Super High Roller Final Table, the France Poker Series (FPS) Monaco Final Table, and EPT Grand Final Main Event coverage commencing with Day 2 action and concluding with the final table on May 6.
Assemblyman Adam Gray introduced bill AB2863, which would legalize online poker in the state of California. AB2863 passed a vote after a hearing in front of the Assembly Committee on Governmental Organization, otherwise known as the “GO” committee. AB2863 passed unanimously 19-0 and now it awaits approval from the Appropriations Committee. Last year's online poker bill died on the shelf at that stage. Everyone is hopeful that AB2863 passes the next and final step before it is finally introduced to the floor of the California State Legislature. Still a long road ahead before online poker comes to California, but at least we're moving ahead in the right direction.
Chance Kornuth has one of those names that you can't believe is true, like the surname ‘Moneymaker' or ‘Lucky.' Call it fate, or just a cool first name, but Chance Kornuth is having a great 2016. Coming into the EPT Grand Final, Kornuth had won almost $1 million in High Roller events since the start of the tournament season at the 2016 PCA in the Bahamas. He went down under to Australia and shipped a High Roller at the Aussie Millions, then took second at a High Roller event at the EPT Dublin. For the first major event at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, Kornuth faded a field of 214 entrants and won the €10K High Roller for €351,108, or roughly $395K.
David Williams is the latest poker pro to attempt a crossover into reality television. Williams will appear on Season 7 of MasterChef hosted by Gordon Ramsay on the FOX network. Williams has nearly $8.5 million in live winnings and even won a WSOP bracelet in 2006, but he's most known for his runner-up finish at the 2004 WSOP Main Event (losing heads-up to Greg ‘Fossilman' Raymer). Williams will be one of 40 contestants and among six aspiring chefs from Las Vegas. He passed the audition and Ramsay commented that Williams was a “bloody good chef.” Season 7 of MasterChef debuts in June.
Time for the Americas Conference to slug it out in heads-up battles in Week 4 action on the GPL. The premier fight of the day will be a battle between East Coast and West Coast supremacy. Oliver Busquet from the LA Sunset will throw down against New York's Tom Marchese. New York is trying to maintain their first-place lead on top of the Americas. The two last places teams are tackling each other with both San Francisco Rush and Sao Paulo Mets in desperate need of a sweep. Also scheduled to play today: Jonathan Jaffe (SF) vs. Thiago ‘TheDecano' Nishijima (Sao Paulo) and Scott Ball (Las Vegas) vs. Jason Lavalle (Montreal).
Brian Rast survived his prop bet bicycle ride from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, but it was closer than anyone anticipated. Midway thru the 48-hour deadline, Rast was not even at the "half-way" point near Barstow, CA due to high winds, which made his journey even more difficult without the aid of a drafting van. However, on the last day, fueled by sheer will and the pain killer Vicodin, Rast overcame his bad back pain and made it to Los Angeles with an hour to spare. Rast won $600,000 from Dan Bilzerian and Bill Perkins. Rast put up $100K and was given 6-1 odds on his journey with less than a half-week of training.
It's the fourth week of action at the Global Poker League. In yesterday's 6-max action Alex ‘alexonmoon' Luneau won his first match to keep the Paris Aviators in first place. Moscow Wolverines team manager, Anatoly Filatov, had a sensational day with 12 total points including a win in the second match, which propelled Moscow into second place overall in the EurAsia Conference. Today, all eyes will be on the premier match of the day between Elky and nanonoko, when the first-place Paris Aviators takes on third-place Hong Kong in EurAsia heads-up matches. The other big-time pairing includes the GPL debut of Vanessa Selbst for the London Royals. She battles Moscow's Anatoly Filatov. The other match is Todd Brunson (Rome) vs. Jeff Gross (Berlin), and the Rome Emperors desperately need a sweep from Brunson in order to finally get out of their last-place slump.
If Brian Rast wants to win $600,000 for riding a bike from Las Vegas to Los Angeles in under 48 hours, then he better pick up the pace. Rast departed Vegas on Monday night and only managed 60 miles in 7 hours before he stopped for the night. Rast struggled on Tuesday competing against massive wind gusts and was forced to take a break for several hours. With 22 hours left on the clock, according to a Bill Perkins tweet, Rast had passed Barstow, California and has 140 more miles to go. His deadline to reach the LA city limits is Wednesday at 7:32pm PT. It's going to be a tough sweat with Rast fighting those brutal winds. More details on the Rast/Perkins/Bilzerian bike prop bet.... here.
The future of online poker in California is still a big fat question mark. However, assemblyman Adam Gray is trying to move the ball a little bit closer toward the goal line with an online poker bill otherwise known as AB 2863. There's a hearing scheduled in front of California Assembly Governmental Organization Committee on April 21 with some last minute amendments to AB 2863, which includes a backdoor “bad actor” clause.
It's the inaugural PokerStars New Jersey Spring Championship of Online Poker! Also known as NJSCOOP, this is the first series of heralded COOP events to be played on NJ soil since its return to the marketplace in March. NJSCOOP will run starting May 15 thru May 29 featuring 27 events with varying buy-in levels (low and high) for a total of 54 tournaments. NJSCOOP will also have a $1.1 million guarantee.
It's the fourth week of action in the Global Poker League. The Paris Aviators and the New York Rounders are both in first place and the only teams with at least 40 points. Can they hold on to the top spots in their respective divisions for another week? Week 4's action in EurAsia Conference features a 6-max table with Alexandre Luneau (Paris), Chris Moorman (London), Walter Treccarichi (Rome), Jeff Gross (Berlin), Anatoly Filatov (Moscow), and Celina Lin (Hong Kong). Meanwhile in the America s Conference, Olivier Busquet (Los Angeles) fresh off his winning MMA match will grapple against Tom Marchese (New York), Faraz Jaka (San Francisco), Jason Lavallee (Montreal), Darren Elias (Sao Paulo), and Jonathan Little/ Scott Ball (Las Vegas).
Time for another high-stakes prop bet. The third installment of “riding a bicycle from Las Vegas to Los Angeles” (approximately 300 miles) involves Brian Rast. He accepted the joint-challenge from Bill Perkins and Dan Bilzerian at 6 to 1 odds. Rast put up $100K of his own money, so if he successfully rides a bicycle from Vegas to L.A., then he will ship $600,000. Only one catch…Rast is doing a slightly longer ride today with less than a week of training!
Farid Yachou from Leeuwarden, Holland made history by winning the Monster WPT Tournament of Champions at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Despite a home-crowd advantage from The Grinder, otherwise known as the pride and joy of Hollywood (FL), Yachou shrugged off the hostile crowd and rose to the occasion as the unknown underdog. This year's TOC had 64 total runners comprised of previous WPT champions. Those sharks forked over $15,000 for a shot at bragging rights, a new Corvette, and a slew of other cool prizes. Oh and there was some cash too. First place paid out $381,600 for Farid Yachou, who defeated fellow European Vlad Darie heads-up for the win. The Grinder busted in third place.
The WPT Tournament of Champions (with a 30-second shot clock!) is live streaming the final table on a 30-minute delay, live from the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Michael ‘The Grinder' Mizrachi comes into the final table second overall in chips, trailing Jonathan Jaffe. Also still alive are Noah Schwartz, Darren Elias, Farid Yachou, and Vlad Darie. Listen to commentary by Tony Dunst and Vanessa Selbst… here.
The Grinder returns! One of the most-recognizable players from the poker boom is trying to win the Monster WPT Tournament of Champions on his home turf of Florida. The Grinder has nearly $15 million in career winnings along with 3 bracelets and 2 WPT titles. He's second in chips with 6 players left at the Seminole Hard Rock. The $15,000 buy-in event drew in 64 previous WPT champions. Jonathan Jaffe (WPT Montreal champ) is the chip leader with a shade under 1M. Also rounding out the final table are 2-time WPT champ Darren Elias, Noah Schwartz (WPT and Alpha8 high roller champ), and a pair of unknowns -- Morocco's Farid Yachou (WPT Amsterdam champ) and Romania's Vlad Darie (WPT Vienna champ). First place pays out $381,600 and a Corvette!
Cue the L.L. Cool J. PokerStars launched a new promo called Knockout Poker, which is running April 22 through May 14. PokerStars will be giving away over $120,000 a week in added prizes to anyone who participates in their special 50/50 Knock Out tournaments, in which 50% of the pool goes toward the ‘normal prize pool' and the other half gets awarded as bonuses to players who knockout their opponents.
The moment of reckoning. After over six months of hype and anticipation, we finally got to see two poker players square off in a big MMA-style fight. Olivier Busquet wanted a six-figure fight and J.C. Alvarado was up for the challenge. Alvarado put up $150K to Busquet's $120K. The fight went down at Syndicates MMA Gym in Las Vegas. After three exhausting rounds in which Busquet dominated Alvarado, the fight was ended. Busquet had won a lopsided victory and won the $270,000 purse.
Hat trick for Chino! Chino Rheem won the WPT SHR $10K Poker Finale in Hollywood, Florida by fading a field of 322 players. The prize pool was over $3.2 million and Chino took down $705,885. The final table was a 170-hand slog and Rheem knocked out his heads-up opponent Aditya Prasetyo in under 40 hands to secure the win. This is Rheem's first major win in Florida. He's two previous WPT victories occurred at the Bellagio Casino in Las Vegas at the 2008 Doyle Brunson North American Classic and the 2013 WPT Championship.
It's on! Two poker pros are squaring off in a MMA-style fight that has a bigger purse than most UFC title fights. Over $270,000 and pride is at stake in a highly-anticipated Octagon battle between J.C. Alvarado and Olivier Busquet. Meanwhile, there's millions of dollars in side action wagered if you combine everyone in the poker community who is wagering on the outcome of this epic battle. Poker writers, pros, dealers, and even cocktail waitresses are getting in on the action. The fight will be live streamed from Las Vegas tonight April 21 starting at 6pm local time.
The Godfather of Poker, Doyle 'Texas Dolly' Brunson, faded cancer for a sixth time. Brunson went to Twitter to announce to the poker community that his most-recent surgery was a success and he had beaten cancer once again. "Cancer #6 gone. Squamous carcinoma gone bye bye. Just another scar on an already scarred up face,” tweeted @TexDolly. So, if you're keeping score at home.... Texas Dolly 6, Cancer 0.
The WPT live stream is up and running down in Hollywood, Florida for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale. The $10K event attracted 322 players and there's $705K up for grabs to the champion. Chino Rheem started the final table second in chips. Can he pull down his third-career WPT title? Tune into the webcast (on a 30-minute delay) to find out.... watch here.
The Global Poker League concludes their third week with heads-up matches in the Americas conference including a battle of first and second place teams – New York and Montreal. New York Rounders' team manager Bryn Kenney will be playing Pascal LeFrancois and trying to prevent Montreal Nationals from making a run at his first place squad. Other matches today include Sao Paulo Mets taking on the Las Vegas Moneymaker and the ‘Battle of California' between the L.A. Sunset and the San Francisco Rush. Cards go in the air at 1pm ET or 10am Vegas time.
The World Poker Tour is currently at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida for a series of events. The $3,500 buy-in SHR Poker Showdown was won by Justin Young, who shipped $669,161 for first place. Cate Hall finished in ninth place and narrowly missed winning the Hublot POY. She finished in second place overall in the Player of the Year standings behind Mike Shariati (who won the WPT Legends of Poker and was runner-up at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic).
More Global Poker League action! The Paris Aviators are back in sole possession of first place in the EurAsia Conference after a 3-0 sweep from George Danzer, who won his opening match on the first hand by cracking Igor Kurganov's pocket Aces. Earlier in the day, Hong Kong Stars moved into first place for a short period of time after Randy 'nanonoko' Lew defeated Berlin's Jungleman 2-1. However, Danzer and Paris stormed back to blank London and earn 9 points for their fourth overall win.
PokerStars plans to celebrate their return to the United States by arranging a gathering in Atlantic City, New Jersey of Team PokerStars Pros and “other elite poker celebrities.” Run it Up: Resorts Rumble, the first-ever live/online hybrid event in New Jersey, will be taking place on May 14 at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City. Jason Somerville will be hosting the event along with Chris Moneymaker and Barry Greenstein. Somervile will be broadcasting live on Twitch via his highly-popular Run It Up channel.
For the third week of action on the Global Poker League we have heads-up matches on the schedule for the EurAsia Conference. After a rough Tuesday of 6-max matches,the Paris Aviators slipped into a tie for first place with the Hong Kong Stars. Can George Danzer pad Paris' lead with a big push against London's Igor Kurganov? Or will Hong Kong's nanonoko slay the Jungleman to put his Stars' squad on top at the end of the day? Also, Sergey Lebedev is trying to pick up some ground for Moscow against Rome's Tim Adams. Matches begin at noon ET or 9am Vegas time.
Cate Hall already faded a turbulent field of 1,222 South Florida swampdonks to advance to the final table at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. The $3,500 buy-in event attracted massive crowd and a $3.9 million prize pool. There's $669,161 set aside for the champion. If Cate Hall wins, then she'll also make history as the first-ever female to win a WPT open event. She also needs to finish third place or higher to lock up the WPT Player of the Year award.