PokerSchool Online
You can download the PokerPages and PSO software absolutely free and play in our freeroll tournaments. Play online with other players to compete for points and sponsorships!
PokerSchool membership is only $14.95 per month or $149.95 annually. With that membership, you get an amazing amount of content and advice from the top players in poker. Our supportive poker community is the best on the internet. Learn from them and compete with them for a chance to play in our upcoming major tournament, the Big One II with prizes in sponsorships worth over $100,000! Read more about PokerSchool Online and the Big One II!
The Pokerschool Online Tutorial Team
PSO Convention
We are delighted to announce the first ever PokerSchoolOnline Convention will take place during the World Poker Open at Tunica. There will be a $100 Buy-in No Limit Hold'em Tournament on the 9th January starting at 6pm, a day of golf also on the 9th (organised by the members) for the DJ Express Fund, and a day of eating and seminars on the 11th. We now are proud to announce that we have 100 school members attending from around the world.
This will be a wonderful gathering of the school members, and Mark and I are really looking forward to meeting everyone in person. If you are a school member you can submit your registration here. If you are not a school member, then join now. Don't delay, register today as limited places are available.
Poker In America
Tim Kopp of PokerPages writes about Poker in America
Hello again, and welcome back to the final edition of Poker in America for 2002. This was a year full of highs and lows within the poker community. We saw the single largest 1st place prize ever in a tournament as well as the largest single prize won by a woman. Fortunes were won and fortunes were lost. How did you end up this year? We'll take a look at the year in review, but first let's take a look at what has been brewing since we last met.
In our last edition two huge events were in progress, the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic at The Bellagio in Las Vegas, and the 2002 U.S. Poker Championship at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Since the action recently wrapped up at the Bellagio, let us take a look at how it all went down in Vegas.
When we left off, Brian Green had just won the Pot Limit Hold 'Em match in Event #3 at the Bellagio. The following day saw a small dip in attendance for Event #4, 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo Split. Only 93 players would be buying in for this event and that was just fine for Chad Brown of L.A. The low turn out only meant that he would have fewer opponents to roll through to pick up his first place prize of just over $36,000 dollars.
Event #5, No Limit Hold 'Em ushered in the weekend, and with the weekend brought the crowds, and with the crowds brought prize pools that would make your momma's eyes cross. 231 players inflated this prize pool to $224,070 and it was pitched battle for the first place prize that was just a hair below $90,000. Hon "Kamikaze" Lee, one of the many excellent professionals to hail from Bell Gardens, California, ended the day with the first place prize. Aidan Bennett would come in 2nd and collect $44,814.
Moving along to Saturday and Event #6 we saw 2001's Player of the Year, Men "The Master" Nguyen improve his bid to do it again in 2002 by winning the Omaha Hi/Lo event. Men beat out 134 other players to collect his 1st place prize that was just 8 dollars shy of $52,000. If that wasn't impressive enough, when heads-up play started, Tom Jacobs held a 4 to 1 chip lead over "The Master". Quite a come from behind victory for one of the game's greatest tournament Pros.
The price to compete would go up as players moved along to Event #7. The game again was No Limit Hold'em and the buy in was $1,500. When all was said and done, Dennis Waterman was about $100,000 richer. Dennis' win in event 7 wraps up a fine year for him on the tournament circuit that included 2 W.S.O.P. money finishes. Not too shabby, Dennis!
Next up, fellow Texan and co-author of one of my favorite books on Tournament poker, T.J Cloutier, took center stage in an epic heads up battle with Phil Hellmuth in Event #8 Pot limit Omaha. The Railbirds were gawking as the youngest champion in the history of the W.S.O.P (Hellmuth) went one on one with the all time money winner in the history of tournament poker (Cloutier). With all that tournament experience under their collective belts it's amazing that this was only the 2nd time that they had ever met at a final table. "The only other time Phil and I were heads-up was in the World Series, and he won that one, but now we're 1-1." said Cloutier in an interview after the win. T.J ended the day cashing out just over $51,000. The win adds even more credibility to his already successful books.
There would be one more event before the main event and that was the $500 buy-in Limit Hold 'Em. Scott Bullar won that event and took home $45,222. Finally, it was time for the main event. The $3,000 buy in 2 day Hold 'Em event drew 183 players and swelled the prize pool to $532,530. As if the $229,000 prize for first place wasn't enough, first place would also include a $25,000 + $300 entry in Bellagio's Five Star World Poker Classic April 14 - 18, 2003! Action was furious, and the pros were out in full force.
Care to take a guess as to which world champ would take home the 1st place prize? Go on, just take a guess! Have you made your decision? Well, I'm sorry but you're wrong. 1st place would not go to any seasoned pro or crafty world champ. Heck, for that matter, 2nd place wouldn't either. Friends Erick Lindgren (26, Folsome, CA) and Prahlad Friedman (24, Richmond, CA) would go heads up for all the money and after their hour-long heads up match it would be Lindgren who claimed the prize. For a complete report on the Championship match by Jim Sherwood, Click here.
Certainly, the Five Diamond Poker Classic was a success. Director of Poker Operations Doug Dalton and Tournament Director Jack McClelland must know the secret of running an excellent poker room, because everywhere I go I'm told the place to play is the Bellagio. PokerPages would like to thank Mr. Dalton, Mr. McClelland and the rest of the staff at the Bellagio for running a great tournament. We would also like to extend a special thanks to Jim Sherwood for taking the time to furnish us with the daily reports.
The other big tournament that has been running since our last newsletter is the US Poker Championship being held at the Trump Taj Mahal, in Atlantic City. As I am about to submit this issue, the final 3-day No Limit Hold'em main event is just getting underway. By the time you receive this new letter, Santa's (a.ka. Mark's) little helpers (a.ka. Kevin and yours truly) will have gotten all the results for the final three-day event. Click Here for full coverage. In our next newsletter, I'll be covering the final days of what has been the crown jewel of holiday poker in Atlantic City
Jumping over to the left coast we land in Gardena California at Larry Flint's Hustler Casino for their 12 Days of Christmas Poker Tournament. This great, affordable tournament featured twelve separate $100 buy-in events, each with $10,000 in guaranteed prize money. How's that for a stocking stuffer!? Let's take a quick look at how each event to this point ended up:
Event #1 Limit Hold 'Em: 1st place - Paul Lui ($4,180) 95 Players/$10,000 prize pool.
Event #2 Limit Hold 'Em: 1st place - Lich Bui ($4,255) 107 Players/$10,700 prize pool
Event #3 No Limit Hold 'Em: 1st place - Anonymous ($4,140) 112 players/$11,200 prize pool
Event #4 Limit Hold 'Em: 1st place - Alex Santos ($4,180) 81 players/$10,000 prize pool
Event #5 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo: 1st Place - Randall Holland ($4,210) 111 players/$11,100 prize pool
Event #6 No limit Hold 'Em: First Place - Donald Watt II ($3,910) 106 players/$10,600 prize pool
Event #7 Pot limit Hold'em: First Place - John Inashima ($3,780) 105 players/$10,500 Prize pool
Event #8 Pot limit Hold 'Em: First Place - Thomas Roshannon ($4,140) 112 players/#11,200 prize pool
Event #9 Limit Hold 'Em: First Place - Freddie Legaspi ($3,880) 70 players/$10,000 prize pool
Event #10 No Limit Hold 'Em: First Place - Steven BD ($3,700) 72 players/$10,000 prize pool
Event #11 Limit Hold 'Em: First Place - Gino Yu ($2,035) 781 players/$10,000 prize pool
To read 2002 Poker Highlights: A Month-by-Month Review, click here.
Be Lucky,
Tim Kopp
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The Big One II
You must be a member of PokerSchool Online in order to participate! PokerSchool membership is only $14.95 per month or $149.95 annually. Click here to join now!
Last Chance tournaments taking place now. It's the last month of the Big One II. It's is not to late to join the school for your chance to play for $100,000 of sponsorships!
The Big One II offers over $100,000 worth of Sponsorship points that can be redeemed for a sponsorship in a major poker tournament anywhere in the world. If you would like to read more about sponsorship points, click here.
If you don't know already, the Big One II is a simple concept with a million details. But here's the summary:
Play in a certain number of PokerSchool Tournaments and Satellites and be automatically placed in two different sets of leagues. One league set is for satellites and one for tournaments. Click here to read more about leagues. If you are a top ranking player in one or both leagues at the end of the month, you'll be qualified to play in a Round Two event. These events occur once a month. Top players in Round Two events are eligible to play in the Final Big One Event on Dec 21 2002. Of course, there is a lot more information you need to know than that. You can read more about the Big One II here.
Watch this space for more information about the Big One II!
Poker In Europe
Kevin Pratt of PokerPages writes about Poker in Europe
The Helsinki Freezout was the last major festival of the year and pulled in a lot of travelling players because of a number of factors. Firstly Casino Ray teamed up with the Conti Group in Russia and awarded an overall top player prize from the two festivals. This resulted in many Fins and Russians going to both events and was obviously a clever marketing ploy. Secondly Helsinki also hosted the annual European Poker Awards and paid the accommodation of some of Europe's leading players that had been nominated. There were many controversies in the awards and I will give the results further down.
The Main Event €1,500 No Limit Hold'em produced a very respectable field of 77 and was won by Liam Flood from Ireland who collected a first prize of €33,611. Congratulations to 'Gentleman' Liam one of poker's real personalities.
Event 1 in Helsinki €100 Limit Hold'em saw the Casino stretched to capacity as 120 (the maximum number) participated. Top Russian pro Alex Kravchenko took the spoils and €8,672.
Jac Arama fresh from revitalising himself in Russia took the second event €300 Pot Limit Omaha and €13,008. Jac suffered a loss of form in the second half of the year and just narrowly missed out on topping the European rankings. Jac has played in just about every tournament in Europe and must be exhausted especially as the last few events were in St Petersburg and Moscow.
Roy 'The Boy' Brindley narrowly missed out on rookie of the year in the awards, but let his poker do the talking by winning the €500 Pot Limit Hold'em and €11,640. Watch out for Roy next year as he is a player you will see many times in the winners enclosure.
The national game of Soko, which is the Scandinavian version of 5 Card Stud produced a home winner in Jari Salonen one of the top players in Europe. Jari received €13,095 for first place and can truly be described as the worlds best Soko player as he won the same event at the Midnight Sun tournament in the summer and came 2nd in 2001. Bo Leiner from Sweden won the only other event €300 7-Card Stud and €12,135.
The European Poker Awards, which were sponsored by Casino Ray, left the poker world arguing as to whether the right players received the awards. In particular the player of the year, which went to Garry Bush for topping the European Rankings, when many players felt the award should have gone to Peter Costa for his major tournament wins in the US. I think that both players deserved the award but there could be only one winner so congratulations to Garry. He's come a long way since we used to play for pennies in our local snooker club.
Another controversial winner was Barny Boatman in the most notable tournament achievement. Barny reached 3 consecutive finals at the World Series but what about Julian Gardner's second place in the World Championship? Again both players were worthy of the prize. The other winners were Rookie of the year Kirill Gerasimov, Personality of the year Liam Flood and Casino staff person of the year Adele Brujin for her efforts in Amsterdam.
The Olympia Open Poker Festival in St Petersburg Russia was finally called the Conti Group Open as it was hosted in Conti's brand new poker room. Everything in this poker room is supposed to be a bit special and specifically designed for the player in mind. There are even free rooms upstairs if you want to go to sleep.
Russians dominated all the money places in the Main Event £1,000 No Limit Hold'em with Sergey Zharkov defeating 24 others for a first prize of $8,000. An unusual event happened in the first two events of the festival in that the same players filled the first 3 places. Jari Salonen picked up €10,214 in the $200 Pot Limit Hold'em and a further $9,476 for the Pot Limit Omaha by winning both events. Sergey Zarkov also did the double by taking the Pot Limit 7-Card stud and $14,000. All the other results are available on the website Olympia Open Poker Festival
The Christmas Poker Championships in Bregenz saw Ivo Donev take the €285 Limit 7-Card Stud and €9150. Ivo is one of the best stud players in Europe and has previously won a bracelet at the WSOP. Michael Keiner from Germany took the €190 No Limit Hold'em from a field of 52 and €8,650
The player who is 'Hot' this newsletter is Ice Cold Jari Salonen from Finland, a brilliant all round player. Jari won back to back events in St Petersburg and followed up with a second win in the Soko in Helsinki. He was also overall top player from the combined venues. Well done Jari.
Finally, seasons greetings to you all and good luck in 2003 wherever you play.
By Kevin Pratt
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FREEROLL
Win a $10,000 Seat at the World Poker Open
Last month of this promotion, don't delay! Download today and play in the WPO Warm Up. It could be you going to Tunica to play in the $10,000 event in the WPO.
PokerPages does it again with another exciting Warm Up opportunity - your chance to go and play at the main event at the World Poker Open in Tunica in January 2003, where there is a guarantee of $1,000,000.
Warm-Up Started September 23 - Don't delay download the software today !!!!
Even non-poker players have to agree, this is the experience of a lifetime! It costs you nothing to participate in this warm up and you could earn the chance to play against world class poker players, as well as take home part of a huge prize pool at the World Poker Open. The WPO is an internationally acclaimed poker event, famous for its players and action. Last January at the 2002 WPO main event, the prize pool was over $1,000,000! The big winner, Costa Rica's Humberto Brenes won $502,460!
So now it's your turn to get in on that action...for free! PokerPages is holding the first ever WPO Warm-Up on their exclusive software. Starting September 23rd, you will be able to play Round 1 WPO Warm-Up tournaments on the PokerPages Software. You can download it here. If you finish as one of the 15 top players of a Round 1 event tournament, then you will qualify to play in a Round 2. Be one of the top 20 to place in a Round 2 event, and you will qualify for the Final Event on Wed Jan. 1, 3pm CST. The 1st place prize is a $10,000 seat in the WPO 2003. See our schedules here.
Round 2 and Final Event Qualifications
Round Two Qualifiers List To get on this list, you must play in one of our WPO Round 1 Warm-Up Tournaments and be one of the top fifteen winners. These winners will be qualified to play in the coming weekend's Round 2 events. Each Round 2 event will have approximately 300 players. Be one of the top 20 to place in a Round 2 event, and you will qualify for the Final Event on Wed Jan. 1, 3pm CST. Go to the Round 2 qualifier list to see who has qualified so far, or click here to view the schedule.
The Final Event Qualifiers List To get on this list, you must place at least 20th in a Round 2 event. Final Event qualifiers are then qualified to play in the Final Event. The first place prize is a $10,000 seat at the World Poker Open! Go to the Final Event qualifier list to see who has qualified so far or click here to view the schedule.
Rules and conditions of Play
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Poker in the U.K.
Kevin Pratt of the PokerPages Team writes about poker in the UK.
The final events of the year have concluded in the UK and it has been an interesting year. Some tournament venues have emerged with credit and are continuing to attract large numbers, whilst others seem to be going backwards and really just don't listen to the players concerns. Some Casinos plan ahead and list their tournament schedules early and others seem to think it is ok to dream up the schedule a few days before, and still expect large numbers. Rules are still a big concern and Luton was heavily criticised for their rule that if you take 20 seconds thinking you cannot raise. This is the most absurd rule but Luton take their direction from The Vic in London so the fault lies there. Jeff Leigh the card room manager at the Vic is extremely proficient at his job and it would be nice to know his reasoning regarding this rule.
Certain Casinos still have event buy-ins that are far too large for the players who attend and the result is low numbers for their events. I think all card room managers should have a close look at the results for the year and see where the successful tournaments were staged. This does not mean copy the schedules of the successful, it means take a look at the tournament start times, the games played, the anti structures and adjust your buy in levels to suit your venue. Also look as to when these Casinos first started advertising their tournaments and published their full schedule as you cannot leave this until the last minute and expect the players to come.
If you, the players think your Casino is not doing enough in the promotion of their events then please let me know as ultimately we want large numbers for our main tournaments as this produces the prize pools we are all after.
Anyway onto the results of the final events of the year and I will start with Luton, the Casino I first started playing at.
The Christmas Cracker Festival at the Grosvenor Casino Luton suffered in its numbers this year as it directly clashed with the Helsinki Freezout in Finland. The Freezout also contains the newly established European Poker Awards, so many top players chose this destination over Luton.
The £200 Pot Limit 7- Card Stud had 63 entries and was won by M Basile who picked up £7970. In 6th place was Chandra Khajuria who won the European Stud Rankings and a seat in the Main Event at the Australian Championships in January courtesy of Crown Casino.
Popular Irishman Mike Magee won the £200 Pot Limit Hold'em and £7,340. Luton is Mike's favorite festival as he doesn't like travelling very much. He won the Seven Card Stud in 2001 £8,000 and the Pot Limit Omaha £9,010 earlier in the year.
P. Vicary won the second £200 Pot Limit 7- Card event of the week from a really disappointing field of 36. He picked up £5,200 compared to the winner the year before who picked up nearly double.
Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott won the £250 Pot Limit Holdem and £10,500, which was an overdue success for him. Dave has been a bit quiet of late but it was only a matter of time as predicted in my November Newsletter.
The Main Event saw 52 people contest the £500 No Limit Hold'em and despite a good showing from the Hendon Mob the title went to Charlie Kleanthoes a local Luton player who scooped £14,050. Knowing Charlie his share of this was probably the 50 quid.
I think that Luton has really lost the plot a bit with this Christmas event and has not adapted very much since they first started major tournaments so successfully a few years ago. The events seem to expensive with the cheapest being £220 which must lose most of the local players. There were no satellites for the main event, and there were 2 overpriced 7-card stud tournaments. Stud is popular at Luton but it is the regulars that like it but not for £200 a go. Also the most popular game No Limit Hold'em was just the main event. Why not include a £100 No Limit Hold'em event?
The Grosvenor Grand Challenge starts the 2003 season and I have noticed that Luton have indeed included a second No Limit Hold'em event but it is still £200 to enter.
The Rendezvous at Brighton staged its second festival in as many months with their Christmas Cracker. Seems a popular name for festivals.
M Clark had a good week winning the main event the £100 No Limit Holdem and he was also 2nd the day before in the £50 Pot Limit Hold'em, picking up prize money of £3000 and £800.
Other winners included Charalambos Xanthos, C. Shaw, R. Ainsworth and
B. Cockrill. The full results are on the website. The Rendezvous kicks off 2003 with another festival, the aptly named January Sales.
Napoleons Casino Owlerton held their first Poker Festival and the event exceeded all expectations according to the management. They are going to be trying bigger and more ambitious competitions in the future and the Casinos performance was closely watched by other venues in the group. This can only be good news for players as Stanley's chain of Casinos are going the other way and shutting their card rooms. Napoleons general results administration lacks in certain ways as they were very reluctant to give out the tournament results or schedules to PokerPages. Napoleons Hull are now hoping to stage a large competition next year with a four day festival and I am currently trying to get details of this. The main event the £200 Pot Limit Hold'em was won by Man Ip and the other results can be found on the website.
As many of you are aware the heats for Poker Million the Masters took place in London and the winners were...
Oh don't you know I can't tell you as the programmes are being shown on TV next year. The 6 finalists play off in the final in March. Ram Vaswani is the co favourite at 14/1 along with Devil Fish, Peter Costa and Simon 'Aces' Trumper according to odds makers Ladbrokes.
Finally Merry Christmas to everyone and a prosperous new year on the poker circuit.
You can e-mail me with any thoughts, views, or general information at kevin@pokerpages.com
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Poker Down Under
Reported by David Parlor
Another year has nearly passed and Christmas is upon us. In the southern reaches of the world temperatures are rising, beaches are filling and most are enjoying the wonderful outdoor lifestyle that Australia has to offer. Some of course are focused only on one thing, The Australasian Poker Championships in January. While the temperature soars outside, dedicated Poker players are sharpening their skills to battle against the overseas invaders arriving soon.
Time is running out for those that are planning to be a part of the biggest Poker event to be held in Australia. Tournament Director, Danny McDonagh, is finalising bookings at the luxurious Crown Towers and will need to know your arrival and departure dates, KING or TWIN beds, smoking or non-smoking together with a credit card number and expiry date to be processed by the 25th. All bookings received prior to December 25th are guaranteed with an IN date from Dec 29th up to an OUT date of Jan 18th.
For a multitude of details about the Poker Championship (structures, prizepool break ups, official entry form etc), the Crown Casino Entertainment Complex, the special poker room rate, Melbourne Australia and much more, please
click here.
The 16-table poker room has been expanded to accommodate the increase in player numbers and features a fantastic stadium table for finals of tournaments. With over 60 paid entries in the main event, another 54 overseas players confirmed as coming and an expected 20 or more Australian players that are yet to pay their entry, this tournament will be huge. To view a profile of each of the paid entries click here.
The Poker Operations Manager John Parker and all the Crown Poker Staff are looking forward to welcoming you all in January 2003 for what will be the best poker action ever seen in the Southern Hemisphere.
Wishing you all the very best for a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
For any other questions about Poker in Australia please email me.
-David Parlor
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PokerDollars
Play for free on our PokerPages software and win a chance to join PokerSchool Online! Just download the PokerPages software here!
If you have registered and downloaded our software and play in the fun play cardroom of PokerPages you can Win Poker Dollars. The Top 3 players on the ranking system at the end of the month win, 3 months, 2 months and 1 month respectively in PokerSchool Online. You must play in at least 20 freeroll tournaments during this month in order to win. To see our winners so far, click here!
If you are an existing school member you can still play in the Fun Play cardroom and win Poker Dollars towards your existing school membership.
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Signing Off
We hope you enjoyed our twice-monthly newsletter. If you would like to contribute to this newsletter or have any suggestions, please email tina@pokerpages.com. So until next time, be lucky!
Sincerely,
The PokerPages Staff.
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