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Poker In America
Tim Kopp
"Aaaflac!!"
Hello again everybody and welcome once again to Poker in America. What another huge month it's been for poker! The buzz of the 2004 World
Series of Poker has simmered down a bit now and all the money is getting back into circulation in the local card rooms around the country.
Not to mention, a whole new generation of bad beat stories have been written. To me, the World Series of Poker is the gauge that measures
the success that poker has had in the past year. This year has shown us that Poker is becoming one of the world's most popular pastimes.
The turnout for this year's Big One surpassed even some of the most liberal estimates as they were literally circling the building to get
a seat. As ESPN and the World Poker Tour bring high stakes poker to our living rooms every week, poker's popularity is sometimes showing
up in the oddest places. Why just last week as I was moving house a neighbor (a very sweet old lady) saw me moving my Poker Table onto the
truck. Before I know it, I'm talking flops and poker stories with a lady who I've said maybe 20 words to in the 9 months I lived there.
With all of poker's recent fattens, surprisingly, I've actually heard some people who have started to complain that poker's getting too
popular for it's own good. People have argued that there's to many amateurs in the mix now, that it's next to impossible to win a major
event, or that it's too hard to have winning sessions on a regular basis. I've heard some good players take this stance. All I have to say
to that nonsense is, "you've got to be out of your mind". I remember a time not to long ago when people were crying about not
having enough dead money in events to make the entry fee worth it! So, adjust your games ladies and gentlemen, because there's more money
in poker's preverbal pocket than ever before, and you're not going to want to miss out.
So why the long-winded intro you ask, well I'll tell you. They don't call it the June Swoon for nothing. June is typically one of the slower
months on the Tournament Trail; assumedly because most of the last 5 weeks have been spent in Vegas packed like sardines in a can trying
to get a gold bracelet and a mountain of cash. That's not to say that there's not currently some great events running, but many player,
are looking for a break after the WSOP, and Tournament Directors know this. One casino that year after year, picks up where Binion's leaves
off is The Commerce Casino and their annual California State
Poker Championship (CSPC) tournament.
The Commerce Casino, host to many of the west coast's most highly anticipated events, hosts the CSPC again this year. 20 events wrapped
up with a $10,000 buy in No Limit Hold'em main event. The CSPC is a great tournament for those who want to try out some events with bigger
buy-ins as the buy-ins ranged from $300 to $500 on average, and topped out at the $1,000 level ($10 K event excluded). Max Shapiro was in
attendance, as always, providing his top-notch daily reports from the poker floor. Let's take a look at how this event shaped up.
Play started off with Event #1 No Limit Hold'em. For the $300 buy-in 567 players took their seats. Heading into the final table (or the
modern day equivalent, the final 6 players), Terry Liu had almost 70% of all the chips left in play and looked like he was going to coast
into 1st place. However, Miami
John Cernuto, after being skunked in the WSOP needed to secure a victory and won several key hands late to take the $57,835 first place
prize. Terry Lui settled for 3rd.
For Event #2 we had Limit Hold'em and another $300 buy in. Another impressive 470 players started at the beginning of play. Miami John
was at it again, vying for back-to-back victories but fell quite short and finished 8th. Of the remaining 7 players, all amateurs, George
Shahrezay took the lead and never looked back. The California Realtor raked in $61,420 for his 2nd ever Tournament win.
The Following day we had Event #3 Lowball. The Lowball event typically draws smaller crowds and this $300 buy-in event only drew 110. Leave
it to Larry Clements, a regular mid-limit lowball player at the Commerce to bring in the pots when it counts. Larry played heads up with
one of his normal ring game opponents, Marlin Huff before taking first place and $12,865.
Next up the game du Jour was Event #4 Omaha Hi/Lo. As a sign of Omaha's increasing popularity, 207 players took their seats at the start
of play. Phil Penn seemingly never got himself into trouble, never giving up the chip lead during the final 2 tables. For his wise chip
management Phil collected $22,735 prize for first place.
Moving along we had Event #5 Limit Hold'em, the 2nd Limit Hold'em event and the first of the $500 buy-in games. 255 players bought in and
created a hefty $127,500 to be split amongst the final 27 players. In a strange turn of events the final 5 players decided to chop the remaining
prize pool according to chip count and switch the game to No Limit to play for the Trophy. Can Hua, the chip leader had 2nd thoughts however
as he saw the trophy. He decided that there would be no deal unless he could have the Trophy. After much debate, the remaining players agreed
and the match was over. Can
Hua would take first place, $47,175, and his nice new trophy.
The following day it was Event #6 7-Card Stud Hi/Lo, again for $500. Top Vegas professional David
Levi was in attendance and with the help of some timely catches made quick work of the 118 other players to take home just a hair under
$25k. Levi, who's cash game of choice is 7-Stud also won last year's $300 CSPC 7-Stud Tourney.
Onwards to Event #7 and some more No Limit Hold'em, this time the stakes were increased with a $500 buy in. A few more players in this
event and California Pro, David
Pham, was looking to take a $100,000 1st place prize. Alas, it's a rough world and David had to settle for a meager $83,405. Good times…
Next it was Event #8 7-Card Stud and the last of the $500 buy-in events. Charlie
Shoten has won his fair share of events. 9th last year in the player of the year rankings, Charlie has shown that he can win at just
about any game you put in front of him. Of the 95 players in this event Charlie was the last one standing yet again and picked up $19,000
to add to his already hefty tournament winnings.
Ever forward we come to Event #9 and No limit Hold'em. Buy-ins were elevated to $1,000 and event 9 came with a $200,000 Guaranteed prize
pool. Hitting the guarantee wasn't a problem as 350 players set their sites on the $129,500 1st place prize. At the end of day 2 Tony
Tolentino from Norwalk, CA was in the winner's circle counting all the dead presidents and holding the trophy above his head in triumph.
The following day one of my favorite personalities on the circuit took the spoils. "Prince of Docness" was the last man standing
at the end of Event #10 Omaha Hi/Lo. In the 3 years that I've covered the USA tournaments, I've seen the "Prince's" name pop up
many times in both the Vegas and California tournaments. Little is known about this player who is a familiar face on the circuit. As Max
Shapiro reports "despite his successes, he remains something of a mystery man in the poker world. Rumored to have once been in the
medical field, he now says he's a "flopology surgeon." Whatever he is, there's no doubt he can play poker." The mysterious
one took $27,600 for the win.
Skipping ahead to Event #14 Pot Limit Hold'em. This event featured elevated buy-ins ($1,500) as well as multiple rebuys, so it figured
to be a barnburner. Surprisingly, only 33 players entered the event, and even more surprising is there were only 14 rebuys. I wish I would
have know it was going to be that tame and I might have splurged and made a day trip out for the event. For Kevin
Song though, the payoff was still just as sweet as he took 1st and $31,725.
The next day we had Event #15 No Limit Hold'em, again for a buy-in of $1,500. Possibly as a silent protest against the popularity of rebuy
tournaments, numbers where way up in this event compared to the day before. 187 players jacked the total prize pool up to $280,500. Tony
"The Mailman" Tolintino collected the checks and took 1st place and $106,590.
Along to Event #19 No Limit Hold'em. Event #19 featured the largest of the buy-ins of the entire event, 2nd only to the $10K final event.
David Levi, winning
his 2nd match of the event collected a hair under $100,000 beating out a field of 105 to victory. Not only was this David's 2nd first place
finish, it was also his 3rd final table in a row in as many days. Looks like David is making a run at the 2004 player of the year, we'll
have to keep track of his progress.
It was now time for the $10,000 buy in main event, and a seat in the WPT finals at the Bellagio. With the WSOP just finishing up, surprisingly
only 90 players took their seat. With a total prize pool only slightly less that $1 million, Hollywood heart throb, Ben
Affleck showed why he spends so much time in Vegas and beat out some very good players to take the win. WPT Executives couldn't be happier
as Ratings for the final probably tripled when Affleck took the final pot. Along with the $25K seat in the final, Ben also won $356,400,
recouping about 1/5th of the price of the Wedding Ring he bought for ex-wife, J-Lo… Obviously, Poker was the better investment for
Ben.
PokerPages would like to thank Max Shapiro for his daily reports as well as the Cardroom staff of the Commerce for putting together another
great post-WSOP tournament.
In case you blinked, here are some of the other events you may have missed in June:
Spring Pot of Gold Tournament - Reno Hilton, June 3
to 13
Battle of the Bay - Lucky Chances Casino, June 6 to
13
Northwest Poker Challenge - Spirit Mountain Casino,
June 15 to 19
Hope to see you back next month,
Tim Kopp
PokerPages Cardroom
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Poker In Europe
Kevin Pratt
There have been a number of events in Europe since our last newsletter namely the 4th Annual World Heads Up Championship, The Austrian
Masters and the 13th Annual Torneo di Poker so things have been quite busy with some big prizepools.
The 4th Annual World Heads Up Championship - Barcelona Spain.
128 players paid €2,000 each for the right to do battle and be called the World Heads Up Poker Champion. The 3 previous winners Miami
John Cernuto, Kiril
Gerasimov and Bruno Fittousi all entered along with many of Europe's best players. Miami John put up a fine defence as the reigning
champion eventually going out in the quarter finals. The semi finals saw the favorite Dave
"Devilfish" Ulliott lose out in a 5 hour battle to Mark
Banin in a match that swung backwards and forwards. The other Semi final was an all Spanish affair with former WSOP champion Carlos
Mortenson losing out to hometown player Angelo Blanco Puras.
The final lasted under an hour with the last hand being a coin flip of 66 vs AJ. Angel sent the crowd home happy as his all in call with
a pair of sixes held up for the title and €100,000.
So this was Angel's first ever tournament win in Europe and maybe some were asking if this guy got lucky or could really play poker. The
answer was to be found in the very next event the €1,000 No Limit Hold'em Freezout. 88 of Europe's best paid to enter and it was Angelo
who emerged the winner adding another €33,500 to his €100,000 win the day before. Maybe we have a new European star in the making?
Other event winners in Barcelona were:
Steve Vladar who pocketed €20,000 in winning the opening €500 No Limit Hold'em.
Rob Hollink who
picked up €23,000 in winning the €250 Pot Limit Omaha. No surprise here for the best Omaha player in Europe. Ed
de Haas who won a major event at the World Poker Open earlier in the year made it an Omaha 1-2 for Holland.
Top USA player and previous World Poker Tour winner Paul
Phillips won the €500 No Limit Hold'em taking home €27,000 and Rumit Somaiyi edged out Dave
Ulliott in the final event, €200 No Limit Hold'em.
The Austrian Masters - Concord Card Casino Austria.
The main event at the Austrian Masters was the €1,000 No Limit Hold'em which saw 102 players enter. Donald
Carlton from USA who was an online qualifier made the breakthrough in live play winning €24,220. Ever present in all the major
tournaments Peter Karall
from Austria won the €500 No Limit Hold'em and €13,730. Karl
Triegler from Austria picked up the biggest prize of the week of €25,920 in winning the €200 Pot Limit Hold'em. Other winners
included, Wolfgang
Wessin in the €400 Limit Stud, Gordon Mackett €100 Omaha (Gordon won the best all round player and €3,500) and Zlatko
Poschl €80 Limit Hold'em.
The 13th Annual Torneo di Poker - Hit Casino Slovenia.
This is an event that I have attended in the past and is a great place to go. Cash game action is good and the tournaments and cardroom
are well run in a good hotel.
The €1,000 Main event was won by Mike
McCluskey from Ireland picking up €12,220 in a tournament that had a low 36 entries. Mike has already been a winner on the European
tour earlier this year if you remember at the Concord Card Casino in March. Serge
Kammerer from France won the €300 No Limit Hold'em. Serge has been in terrific form over the last year landing a number of European
events mainly at the Aviation. Antonio Grimaldi from Italy won the €500 Pot Limit Omaha, Silvester Dozzo from Italy won the €300
Limit Stud and Siegfried Rath won the €250 Pot limit Omaha.
Coming Up
At the time of writing the World Poker Championship
is starting at the Merrion Club in Ireland. This is an interesting choice of name for a tournament but briefly its a Pot Limit Hold'em tournament
being billed by the organisers as the World Championship of Pot Limit Hold'em and costs €6,000 to enter.
If you fancy a Summer Poker Weekend in Kiev Ukraine then try the Casino Mirald where you will be well looked after by tournament director
and old friend of mine Stasko.
Finally don't miss going to the Rendez-vous a Paris
at the Aviation Club France at the start of July if you want to enter Europe's only World Poker Tour Event.
Kevin Pratt
BugsysClub
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Poker in the U.K.
Andrew Lacey
Hello again. I'd like to thank my colleague Gary Male for writing May's newsletter while I was on vacation, where he brought you up to
date on the performance of our players at the Word Series of Poker in Las Vegas. Since then there has been practically no major tournament
action in the UK or Ireland. As a result, a lot of our players took to the skies, most notably to Austria and Spain, to get some games in
there. So I'll be taking a look at how they fared.
First stop was Austria, for the Austrian Masters at
the Concord Card Casino. Our players didn't do too well here, where tough local competition took down most of the money. We did have one
outright victory when Gordon Mackett from the UK won the €100+€20 Pot Limit Omaha event, seeing off 76 other players. Gordon picked
up €9,348 for his win.
So next stop was Barcelona, where the highlight was the 4th
Annual World Heads-Up Poker Championship at the Casino de Barcelona. First event was a €500+€35 No Limit Hold' Em tournament.
108 entrants created a prize pool of €54,000. Steve Vladar from England won this event and a tidy €20,000. Ross Boatman made the
final table too and eventually came 4th, good for €4,000.
Barny Boatman
made the final table in the €250+€25 Pot Limit Omaha event. Barny finished 6th and that paid out €3,000.
In the main attraction itself, the Heads-Up Championship, Spaniard Angel Blanco Puras fought off Mark
Banin of England to win the title. First place paid €100,000 and Mark won €50,000 in second place. Semi-finalist Dave
Ulliott won €20,000. At the time of writing we're still awaiting the results of the €1,000+€50 and €200+€20
buy-in No Limit Hold' Em events, so be sure to check back shortly at the website for those.
Upcoming Events
Looking ahead to later this month and July, the eagerly awaited European
Championship at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino kicks off on June 28th. With buy-ins ranging from £200+£20 up to £2000+£30
for the 2 day main championship No Limit Hold' Em event on July 3rd, the Vic is sure to attract large numbers. There will also be £120+£12
Super-Satellites for the £2,000+£30 event starting at 3:00pm on July 3rd. So if you don't feel like splashing out over £2,000
to buy-in directly, they may be a good investment.
Starting July 19th and running until July 25th inclusive, the Rendezvous Casino in Brighton hosts the Summer
Breeze Festival. Some of these events are very affordable at just £50+£5. The main event in Brighton will be the £500+£25
buy-in No Limit Hold' Em tournament.
At the end of July back in my native Ireland, in beautiful Cork City, the Macau Sporting Club will hold the Irish
Classic. It will run from July 30th to August 2nd inclusive. The main event in Cork will be a €500+€30 No Limit Hold' Em tournament.
As one of the newer cardrooms on the scene we wish the Macau Sporting Club every success in attracting large fields for the Classic.
As always, we will be bringing you all the results here at PokerPages. Good luck to you all if you're playing in any of the events.
Until next time, take care…
Andrew Lacey
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Great community in the cardroom and in the forum, and you can also get to meet all your online friends at the annual PSO Convention in January.
PokerSchoolOnline LIVE TOUR 2004 started in January and you could be sponsored into the $25,000 WPT event at the Bellagio. See website
for details or Join now.
Mattias Andersson,
(pokermats) a PokerSchoolOnline member placed 8th in the World Series of Poker 2004 $10K Championship event. He won $575,000! It could be
YOU next year!!!!!
Meet Daniel Rentzer, the PokerSchoolOnline
member that placed 2nd in the LA Poker Classic $10K WPT event. He won over $200,000 after nearly defeating Gus Hansen.
There is a brand new skill based ring game league where you can win sponsorship points to live events and 1 on 1 ring game lessons with
Barry Tanenbaum starting in July. Want to prove you are good or just want to test the water without going broke? Join the PokerSchoolonline
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Poker Down Under
David Parlor
The Australian Poker Association (APA) South Australian Branch have just concluded their Championship in Adelaide. Since Adelaide casino
closed its Poker room a couple of years ago this group of passionate Poker players have continued to try and grow Poker through their private
club. This Championship was the biggest that the Adelaide players had planed and hoped to attract many interstate players to add to their
local player base.
The first night of the Championship attracted 59 players for a freeroll onto the Main Event. This was appreciated by all who attended and
mostly by the seven players that now had a chance in the $550 NL Holdem tournament. Numbers in other events were a little down on expectations
however after all of the positive comments received since its conclusion I am sure that next year will be bigger and better. This years
Championship generated over $50 000 in prize money as well as an all expenses paid trip to Moscow donated by John Kobec.
The next event on the Aussie calendar is The Crown Victorian
Poker Championship. With tournaments ranging from $125 to $1100 many players are likely to be attracted to this week of great Poker
fun.
There are many offers available to players including discounted accommodation at Crown
Towers & Crown Promenade Hotels as well as entries into freerolls
for players that enter any three cash tournaments as well as one satellite for the 2005 main event.
In the recent Melbourne Hold'em Championships, several New Zealand players made the journey to Melbourne and are likely to return again
in August. With great accommodation and flight deals available at present I would expect even more to attend the Vic Champs in August. Flights
are currently available with Pacific Blue at a very low NZ$129 and can be booked online at www.virginblue.com.au. Some very good interstate
deals are also available at the moment although I would advise to book early as I have discovered that they do not last for long.
For those that can't wait until August for a tournament fix, weekly events continue at Crown Casino on Thursday, Saturday (Sit n' Go),
and Sundays. Casino Canberra have also realised the value of Poker tournaments
and run one every second Thursday. Having just returned from there I was informed that this regularly fills three tables with some good
live action following.
If you have any other questions about Poker in Australia, please email me.
David Parlor
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