November 26nd, 2004 Vol. 4 Issue 11

Tournament Spotlight Midland Masters St Maarten Open The Trump Classic Ho Ho Hold'em PokerPages (The #1 Poker information site on the Internet) What's on PokerPages Some of the feature articles on PokerPages in November included: The 2005 PokerPages Poker Players Calendar The PPT and Mike Sexton's Level Playing Field Shenanigans Casino Chips PokerPages are looking for more customer support staff from Europe. Please send your c.v to Tina@PokerPages.com WSOP Section World Poker Tour Section PSO Live Tour Section WSOP videos WSOP articles WSOP results Hall of Fame Winners photos Full Details Season 1 and 2 results Winners photo galleries TV Schedule WPT Champion for 2004 WPT Player of the Year Full Details PokerSchoolOnline goes Live Win a $25,000 sponsorship PSO Member wins $575,000 Full Details New Players Section New Online Poker Section New Poker Directory New players section Worlds top players Top Europeans Profiles Interviews Seniors Full Details Search games Major sites info Promotions Celebrities Charts News Full Details Cardroom search Casino reviews Staff profiles Staff interviews Tournament galleries Full Details Advertise your Cardroom, Promotions and Events The Gaming Club Poker Room-More Players, More Action! See who won $600,000 at the Monte Carlo Millions. YOU could be next! Click Here Check n Raise Poker.com offers players a better game.Innovative. Responsive. Reliable. The Best in Online Poker. Click here Win a $12,000 Package to the WSOP via Bugsys Shootout and the WPT/European Getaway at BugsysClub.com along with 4 World Series of Poker Seats in The Spring WSOP Warm Up. PokerPages.com is the # 1 Poker Information site on the Internet - with over 5 million page views a month and 30,000 unique visitors a day - it is important to inform the 60,000 + PokerPages Players in a once a month Newsletter. To advertise in this newsletter please contact advert@pokerpages.com or view this page http://www.pokerpages.com/contact-us.htm Dvd Review: World Series of Poker 2003 Marco van Greevenbroek Me, being a real amateur that sometimes tries his luck online, watched this dvd and watched it like the day Rambo's First Blood came out. The excitement and action that comes from those tables, knocked out any other action hero you can imagine. Like I said, the action, the war between players, the tension, the humor and off course that Final Table where " Moneymaker" wins 2.5 million dollars. And they aren't even actors (lol), a great item to have. The DVD set contains all of ESPN Original Entertainment's telecast of the 2003 World Series of Poker, without commercial interruption, presented in fullscreen digital video. Chapter points set at the key rounds allow you to jump directly to the action. With this DVD, you are in control of every frame of video as they captures the emotion, strategy and luck in route to crowing the champion of the World Series of Poker. To order a copy Poker In America Sharla Lehrmann As the year is beginning to wind down, poker tournaments everywhere are beginning to wind up. Thanksgiving is upon us and the sights and sounds of Christmas abound. I am sitting in short sleeves and enjoying the beautiful Texas weather (although it has certainly appeared to be the monsoon season in Austin). The World Poker Finals at Foxwoods started the ball rolling for the busy month of October. Culminating in an out of this world win on November 17, 26 year old Tuan Le pulled down an amazing $1,549,588 and a $25,000 WPT Championship Seat. Fighting off 674 of the best, Tuan managed to set himself up for a lifetime of professional play. After eliminating the remarkable David Pham, J C Tran and Bradley Berman, Tuan was set for battle against Temp Hutter of Charlottesville, VA. With nearly the same chip count, it was time for combat with Tuan determined to be the king of the hill. Although Temp gave it a winner's effort, he had to take away second for a lowly amount of only $973,256. If only I could find the skill, perseverance and luck to slide into second for a bolster to my retirement fund. Congratulations to you both for your fine display of championship play. Check out the report on November 17th. The State of Oregon is beginning to show a tremendous interest and growth in poker. The Wild Horse Casino in Pendleton has gone into the record book with the final event of the 2004 Wildhorse Fall Poker Round-Up. With $230,000 in prize money it broke the record as the highest money single-day poker tournament in the history of the Pacific Northwest. Ryan Larson of Spokane, Washington "strutted his stuff" to take down $66,024 for his $500 buy in. He is a youngster and I am sure we will be hearing his name in the future. Lucky Chances in San Diego put on it's annual "49'er Gold Rush Bonanza" and drew 151 players to the tables. The events lasted from November 6th though the 14th and provided many $300 buy-ins concluding with a $1000 buy-in championship. Peter Tran replaced his $1000 buy-in with hours of wild no limit hold'em and a cool $50,000. Keep this on your calendar for next year, as it should be a beautiful time of year in California and a perfect excuse to get out and try your hand at some good tournament action. Moving on from what was to what will be, the end of the year 2004 provides a bit of fancy for everyone. The west coast Bicycle Casino will have it's Ho Ho Hold'em tournament again this year running from Thanksgiving Day, the 25th of November through December 12th. Guaranteed events include the December 8th No Limit Hold'em $200 + $25 with a $100,000 guarantee and the $300 + $30 No Limit Hold'em $150,000 guaranteed to be held on December 11th. (Both of these tournaments have multi-rebuys!) Also new this year is a special No-Limit Hold'em Toys for Tots event, Free Entry with New Unwrapped Toy ($15 value or higher) (be sure to save your receipt as proof of purchase). To sweeten the pot for this year's POINTS PLAYOFF, the Bike has added an additional $10,000! Earn points by being one of the top 16 players for each event or be in the final 10% of each tournament field! You only need 5 points to play in this $100/$20 No-Limit Hold'em POINTS PLAYOFF tournament on Sunday, December 12th. The Points Champion will win $5,000 in CASH and to celebrate the holidays! The Bike is adding an additional $5000 in cash drawings and a tribute concert featuring Led Zepagain's tribute to Led Zeppelin and Pressure a tribute to Queen from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. to celebrate the final tournament of the year! Don't forget for more information or to register online go to www.thebike.com. *Concert free to tournament players, all others $10 at the door. The Five-Diamond World Poker Classic will take place at the Bellagio starting the 27th of November running until the 17th of December. All the tournaments will begin at noon and there will be multiple events providing a $25,000 seat to the main WPT event in 2005. All events at the Five-Diamond are not for the faint of heart. They range from buy-ins of $1500 to $15,000. Crack that penny jar; you might need reserves for this one. The Five-Diamond does spread all games in this special event extravaganza. If you can, try to sneak into an event by winning a satellite. Stranger things have happened. The Trump Taj Mahal is presenting its Trump Classic on the other side of the country. This one has a plethora of games with reasonable buy-ins for the most players. They run from $300-$500 with some satellites for the main $5000 Championship event running $200. Can't beat that with a stick. If you are going to be in the Atlantic City area between November 29th and December 19th, put your name in the hat. Looks like a blast to me. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and moves into the full holiday season with kindness and goodness in your heart. Treat other drivers the way you would like to be treated, believe in Santa, and love yourself. Sharla Lehrmann PokerPages Cardroom Win Bugsys Bonus Points daily in the PokerPages Freeplay Cardroom and turn them into INSTANT CASH at BugsysClub. BBP ring games are now available along with Razz. Single table Satellites and Supersatellites are now available to qualify for the WSOP. In order to participate in these selected BBP Tournaments you MUST register with BugsysClub, see full details in join event window of any BBP Tournament in PokerPages Lobby...Full Details Poker In UK/Europe Mark Hall Hi again everyone, At the time of last months round up newsletter going to press, The Merrion Club, Ireland, saw the Irish Winter Tournament EPT Event nearing its fruition, with the final 8 out of the starting 163 entries, booking their place in the final and having a shot at the €244,500 prize money. Amongst the chip leaders was Xuyen Pham, and following her recent win in the World Pot Limit Hold'em Championships, and hot in form, she was a strong contender to add another title. With players like Alan Vinson, Ram Vaswani, and Rory Liffey at the table, it was always going to be tough, and it was not to be, as Ram Vaswani, starting the day as second lowest position on chips, rallied and emerged the winner collecting a handsome €93,000. The European Poker Tour has now reached the half way point. The next EPT event is being held at Deauville Casino, France from the 15th - 19th Feburary. See you there. Rendezvous Casino at Brighton, held their Harbour Lights festival, which saw Luton regular Mark Banin win the £500 main event for his first big payday of £16,500. He has won a few small tournaments at Luton previously. Mark is a relatively new to the tournament poker scene, but has learned a lot in that short amount of time, and is quite an analitic player. A win made sweeter with players like the great Willie Tann and recent Walsall Grand Prix winner J. Reid breathing down his neck. Remaining on the south coast of England, Grosvensor Southampton held its Mini Poker Festival at the end of October. The first event, £200 No Limit Hold'em, was won by Dennis Mahoney and picked up £5520. In the main event, £400 No Limit Hold'em Freezeout, a familier face on the european poker scene, Korosh, scooped the first prize of £7600 and the trophy. The annual MasterClassics of Poker in Amsterdam kicked off on the 6th November, and once again turned out to be a massive success. Big fields and big names were on show, with the notible absence of Europe's finest Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, who had planned to attend, but due to an freak happening, was unable to. After competing in the Monte Carlo Millions, the plane on its way to Amsterdam was reported to have been struck by lightning, causing it to abort. The plane landed safely and no one was hurt. The first three Hold'em events were sold out as expected, and the Omaha saw the return to winning ways for Simon "Aces" Trumper. Simon, by his own admission has been in the wilderness of recent times, but he firmly stamped his mark back on the tournament circuit with this impressive and timely victory. And knowing Simon like I do, this would have been even more special for him, in the respect of him being recognised as a No Limit Hold'em player, not an Omaha player. Simon managed to beat 220 players on his way and picked up €69,696. The main event started with 188 entries and reached record breaking figures with €985,000 in the prizepool. The winner Robert Mizrachi, from the United States, pocketing a cool €372,240 and title of the MasterClassics Champion. Other notable performances came in the way of englishman Tristan McDonald, who after a solid performance, just missed out on top spot, having to settle for second place and €186,120. Keith "The Camel" Hawkins finished 7th and won €23,265 Congratulations to the all the finalists. Blackpools Northen Lights Festival also got under way, with what can only be described as the fastest improving cardroom in England at the moment. A well run cardroom, that is well attended and getting more popular by the minute, and this was reflected in the attendence figures, which saw an average of 120 players for every tournament, travelling from all over the British Isles. With roughly £276,050 collectively from the week, The North England Open Champion emerging as Mike "Apachee" Kkola, won the biggest prize money of the week with £24,190 and runner up Dave Penly picking up £12,810 to add to his £20,380 for his £250 Pot Limit victory earlier in the week. So not a bad week for Mr.Penly! The next festival at Blackpools Sandcastle Casino has not been decided yet, but check the new schedules on the home page of PokerPages in the next few weeks for all the latest updates. You will not wont to miss that one. The Royal Scandinaivian Casino in Denmark held their Danish 7 Card Stud Championships, where after 3 tough qualifing heats, the winner, Jan Hansen, and former WSOP Omaha winner, made it third time lucky to win the Stud championships. Winning €24,833, with Uffe Hvirring finishing second for €12,386. The next big event is at Grosvenor Walsall for the Midland Masters Good Luck Mark Hall BugsysClub The Best Poker Games in Town, and where we take care of you personally WPT Getaway Win a $100,000 Player Sponsorship in WPT Getaway WSOP and WPT seats to be won in WPT Getaway WSOP Warm up for 2005. New Winter Warm Up starts September Guaranteed Money for WSOP Round 2's Bugsys Shootout, $7,500 Guaranteed every Sunday 3pm CDT $21,000 CASH PrizePool for BugsysClub Monthly Poker Leagues Daily Supersatellites to main events Full Details European Getaway Win a $25,000 Player Sponsorship for 2005 Getaway to a $5,000 Event of your choice. Thousands of Dollars of Cash Prizes. Best All Round Player Final Guaranteed Tournament Prizepools each day Daily Sit and Go Satellites with Guaranteed Seats. Full Details PokerSchoolOnline For $14.95 per month or $149.95 annually you can get all the poker tuition you need and practice with a realistic play money bankroll. 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. Want to prove you are good or just want to test the water without going broke? Join PokerSchoolOnline and give it a shot. Read a review about PokerSchoolOnline by Amy Calistri PokerSchoolOnline.com the home of future champions is where you can turn $14.95 into big money. Poker Down Under David Parlor Star City Casino in Sydney opened their Poker Room this week after much campaigning from staff and local players. Many of the emails I receive come from players interested in playing in Sydney and have been unable to play at their casino. They are often disappointed when I tell them that their best opportunity to play is to join a private game or travel to Canberra or Melbourne. The opening of this new venue will give many people the opportunity to play in a casino environment on their doorstep and I am sure will be appreciated by the Sydney locals. Many comments have been made from players on various noticeboards regarding this new room and it would be easy for me list the negatives. I hope that players realise what a big step it is for a casino to include Poker in their table game mix, as it does not return anywhere near as much as other options for the limited floorspace. If any players who have visited the new room would like me to include their comments, please send them to me. I would be interested in hearing both the positives and negatives and will include them in the next newsletter when the room has started to establish itself. In Melbourne, the excitement surrounding the Australian Poker Championship continues to grow as satellite entries for the main event reach 100. There is now over one million dollars in the prize pool with many players gaining entry through online events. Accommodation packages are filling fast at both Crown Promenade and Crown Towers Hotel. These venues are offering discounted accommodation for Poker players, click here to view details. Crown Casino will be offering many more opportunities for players to qualify for the Main Event through their regular tournaments and some special events scheduled for December. Every Thursday and Sunday their will be low buy-in satellites as well as a special weekend of Poker Tournaments from December 2nd to 5th. While many Poker players may argue that Three Card Poker, which was recently introduced to Crown Casino, is not Poker, it is proving very popular. Many players are playing this in preference to Caribbean Stud and are asking questions about Hold'em and other poker games offered at Crown. The first few days of operation have shown that many players enjoy this game and some have been lucky enough to hit some big hands paying as much as 35 to 1. Anyone interested in learning this new game is encouraged to visit the Las Vegas Room and join the Learn to Play table. Finally, casino dealers from around Australia will compete for the title of Australian Casino Employee Poker Champion this week in Canberra. This event is always popular among casino staff and I am sure the locals will enjoy the side action as dealers cram months of anticipation into a couple of days of casino play. No doubt many will be trying their luck not only at the Poker tables but with the many other options that they see every day. If you have any questions about Poker in Australia, please email me. David Parlor Guess Who December? Win $50. Guess Who? is a competition introduced on PokerPages for BugsysClub.com where you can win $50 in a Real Money account at BugsysClub. Read More The 2005 PokerPages Poker Players Calendar - A great gift for Christmas! Now you can have some of the top poker players in your bedroom, lounge, kitchen or office. You can spend: January with Chris Ferguson, February with Phil Hellmuth, March/August with Mike Sexton, April with Jennifer Harman, May with Doyle Brunson, June with Annie Duke, July with Mattias Andersson, September with Mel Judah, October with Daniel Negreanu, November with Mark and Tina Napolitano, and December with Barry Greenstein. Order Now! 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.