Inside Straight -- News

European Poker Tour Gets Second Female Winner

When the 667 players at the €5,000 buy in PokerStars.com European Poker Tour German Open were distilled down to a final table of eight, there was quite a game in store with several unsurprising names and one very surprising one — last year’s champion, Mike “Timex” McDonald.

The final table payouts up to heads up play were:

Marc Gork eliminated in third place (€307,000)
Johan Storakers eliminated in fourth place (€237,000)
Michael McDonald eliminated in fifth place (€197,000)
William Thorson eliminated in seventh place (€116,500)
Cengizcan Ulusu eliminated in eighth place (€83,500)

After about an hour of heads up play, which saw some significant swings, the ultimate hand came with Sandra Naujoks and Holger Kanisch all in holding A 9 versus A Q.

The board fell A 7 2 and Naujoks was behind, but the tournament was meant to be for her as the 9 fell on the turn, and the 8 on the river.

She became the second woman to win an EPT, and, just like Vicky Coren before her, in her home country. She took home €917,000 for first place, while Holger Kanisch was the runner up for €533,000.

Elsewhere 2008 World Series of Poker main event champion Peter Eastgate and runner up Ivan Demidov have signed to Team PokerStars Pro.

Commenting on the signing, fellow Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu said, “I’ve played against Ivan at the WSOPE and also watched them both closely throughout the WSOP final table — both players represent the young new rising poker talent emerging in Europe and they’re a great addition to the team.”

Irish Open Title Goes to Sweden

The €3,500 buy PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Open 2009 attracted a robust 700 players, up from the 668 who participated last year. This created a prize pool of over €2.2 million. When the dust settled and the final table was set it looked like this:

The eliminations came thick and fast before head’s up play commenced.

Andrew Pantling eliminated third (€205,200)
Antanas Gueorguiev eliminated fourth (€163,300)
Lee Brooke-Pearce eliminated fifth (€130,600)
William Kassouf eliminated sixth (€100,800)
Bradley Verburg eliminated seventh (€74,600)
Andy Bradshaw eliminated eighth (€56,000)
At the beginning of heads up play the chip counts were:
Kara Scott: 3.7 million
Christer Johansson: 3.3 million

Then in hand 13 it was all over. Scott raised to 140,000 and Johansson called.

The flop was K J 7.

Scott bet 175,000, Johansson then pushed a stack forward and raised to 575,000 total. Scott moved all-in for 2.5 million. It was another 1.9 million for Johansson to call and he did.

Scott: J-9
Johansson: K-3
Turn: Q, River: A

The popular Kara Scott was eliminated in second place and Christer Johansson won the Paddy Power Poker Irish Open 2009. Check out the Irish Open feature in this issue.

Andrew Feldman Joins Full Tilt as Red Pro

FullTiltPoker.com has taken on another young livewire, Andrew Feldman, as the latest addition to its team. The 21-year-old Brit is the youngest player to join Team Full Tilt as a ‘red pro’.

Feldman, who is primarily an online cash game player, won the UK Open IV in 2007 for $200,000, and became the biggest cash winner on the most recent series of The Poker Den.

Nick Ferro of CheckRaiseManagement.com, which represents Feldman said, “Andrew is a phenomenal natural talent and it’s not surprising that he has signed with the best in the business. He’s still only young so expect much more from him as he develops over the coming years. The prospects are, quite frankly, frightening.”

Curzon Cruises to Betfred Ladies Poker Tour Win

Emily Curzon, a 25-year-old from Kent won the first leg of the Betfred Ladies Poker Tour in April. She beat 84 opponents at the Alea Casino, Leeds, England to claim the £3,000 and a seat in the Grand Final in November.

Betfred juiced the prize pool to the tune of £1,500 before Curzon got heads up with Angela Evis at the final table. Curzon pushed all in after Evis raised with 9-9. Evis called, showed her pocket pair and Curzon turned over Jh-8h. The flop came down 10-5-3 and two hearts but a jack on the turn sealed the deal for Curzon.

This year sees eight stops on the Betfred Ladies Poker Tour taking in the UK and Spain between April and November with Betfred adding £1,500 to each £110 buy in event and the winner of each stop qualify for the grand final on November 21.

Online satellite qualification is underway from as little as $2 at Betfred Poker with a weekly $16.50 final every Thursday.

The next stop on the tour is The Opera House, Scarborough, England on May 9, 2009.

More details can be found at Betfredlpt.com and players can sign up at Betfred.com/Poker to qualify or buy in directly to the tournament on the day.

Smooth Silke Wins in London

Martin Silke, a 30-year-old from Castlebar, Ireland, has won the £1,500 buy-in Grosvenor UK Poker Tour London main event, beating 397 other players to take home the £172,850 top prize.

Silke faced a formidable final table. Veteran Dave Colclough was first out, followed by Simon Eastwood, Andreas Hagen, Chaz Chattha, Cuong Than, Jamie Brown, and Sam Oatley to leave Silke and Luke Trotman to duel for the title, the Champion of Champions ticket, and the top prize.

The heads up game lasted 90 minutes with Silke’s A-K ultimately remaining well ahead of Trotman’s A-4 on a board of A-9-7-J when all the money went in. Trotman had to be content with the £103,000 second spot.

GUKPT London featured eight side events including the £2,500 buy in London Heads Up Championship which saw Tom Bentham top the field of 16 runners over Richard Gryko to lift the £20,000 first prize.

PKR.com Introduces Omaha High-Low

Innovative online poker site, PKR.com has released a new software upgrade with a wide variety of new games and features on offer.

New games include Omaha high-low and mini roulette, and the upgrade also means there are additional features such as break skips, and a timebank, for players needing more time to make their move — the more hands dealt the more time added in cash games, and a fixed amount of time is allotted to players in tournaments.

The PKR shop has a host of new items in stock such as electronics, poker books, accessories, and subscriptions to PKR.com’s partner training site Bluefire Poker, which is hosted by high stakes guru Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond.

Marketing Director Simon Prodger said, “Our community is highly valued and as we grow we like to make sure we provide our players with exactly what they need. Many of the features in our updates are in response to popular demand and we are constantly working on improvements for the future.”

Asian Poker Tour Extended as Dane Injured in Thai Accident

The Asian Poker Tour has extended its run in Macau this year to 12 days. The event will be held at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel and Casino from August 12 to 23, 2009.

The $4,300 main event at the festival has been extended from August 19 to 23 and will feature a televised final table. The festival will also see a plethora of side events which the organisers say will not have been seen in Asia before.
Last year the main event in Macau was won by Yevgeniy Timoshenko who took down $500,000.

Elsewhere in Asia, double World Series of Poker bracelet winner Jesper Hougaard from Denmark sustained a broken shoulder in a road traffic accident while on holiday in Phuket, Thailand.

According to his brother Lars, he was involved in a motorcycle accident in March and was not wearing a helmet. “Under the circumstances very lucky that he didn’t get a fractured skull,” said his sibling.

Hougaard was the first player to win both WSOP and WSOP Europe bracelets.
Every year, around 13,000 people are killed in road accidents in Thailand and many hundreds of thousands are injured or crippled for life.

German, 18, Wins Latin American Poker Tour Final

PokerStars online qualifier Dominik Nitsche takes down $381,000 in Mar del Plata.

Eighteen-year-old Dominik Nitsche from Miden in Germany has won the PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final in Mar del Plata, Argentina topping the field of 291 players in the $5,000 + $200 event to collect $381,030.

It took just four hours to get to heads up play with Nitsche holding a 2:1 lead over Jorge Landazuri who won his ticket in a freeroll on PokerStars.net. The final hand saw the young German hit a set of kings on the river and his opponent bluffed off all his chips trying to push Nitsche off the hand.

The final table payouts were:

LAPT president Glenn Cademartori said of this year’s tour, “We are extremely proud of the quality of all of our LAPT events. This has been the largest poker tour in the history of Latin America with three tournaments producing prize pools of at least $1 million USD. The Mar del Plata grand final shattered the previous prize pool record with over USD $1.4 million up for grabs. It’s a fantastic way to finish an incredible season.”

Ladbrokes Announces Irish Poker Festival

The 2009 Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival returns to the INEC, Killarney, Ireland from October 2-4.

The festival will see two side events alongside the €250,000 guaranteed main event which begins on October 2. There will also be a super satellite to the main event the day before kick-off for any last minute hopefuls wishing to take part.

Last year, the main event saw 832 entrants, which created a prize pool of €400,000 including a first place prize of €100,000. This made it the largest ever European ranking event in terms of participation.

Head of events and promotions at the site, Nigel Blower said, “We’ve created a tournament that offers players a €5,000 structure for a €500 buy-in, allowing all players irrespective of bankroll to show their deep stack skills.”

Players can qualify online at Ladbrokespoker.com via satellites starting from as little as €5. The €950 packages up for grabs at the site include the €550 + €50 main event buy in plus three night’s accommodation at the Gleneagle Hotel.
Elsewhere, the company has announced it is extending the richest cash game race rake ever held with an additional four months added to the schedule, with each month seeing the company give away $1 million. The top 3,000 rakers each month between April and August 2009 will share in $1 million per month with the top raker earning $20,000.

According to Ladbrokes, Sweden has been the most successful nation in the monthly $1 million rake races which have been running since January. They are followed closely by the Danes, while Britons have the most individual cashes.

Blower commented, “This is a brilliant promotion for our players and has been received positively. Competition has been furious, after all, this has it all — one-upmanship, plus massive online payouts. Other sites have tried to copy but Ladbrokes Poker is the original, the biggest, the best, and also the most transparent.”

Boylepoker Brings it Home

The Boylepoker.com Poker for the Homeless March Madness festival took place at the end of March raising €10,000 for Dublin Simon, which, added to the money raised over the past three years for Irish homeless charities, brings the total raised so far to more than €150,000.

Celebrities also did their bit, with former Miss World Rosanna Davison, legendary footballer, broadcaster, and journalist Eamon Dunphy, and snooker champ Ken Doherty launching the festival.

Elsewhere Peter Murphy, sponsored pro at the site, completed his Multiplier Challenge where he was tasked with turning $100 into $10,000 in just 11 weeks. Murphy finished the challenge in just nine weeks and along the way inspired a copy cat challenger Adrian McCarthy who went a step better and turned his $100 into $135,000 in just 10 days.