News, Reviews And Interviews From Around The Poker World

New Structure for Irish Winter Festival
PaddyPowerPoker.com has announced an improved structure for the Irish Winter Festival main event at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin from October 23 to 26, 2009.
The starting stack will be increased to 15,000 from 10,000 and blinds will remain at 60 minutes.

The €500 side event taking place on October 25 will also see a better structure with the starting stack increasing from 7,000 to 10,000 and 45-minute blinds, while the €300 round-of-each game, new to the festival, will have an 8,000 starting stack and 35-minute blinds.

Elsewhere, the company has provisionally announced the IWF Last Chance Saloon and IWF Online Festival, both of which will take place in the two weeks before the event starts.

The Last Chance Saloon promotion has IWF seats on offer, which will allow players to participate in the Sole Survivor promotion — worth €20,000 in sponsorship to the winner — while the Online Festival will mirror the events at the live festival with money-added prize pools and uniquely structured tournaments.

Check PaddyPowerPoker.com for details in the weeks leading up to the Irish Winter Festival.

English Poker Open Title Stays at Home
The English Poker Open ran from Sept. 15-17 at Dusk Till Dawn poker club in Nottingham, England. The £5,000 + £300 main event had two starting days which saw the likes of Doyle Brunson, Annette Obrestad, and recent European Poker Tour winner Marc Goodwin go into battle in a total field of 212 for a slice of the £1 million guaranteed prize pool.

The final table players and their payouts are:
First David La Ronde (£208,367)
Second Micheal Tureniec (£121,815)
Third James Moult (£73,089)
Fourth Julian Leonard (£51,290)
Fifth John Eames (£38,468)
Sixth Simon Pearson (£28,851)
Seventh Martyn Bebb (£22,440)
Eighth Eric Liu (£16,028)
Ninth Thor Drexel (£12,823)

Brit David La Ronde went home £208,367 richer for his first place finish when his A-7 beat Tureniec’s K-10 heads up.

The Poker Show Returns
Leading online radio show, The Poker Show, sponsored by Boylepoker.com, has returned for its second season, after the last series proved extremely popular with guests such as Greg Raymer, Peter Eastgate, Doyle Brunson, Annette Obrestad, J.C. Tran, Marty Smyth, Theo Jorgensen, Dan Harrington, Roland De Wolfe, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Sexton, Phil Laak, and John Duthie.

This time, the show has various guest presenters fronting it each Monday night, with Neil Channing and the ever controversial Luke “_FullFlush1_” Schwartz stepping into the hot seat in the first couple of weeks of its current 12 week run.

Paul Spillane, head of poker at Boylepoker.com, said, “This season will see many new and improved segments and features on The Poker Show. The weekly run now starts with regular guest presenters, there will be more structure making it easier for people to access the sections they want via podcast, and the big names will continue to drop in with exclusives and controversial conversations.

“Last season proved there was a market for the show, this season we plan to prove we are the best in that market, giving listeners the most up-to-the-minute news, views, and interviews from around the poker world.”
Poker fans can tune in to the show each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from 8 to 11 p.m. at Boylepoker.com and download archived podcasts of the major interviews from there also.

London’s Victoria Casino Gets Deep-Stack Events
September sees the London’s Grosvenor Victoria Casino regular tournament schedule get a bit of a sprucing up with some new deep-stack events.

The first is a £200 no-limit hold’em freezeout on Wednesdays at 7.45 p.m. (BST) which will see a starting chip stack of 10,000 plus a 30-minute clock; and the second is a £100 no-limit hold’em freezeout on Thursdays at the same time, with 7,500 starting chips and a 30-minute clock.

The £100 rebuy on Tuesdays will continue as before but this time more players can take part — 80 plus alternates.

Europeans Triumph in Asia
European poker players Dermot Blain from Ireland, Vladimir Geshkenbein of Russia, and Adrien Allain from France had a lot of reasons to be cheerful in Macau, China in August — between them they won the PokerStars.com Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) main event, the high rollers event, and the Asian Poker Tour (APT) main event in the south-east Asian gambling mecca.

The US$5,000 buy-in APPT main event had a first-place prize worth $541,089 from a total prize pool of $2,081,000 created by a field of 429 players.

The final table results and payouts were:
First Dermot Blain $541,089
Second Mike Kim $484,999
Third Daoxing Chen $239,327
Fourth Darkhan Botabayev $166,497
Fifth Pontus Kers $114,464
Sixth Jicheng Su $74,923
Seventh Dbinder Singh $52,033
Eighth Brandon Demes $41,621
Ninth Stefan Hjorthall $31,222

Elsewhere at the APPT festival, the $11,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high rollers event attracted a total of 64 entrants, creating a total prize pool of $701,818. The first-place prize was $266,690, and it was awarded to Vladimir Geshkenbein after two days of play, pipping U.S. legend Johnny Chan heads up. Chan received $154,400 as runner-up.

Adrien Allain found a very unconventional way to win more than HKD$3 million (€273,774) the week before at the APT Macau main event — “I’m overwhelmed; this is so wonderful. I qualified for this tournament through a $5 lottery tournament on PKR and end up beating all these top players. Vive La France,” said Allain after his victory.

The HKD$32,000 (€2,886) no-limit hold’em main event attracted a total of 326 players.

The final table results and payouts (HKD$) were:
First Adrien Allain $3,035,000
Second Inwook Choi $1,660,000
Third J.C. Tran $117,470
Fourth David Steicke $91,378
Fifth Chris Chau $65,279
Sixth Michael Woo $52,223
Seventh Christer Hallbrook $39,167
Eighth Winfred Yu $26,112
Ninth Casey Kastle $16,966

Big Results From Barcelona and Cyprus
When cards got into the air for the final day of the €8,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event of the European Poker Tour Barcelona, Carter Phillips held the chip lead, and Marc Goodwin was second place in chips. A large crowd of Spaniards attended the final table to root on local player Santiago Terrazas, and he didn’t disappoint them. He doubled up a few times to stir the crowd toward passionate cheering and eventually finished in third place. Terrazas was the last of six players who fell during four and a half hours of play that saw a lot of action before the heads-up final. After he hit the rail, things stood the same between Phillips and Goodwin as they did when play began.

Phillips held the chip lead with 8,010,000, and Goodwin was trailing with 6,375,000. By the end of their heads-up match, it was Phillips who held his first EPT title and €850,000 in prize money. The heads-up match was a long affair between two skilled opponents. In the matchup between the U.S. and the U.K., the EPT title was claimed by the young American.

The final table results from Barcelona were:
First Carter Phillips €850,000
Second Marc Goodwin €530,000
Third Santiago Terrazas €300,000
Fourth Mihai Manole €250,000
Fifth Asa Smith €200,000
Sixth Toni Ojala €160,000
Seventh Matt Lapossie €120,000
Eighth Georgios Kapalas €80,000

In Cyprus, Frenchman Thomas Bichon won the World Poker Tour main event topping the 181-strong field in the $10,000 buy-in main event at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in Kyrenia.

The final table payouts were:
First Thomas Bichon $579,165
Second Uri Keider $380,645
Third Steven Fung $216,275
Fourth Rep Porter $121,115
Fifth Janar Kiivramees $90,835
Sixth Rony Jazzar $73,535

Austria Gets New ‘Destination’ Poker Room
Located in the beautiful Kitzbüheler Alps, Tyrol, Austria, 52 Poker Club is the latest European “destination” poker resort.

Based at the Activ Sunny Hotel Sonne which has 140 rooms and considered one of Austria’s top hotels, the card room’s schedule is packed with regular weekly games including:

Monday to Friday €100 + €15 no-limit hold’em at 8 p.m. (CET)
Saturday €500 + €50 no-limit hold’em at 8 p.m.
Saturday €300 + €30 pot-limit Omaha at 6 p.m.
Sunday €50 and €100 no-limit hold’em sit ‘n’ go’s and €100 pot-limit Omaha sit ‘n’ go’s at 6 p.m.

Upcoming big games include:
The October Bounty — two day no-limit hold’em tournament on Oct. 16-17, buy-in €1,500 + €200 with €250 euro for each bounty plus €250 euro multiplied by the number of players left in the tournament for one special bounty. This tournament is capped at 150 players.

The November Omaha Rebuy — two-day pot-limit Omaha on Nov. 20-21, buy-in €1,000 + €150, rebuy for the first two hours, and one add-on. This tournament is capped at 150 players.

The December Ski and Poker week — seven days from Dec. 20-27, €2,000 + €200 with the option to choose two from three €1,000 events in no-limit hold’em (freezeouts) and pot-limit Omaha.

The January Main Event Freezeout — €5,000 + €500 no-limit hold’em freezeout main event, capped at 200 players with a €1 million estimated prize pool from Jan. 11-18.

The January festival also has three side events ranging in buy-ins from €500 to €1,000 across no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha.

The 52 Poker Club offers package deals to each of these events and with five-star luxury all the way they are likely to prove an attractive new stop on the European circuit. Check out 52PokerClub.com for more details.

PKR Live Returns to London
PKR has announced the return of its popular live festival, PKR Live, for a third installment. It will kick off at the Loose Cannon Club in London on November 20.

The three-day festival includes a welcome party, a $1,000 buy-in main event with capacity for 150 players, and a predicted $40,000 top prize, plus a $200 buy-in PKR Bounty tournament which will see players fight each other for scalps.

Karl “discomonkey” Fenton was the champion of the second live event held in April, and he took home the $20,000 top prize.

Satellites for the third live event are now available for as little as $5.25, and players with an active PKR account can also buy in directly closer to the start date.

The site also recently celebrated its third birthday by announcing it had signed up its 3 millionth player. For further information check out PKR.com.

Tony Hachem and Scott Kerr Win Big in Oz
Scott Kerr won the final leg of the PokerStars.com Australia New Zealand Poker Tour in Queensland in early August, while Tony Hachem, brother of former world champion Joe, won the title of overall Tour champion, topping the leader board with five cashes out of six tournaments on Tour.

Kerr topped the 249-strong field at Jupiter’s Casino, Gold Coast, taking down the top prize of AU$168,075 (€99,271), while Hachem won entry into all upcoming Asia Pacific Poker Tour events across Asia-Pacific.

The final table results and payouts (AUD$) for the main event were:
First Scott Kerr $168,075
Second Phillip Willcocks $112,050
Third Joel Dodds $62,250
Fourth Shoshiro Karita $49,800
Fifth Scott Smith $40,463
Sixth Danny Joukhadar $31,125
Seventh Paul Gibson $21,788
Eighth Lee Fraser $16,496
Ninth Eric Sclavos $12,450

World Heads-Up Championship Set for London
The World Heads-Up Championship, sponsored by LittlewoodsPoker.com, is moving from Barcelona to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino, London and takes place from October 27 to 31, 2009.

The £3,000 buy in no-limit hold’em event will have a maximum of 128 players and a first prize of £200,000 and will be broadcast live on the Internet at PokerInEuropeLive.com and WorldHeadsUpPoker.com and be shown around the world on terrestrial and satellite TV as five one-hour shows.

The long-running event was first staged at the Concord Card Casino in Vienna from 2001 to 2003 before moving to Barcelona from 2004 to 2008.

The “single elimination” event (once a player loses a match they are out) was the first poker tournament to use “lipstick” cameras in the edge of the table.
The structure will see players start with 20,000 in chips and play 30 minutes levels. Blinds will be frozen at level six:
Level 1: 100 – 200
Level 2: 150 – 300
Level 3: 200 – 400
Level 4: 300 – 600
Level 5: 400 – 800
Level 6: 500 – 1000

This progressive structure was not always the case though — in the first year the blinds did not increase resulting in one match lasting 10 hours.

The previous winners of the event are Bruno Fitoussi, Kirill Gerasimov, “Miami” John Cernuto, Angel Blanco Puras, Peter Gunnarson, Isaac Maoylas de Vega, Jeff Kimbler, and Mauro Stivoli.