News, Reviews And Interviews From Around The Poker World

PaddyPowerPoker Gears Up to Irish Open 2010
Excitement is reaching peaking point ahead of this year’s PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Open. The event, which runs from April 1 to 5 at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, has grown into a jam-packed poker festival.

Now it’s not only the €3,200 + €300 buy-in main event that’s attracting players, but this year there is something to suit all pockets and tastes with a schedule of side events including a €200 + €20 no-limit hold’em rebuy super satellite on April 1, a two-day €750 + €75 pot-limit Omaha championship on April 3, a two-day €1,500 + €150 no-limit hold’em freezeout and a €300 + €30 ladies no-limit hold’em championship starting April 4, plus a €270 + €30 + €30 no-limit hold’em scalps freezeout on April 5.

And if that wasn’t enough, the site has already booked the entertainment for this year with music in the form of gospel, 80s covers, and rock ‘n’ roll.

PaddyPowerPoker has also launched an online registration facility for the festival via a customised payment gateway on the official Irish Open website with payment possible in the form of bank transfer, cheque, and credit cards.

Eric Booth, Head of Poker at the site, said, “We’ve further improved the Irish Open side event schedule and I bet that some players will be upset there are not enough hours in the weekend to play them all. We are also delighted to launch the online registration facility for the Irish Open so that players eager to secure their seat at Europe’s longest running poker tournament can do so months in advance.”

For further information on the Irish Open or details about ongoing satellites, visit IrishPokerOpen.com.

Harrison Gimbel Wins Big in Bahamas
A massive 1,529 players turned out for this season’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at the Atlantis Resort & Casino on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. The player to top the lot was Harrison Gimbel, taking home a cheque worth $2,200,000.

Remarkably, Card Player publisher Barry Shulman achieved another honourable feat by finishing in third place for a $1.3 million payday on his second final table at a major poker event in just over three months.

Twenty-four year-old Aage Ravn from Norway was the highest finishing European in the event with a sixth place finish. He collected $450,000 from just the second major tournament he has ever played.

The final table results were:
1 Harrison Gimbel $2,200,000
2 Tyler Reiman $1,750,000
3 Barry Shulman $1,350,000
4 Benjamin Zamani $1,000,000
5 Ryan D’Angelo $700,000
6 Aage Ravn $450,000
7 Zachary Goldberg $300,000
8 Tom Koral $201,300

Check out all the action from this event in next month’s issue of Card Player.

PokerStars Breaks Record for Biggest Online Event
On Sunday, December 27, 2009, PokerStars.com broke the Guinness world record for the largest ever online poker tournament. It had previously set the record at 65,000 players in July last year, and it did again with ease when 149,196 players took part in the $1 buy-in tournament at Christmas.

The event kicked off at 7.45 p.m. (GMT) and, with its five minute blind levels, was all over in less than six hours. Despite successfully setting the record previously, PokerStars was criticised for putting a cap on the number of registrants, therefore this time the field was left uncapped but late registration was suspended.

PokerStars generously guaranteed a prize pool of $300,000 and the player who received the greatest slice of it was “oskar69” with $50,000 for first place.

The final table payouts were:
1 oskar69 $50,000
2 Bommel222 $30,000
3 TLWPB $20,000
4 willis59 $10,000
5 kruglay $8,000
6 madmick62 $6,500
7 DS1982 $5,250
8 denmil53 $4,000
9 bigsnapper7 $3,000

World Poker Tour Heads to Paris and Bucharest
Details have been announced of the World Poker Tour’s Grand Prix de Paris 2010 which will take place at the Aviation Club de France, Paris from May 8 to 13. The €10,000 buy-in event is set to be filmed for TV broadcast.

Bruno Fitoussi, poker consultant for the Aviation Club said, “The Aviation Club de France is delighted to welcome back a WPT event in Paris. The WPT Grand Prix de Paris is guaranteed to be a high-class tournament in the highlights of the international poker scene and will, for sure, attract players from all around the world.”
The World Poker Tour also hits The Regent Casino at Novotel Hotel in Bucharest, Romania for the first time and will see a €3,000 buy-in non-televised event taking place from March 27 to April 2.

Sorin Constantinescu, chief executive officer of Regent‘s Casino, said, “We are happy to be in partnership with WPT and to launch this special event together for the first time in Romania. It is already known that WPT always introduce new tournaments into prestigious locations. Regent Casino Bucharest is one of those special places, and with WPT Bucharest we believe it will become an excellent meeting point for the most talented poker players from all around the world.”

Padraig Parkinson Wins Irish Poker Championship
Irish poker veteran and Card Player columnist, Padraig Parkinson’s latest success came when he beat 258 opponents in Galway’s €2,000 buy-in Irish Poker Championship main event.

Parkinson received the top prize of €125,000 for his champion finish at the first stop on the new PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour.

The final table payouts were:
1 Padraig Parkinson €125,000 (+£5,000 EPT qualifier)
2 Paul Marrow €82,000
3 Ben Lefew €52,000 (PokerStars qualifier)
4 Michael Graydon €36,000 (PokerStars qualifier)
5 Michael McFadgen €22,000 (PokerStars player)
6 Paul Dooley €17,000
7 Vinny Cosgrove €13,000
8 Cat O’Neill €11,000
9 Trevor Bulless €9,000

Euro Finals of Poker Main Event Under Way
As this edition of Card Player hits the shelves, the Euro Finals of Poker (EFOP) main event will be under way. A festival of 14 different events took place from January 29 to February 14 at the world famous Aviation Club de France with the primary tournament of the EFOP being the €5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em Diamond Championship.
Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott won the Championship last year and took home €152,000 for first place.

The main event runs from February 11 to 14, and next month we will have all the news on who had an extra special Valentine’s Day this year, along with the lowdown from the European Poker Awards being held at the Aviation Club on February 12.

Boylepoker Adds Power to Pro Poker Team
Boylepoker’s latest signing sees Irish professional Nicky Power join the likes of Marty Smyth and Padraig Parkinson on its pro poker team. Power’s long list of poker accomplishments include sixth in the Irish Open, fourth in the Irish Poker Classic, and first in the Irish Poker Championship charity event.

Paul Spillane, head of poker at Boylepoker.com said, “Nicky is a great asset to have. He’s a formidable poker player, a great ambassador for the game, and a fun-loving, popular guy to boot so we expect he’ll have a great impact as the latest Boylepoker pro and welcome him into the family.”

Power is perhaps most famous for having won a poker hand against Roland de Wolfe with no cards when the dealer mistakenly mucked his cards after he had raised de Wolfe all in. Power noticed his cards had been mucked but acted like he was still covering them with his hands before de Wolfe folded and Power scooped the pot.

Waheed Ashraf Wins Dusk Till Dawn Monte Carlo Event
The £1,000 buy-in Dusk Till Dawn Monte Carlo main event, held at the club in Nottingham last December was won by Waheed Ashraf. He took down £68,000 for topping the 300-strong field in the £250,000 guaranteed tournament.

The final table payouts were:
1 Waheed Ashraf £68,000
2 Paul Richford £53,000
3 Ashique Miah £29,000
4 Yucel Eminoglu £50,000
5 Stephen Eames £17,190
6 Dean Pearson £12,893
7 Chris Saleh £10,028
8 Malcolm Muskett £7,163
9 Craig Mccorkell £5,730