News, Reviews And Interviews From Around The Poker World

Belgian Wins UKIPT Coventry
Gilles Augustus, a computer programmer from Belgium, won leg three of the PokerStars.com UK & Ireland Poker Tour at the G Casino, Coventry in April topping a field of 368 players to take down the £46,000 first prize.

The 22-year-old qualified for the event on PokerStars and also won a seat at the European Poker Tour London main event to take place in the autumn.

The final table featured well-known UK pros Joe Grech and Dan Carter and saw five bust-outs in just four levels before Augustus triumphed against David Jones heads up.

The final table payouts were:

Timo Takes Down European Masters of Poker Lisbon
Englishman Timothy Timotheau was awarded the top prize of €86,680 at the European Masters of Poker Lisbon in March, after beating 393 players including many top pros such as Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Joao Barbosa, Johan Storakers, and former champion Anton Wigg.

The final table payouts were:

The tour now moves to Campione in Italy from May 27-30. Qualifiers for the €1,000 + €100 buy-in main event are currently up and running across the Entraction network, on such sites as 24hPoker.com, C4A.com, NoIQPoker.com, Pokerihuone.com, Pokerdassi.com, and Potraiser.com. Players can qualify for as little as €2 or 200 VIP points.

PO07 KER Car Registration for Sale
A unique car registration is up for sale in the UK and for £25,000 any fan of the felt can pick up P007 KER.

Seller and Cardrunners pro Phil Shaw said, “Other plates with the same formulation have sold for much more (for example. RU55 ELL at £79,000) and I am led to believe that the combination of the iconic James Bond ‘007’ and ‘Poker’ motifs makes this one similarly unique.

“I want to sell this number plate as I rarely drive and live in central London so don’t have much use for a car at present.”

Sorel Sizzles in the Snow
Althugh players dressed for the cold high up in the snow-covered Austrian Alps for the PokerStars European Poker Tour Snowfest, there was one player who just couldn’t run any hotter. Recent Card Player cover star Sorel Mizzi didn’t have much luck in the main event, which was won in the end by Allan Baekke, but the side events were very good to him.

First he took down the €1,000 + €100 buy-in no-limit hold’em freezeout for €70,450 and then went straight on to demolish the field in the €500 + €50 buy-in no-limit hold’em plus one rebuy event for €34,500.

Mizzi recently told us he is aiming for Card Player’s Player of the Year (POY) award, and this race will definitely be one to watch as these victories moved him from 10th to third place at the time of writing.

European Poker Tour Berlin Robbers Caught
It took just over two weeks until German police nabbed the four armed robbers who made off with €242,000 from the PokerStars European Poker Tour Berlin. All four are now in police custody and await their fate before the courts.

The inept criminal gang began to crumble when a 21-year-old German gave himself up to police, and named his accomplices — Ahmad el-Awayti, Jihad Chetwie, and Mustafa Ucarkus. It wasn’t long before 20-year-old El-Awayti was picked up by the law at a central Berlin subway station, but the other two remained at large while police made confident noises and mocked their disorganised crime.

After authorities had issued international arrest warrants, both men contacted the police through their lawyers to let them know they would be returning to Germany from Istanbul and Beirut. The 19- and 20-year-old men were detained separately at Berlin’s Tegel airport upon their return.

Read Jen Mason’s column in this issue for her commentary on the debacle and the wider issues of security in the poker world.

World Team Poker Event Announced
The Golden Nugget Casino, Las Vegas is to host the $50,000 buy-in World Team Poker event on May 19 this year.

The event will see 40 of the world’s top pros battle it out in eight teams captained by Phil Hellmuth (Team USA), Johnny Chan and David Chiu (Team China), Men “The Master” Nguyen (Team Vietnam), Eli Elezra (Team Israel), Ben Roberts (Team England), Jeff Lisandro and Tony G (Australia), Juliano Maesano (Team Brazil), and George Kapalas (Team Greece).

The England team will consist of Ben Roberts, Joe Beevers, James Akenhead, Peter Costa, Dave Colclough, and Ram Vaswani, and the event will be a five-table shootout with rounds of limit, pot-limit, and no-limit hold’em.

The game will be streamed live and free at WorldTeamPoker.com and also filmed for TV broadcast at a later date.

Boylepoker’s International Poker Open Returns
Boylepoker.com has announced the return of Europe’s largest live no-limit Texas hold’em poker tournament, the €180 + €20 buy-in International Poker Open 2010.

This year the event will take place from October 15 to 17, 2010 at the Regency Hotel, Dublin. It will have an estimated prize pool of €250,000 including €20,000 added by Boylepoker.com.

Like last year, players will have a chance to increase their starting chip stack from 8,000 to 10,000 by playing on Boylepoker.com in the run up to the event — see Boylepoker.com for more details.

Additionally, players who earn the extra chips will be eligible to use their VIP points in exclusive freerolls at Boylepoker.com.

In 2009 the IPO attracted a record-breaking field of 1,440 runners from 18 countries and was won by German Markus Sippe who took home $62,250 for topping the field.

Cuong Tran Tops GUKPT London
Vietnam-born, London resident Cuong Tran took down the third leg of the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour in London after beating a 318-strong field including a tough final table.

Tran’s ultimate obstacle in the way of the £127,800 first prize was former Irish Open champion Neil Channing, but two vital hands went Tran’s way and last year’s fifth place finisher became this year’s victor.

The final table payouts were:

Martin Silke won this event last year, beating 397 other players to take home the £172,850 top prize.