News, Reviews And Interviews From Around The Poker World

Full Tilt and Omar Sharif Event Raises Over £110,000

The 10th Annual Omar Sharif Poker and Backgammon Tournament sponsored by Full Tilt Poker raised more than £110,000 for children’s charity One to One in May.

The star-studded poker event, which took place at Michelin-starred restaurant and club Sketch, was won by Mark Bramley, and again featured Beverly Pace and Michael Greco at the final table.

Other poker pros who took part included Karl Mahrenholz, Roland De Wolfe, Roberto Romanello, and James Akenhead. They were joined by film and TV celebrities Neve Campbell, Hardeep Singh Kohli, Ed Byrne, Douglas Henshali, Justin Edwards, and Navin Chowdhry.

The charity auction featured juicy lots such as a one-line speaking part in Terry Pratchett’s next film, a Stella McCartney made-to-measure suit, and a holiday at a luxury villa with on-site golf in Portugal, which was won by James Akenhead and Karl Mahrenholz.

All final table players also won a Full Tilt Poker $200 + $16 World Series of Poker satellite ticket.

Italian World Cup Hero Joins Team PokerStars

Gianluigi “Gigi” Buffon, the nine-time Italian goalkeeper of the year and current Juventus and national team shot stopper, has signed with Team PokerStars as its Italian ambassador.

Buffon, who will be part of the Italian national football squad taking part in the World Cup in South Africa this summer in a bid to collect a second winner’s medal, said, “I love living life to the full. I know there will be many commitments, but I love playing poker and the opportunity to join Italy’s (and the world’s) largest poker site is an honour and a great challenge.

“I can’t wait to play against Team PokerStars Pro players and I’m ready to have lots of fun playing against everyone who wants to take me on.”

Buffon joins an elite list of sporting stars on the PokerStars roster including Mats Sundin and Boris Becker.

World Series of Poker Europe 2010 Expanded

The World Series of Poker Europe 2010 will run from September 14-28 at Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, London, England, with its £10,000 main event beginning on September 23.

The Series this year will feature an expanded schedule of five events, one more than in 2009.

Card Player CEO and publisher Barry Shulman will look to become the WSOPE’s first ever, repeat winner when the WSOPE main event gets underway.

Shulman outlasted a talented field of 334 players and a 17-hour final table that included six WSOP bracelet winners last year.

The 2010 WSOPE will also feature a £2,500 sixhanded no-limit hold’em event, a £5,000 pot-limit Omaha event, a £1,000 no-limit hold’em event, and a £10,000 high-roller heads-up event, which is expected to attract another star-studded field.

Hungarian Wins PKR Live IV

The PKR Live IV main event found its winner at the Loose Cannon Club in London during May in the form of 21-year-old Gábor “Gab1988” Vasvenszki.

The young Hungarian beat 150 players to the first place prize of $20,000 and the trophy.

His final obstacle was Englishman Jamie “JJBird22” Birdsey and after some passing to and fro of blinds, the ultimate hand came with Birdsey’s K-J up against Vasvenszki’s A-J. The board painstakingly fell A-10-9-K-6 and after a final handshake, Vasvenszki punched the air in victory.

The Hungarian went into this main event in high poker spirits with recent wins in both the Sunday Classic and a WSOP Experience package. Birdsey should not feel too bad however with $12,000 for some great play.

The main event was recorded on PKR’s first live televised feature table. This innovative poker table included infrared cameras to film the game and state of the art Perlego technology to read the cards from above.

Play the Irish Winter Festival for Free With Card Player

Card Player Europe is pleased to announce the launch of the nine-week Irish Winter Festival League in conjunction with PaddyPowerPoker.com. The League will see one player win a free package worth €2,300 to one of Europe’s premier poker events being held at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, Ireland from Oct. 22 to 25, 2010.

The schedule for the $100 added, $1 buy-in Irish Winter Festival League is:

The winner of the sit ‘n’ go grand final will take down a €2,300 package to the €1,500 + €150 buy-in Irish Masters main event, the centerpiece tournament of one of Europe’s most prestigious poker festivals, the PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Winter Festival.

They will also be eligible for the Sole Survivor competition at the IWF with a chance to win a €20,000 pro package for a year. The runners up will share $500 worth of Irish Winter Festival tokens, which can be used for another crack at a seat in the big game.

Last year Michael O’Sullivan took down the Irish Masters top prize of €143,000.

Fifth Arrest in EPT Berlin Robbery Case

The 31-year-old suspected of organising the recent robbery at the European Poker Tour Berlin was arrested by police in Berlin in late May.

Named only as Mohammed Abou-C by authorities, he was apprehended while driving in the city. The arrest brings the total number of people now connected to the crime (which saw four robbers get away with €242,000) to five.

The money was subsequently recovered and four people were arrested in March this year.

Sutera Scores European Masters of Poker Italy Win

Stop four of season II on the European Masters of Poker tour saw homegrown talent Giovanni Sutera top the 386–strong field to pick up the first prize of €85,220 in the €1,100 buy-in main event at the end of May.

Forty-five players got paid at the event and the final table payouts were:

EMOP next rolls into Sunny Beach, Bulgaria from July 28 to August 1 and online qualifiers for the main event are underway across the Entraction poker network.

The weekly qualifiers take place on:

Tuesday 20:40 (CET) — €100 buy in with five €2,000 packages guaranteed

Thursday 20:40 (CET) — €100 buy in with five €2,000 packages guaranteed

Sunday 20:40 (CET) — €200 buy in with eight €2,000 packages guaranteed

Innovative Training Experience MyPokerLab.com Launched

Online poker site PokerTime.eu has launched the world’s first fully integrated online poker training experience, MyPokerLab.com.

With multimedia training programs designed to analyse and improve players’ games, it is a comprehensive, easy-to-use, and free product which looks set to revolutionise and improve the experience for thousands of poker players in the search for profitable play.

MyPokerLab.com has integrated hand tracking and analysis, and a host of video and written educational tools such as strategy advice and coaching, as well as community features designed to help plug leaks in and subsequently improve a player’s game.

Players can simply register for free at MyPokerLab.com and each cash game hand they play is automatically recorded and analysed by the site to give players an accurate, personalised Report Card on the quality of their play across key metrics such as voluntarily put into pot, preflop aggression, other aggression factors, stealing and blind defence, three-betting, squeezing, and showdown.

MyPokerLab.com also features comprehensive sections on poker training, fundamentals of the game, a poker clinic, and community forum.

Card Player Europe Launches Facebook Page

Card Player Europe has launched its own dedicated Facebook page for poker fans hosting the most up-to-the-minute poker news, views, analysis, promotions, blogs, videos, and magazine features from the vast and exciting world of professional poker.

Previously the Euro section of CardPlayer.com shared a Facebook page with our big brother Card Player but as activity rose and space became a premium we decided to set up our own page to share our daily poker experiences from both the live and online worlds of the international poker scene.

Rebecca McAdam, journalist and Euro social media manager at Card Player Europe said, “We currently offer our loyal readers Europe’s most successful English-language poker Twitter feed and we aim to make our Facebook page every bit as successful with a mix of all the Card Player Europe favourites and a few exclusive surprises thrown in for good measure.”

Check out the new Facebook page by searching for Card Player Europe at the site and follow us on Twitter @cardplayernews for the fastest and most comprehensive global poker news.

Ali Aces World Poker Tour Spain

The World Poker Tour Spanish Championship in May saw Ali Tekintamgac top a field of 326 opponents to win €315,000, a $25,000 seat in the 2011 WPT Championship, and a Tiffany bracelet.

Tekintamgac scored his first major tournament win to go along with his first tournament cash, which he scored at the European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo (125th place) a few weeks earlier.

“I couldn’t feel any better now,” said Tekintamgac. “I have been playing poker for 20 years but it was only recently that I thought I would go for it on the big stage and take part in major tournaments.”

The final table payouts were: