News, Reviews And Interviews From Around The Poker World

WSOP Finalist Teams Up With Paddy Power Poker

Irishman , who recently came fourth in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event at the World Series of Poker has joined PaddyPowerPoker as the new face of its poker community.

Heather, who took down $149,702 for his final table appearance in Las Vegas earlier this month and starts a regular tournament strategy column in Card Player Europe in this issue, said, “I’m really excited about the future with Paddy Power, hopefully I can continue to improve as a player with the backing and support of the Paddy Power community. My first blogs about Vegas and the WSOP are already up on the site so I can’t wait to start interacting more with the other players.”

Elsewhere, the Card Player Europe and PaddyPowerPoker Irish Winter Festival League continues throughout August and September. 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 October 22 to 25, 2010.

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

International Poker Open $5,000 Sponsorship Freeroll

All players who qualify online at Boylepoker.com for the International Poker Open before September 20 will get a chance to play off in a unique freeroll for a $5,000 sponsorship package.

The Sat Wars freeroll will initially take place online and when it reaches the final table will be suspended before the players return to the Regency Hotel on October 15 at 8 p.m. for the final table.

They will play with their original chip stacks, Boylepoker will put them up in the hotel for the night, and the winner will receive a $5,000 sponsorship package.

The International Poker Open is Europe’s largest poker tournament being held at the Regency Hotel from October 15 to 17, 2010.

It has a buy-in of €180 + €20, and Boylepoker.com is adding €20,000 to the estimated €250,000 prize pool.

The weekly online final takes place each Sunday at 7.45 p.m. (BST) and has a buy-in of $33. Players can win their spot in the weekly final with three feeder satellites on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at 7.45 p.m. from between $5.50 and $11.

English Poker Open Satellites at Cake Poker

Cake Poker satellites for the 2010 English Poker Open are underway at the site with daily feeders starting from $3.

Up for grabs are $7,000 packages for the second renewal of the event, which will take place at the Palm Beach Casino, London from September 11 to 14.

Once again players will be treated to a $1 million guaranteed prize pool in the $5,000 + $350 buy in main event, which will attract some of poker’s biggest names.

The first English Poker Open $7,000 package finals will takes place each Sunday at 4 p.m. ET (9 p.m. BST) with the package covering the EPO main event buy-in plus $1,650 expenses.

Players can buy in directly to the qualifier for $268 or qualify through daily feeder satellites. Sunday’s action also includes Cake’s largest guarantee of the month – $200,000 – playing at 5 p.m. ET with daily feeders available at the site.

World Series of Poker ‘November Nine’ Revealed

The most anticipated final table of the year is set! The final nine players have emerged from the initial field of 7,319 at the 2010 World Series of Poker $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event, which began on July 5.

Jonathan Duhamel ended the night/morning with the chip lead after eliminating the “November Nine” bubble boy Brandon Steven in 10th place just before 6 a.m. Duhamel holds 65,975,000, much of which he accumulated during the nearly six-hour period of play on the November Nine bubble that put an exclamation point on a 17-hour day of poker.

Michael Mizrachi has now provided drama and stories at both ends of the 41st WSOP. He won the $50,000 Players Championship during the first week of June and now he has finished the summer by making the November Nine in seventh chip-position with 14,450,000.

“It’s just an exciting feeling, wherever I finish I’m happy I made the November Nine, it’s an accomplishment. I can’t say it won’t happen for me again, but you’re a long shot to pass through this field. You have to get lucky and survive in this large of a field,” said Mizrachi after the final table. “I just wanted to get to the final nine and take the pressure off of me, so now I can play some poker when we get back.”

The players return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to play down to a winner on November 1, 2010. Check out the next issue of Card Player for a report on how we arrived at the November Nine 2010.

Final table chip counts and seating:

Main event final table payouts:

CardPlayerTV – Heads Up With Tony Dunst

Tony Dunst is a tournament pro who’s known online as “Bond18.” Card Player TV caught up with him during the 2010 World Series of Poker main event to discuss some common mistakes that players make when determining the size of their bets.

Card Player: In lower-stakes games, a lot of players make oversized raises with premium starting hands. Does this make their hands too transparent to their opponents?

Tony Dunst: Absolutely. I think that at the lower stakes, it is not a big mistake, because opponents aren’t aware enough to see how transparent it is; but, when you are playing with more experienced players, if your bet sizes make your hand play as if it were faceup, although you might think that you are “protecting” it, you are making the range of hands that you can have a lot more polarized, and likely transparent to the better, thinking players. I would say that you should try to make all of your bet sizes consistent, in order to be optimally deceptive.

CP: Is there any time when you should change up your bet size?

TD: I would say that if you feel that you are playing against opponents who are not advanced players, don’t think hard about what their opponent has, and are concerned only with their hand, and you feel that they have a weak or medium-strength hand, maybe an oversized bluff will be effective in making them fold. Or, if you have a very strong hand against someone who is clearly in love with a good starting hand, you might make a huge overraise, because you know that he won’t fold.

France’s Marc Bariller Joins Team PKR Pro

Team PKR Pro just got bigger with the announcement that it has signed Marc ‘Waswini’ Bariller, the 23-year-old former PKR Open winner.

Bariller, who has qualified for each of the four PKR Live events, spun $5 up to a six figure bankroll at PKR.com and is thrilled with his new appointment, saying, “Becoming part of Team PKR Pro was my ultimate goal on PKR. It is amazing news.

“It’s the ultimate recognition in the PKR Community and nothing could make me happier. It’s with great pleasure that I join Team PKR Pro and its five crazy players!”

Team PokerStars Pro Expands

PokerStars.com has announced its latest Team signing, Finnish poker pro and recent Card Player Europe feature subject Ville Wahlbeck.

Wahlbeck, from Helsinki, is a World Series of Poker bracelet winner taking down the $10,000 mixed game event last year for $492,384, as well as making three other final tables at the Series for more than $450,000.

He is a multiple award winner and also won the high rollers event at last year’s Baltic Poker Festival and will be making his first outing as a Team PokerStars Pro at this year’s event later this month.

“PokerStars is the leading name in this field,” said Wahlbeck. “Not only because it is the world’s biggest poker site but also for other reasons: PokerStars has always taken good care of its players and has made an effort to ensure that all the players are treated equally and honestly.”

Elsewhere PokerStars.com has announced it is sponsoring the Spanish Basketball Federation at the world championship starting in August in Turkey.

Spain have drawn Lebanon, Lithuania, France, Canada, and New Zealand in group D at the tournament.

Tournament Director Matt Savage Joins WPT

World-renowned tournament director Matt Savage has joined the World Poker Tour as Executive Tour Director.

Savage, who has experience at the highest level in the game with 300 televised tournaments under his belt including Bay 101 Shooting Stars, said, “I am excited about this opportunity to work with WPT as their Executive Tour Director. WPT is one of the most respected and recognizable brands in poker and I am happy to be a part of its efforts to improve tournament poker for players, fans, and casinos.”

The World Poker Tour said Savage would be, “…committing himself to improving player communication, tournament offerings, tour cohesiveness, and event growth”.

New Poker Tour Dates Set

The Euro City Poker Tour returns from November 10 to 14 to the Montesino Pokertainment Center in Vienna, Austria with a €3,000 + €300 main event and a prize pool expected to exceed €1 million.

March saw the Tour stop in Barcelona where it was won by Frenchman Fabrice Bachellez.

Players can buy in directly to the main event or qualify on Titan Poker for as little as $1.21.

Packages worth €5,500 are up for grabs and include five nights luxury accommodation at Le Meridien hotel, a welcome party, and up to €750 expenses.

In other tour news Ongame poker network, owned by Austro-German betting giant bwin, has announced a four-stop poker tour taking in Latvia, Malta, Hungary, and Spain later this year and into next.

The Grand Series of Poker schedule is:

PokerStars Winners in Tallinn and Killarney

Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson has won the PokerStars Baltic Poker Festival main event in Tallinn, Estonia taking down approximately €80,823 for his victory in the 222-strong field.

The 27-year-old Swede, who has made four European Poker Tour final tables but never made it to first place, beat Dominykas Karmazinas heads up in the €1,400 buy in main event when his J-J stayed in front of the Lithuanian’s 2-2.

“I’ve been waiting for this so long. I’m so happy you just can’t imagine it,” said an emotional Thorson. “This means so much to me. It’s unbelievable. I really wanted this title.”

Thorson also won a €6,000 package to PokerStars.com EPT Tallinn which kicks off season seven of the famed tour in August.

The final table payouts were (approximate after conversion to euro):

Elsewhere the PokerStars.com UK & Ireland Poker Tour Killarney has been won by Femi Fakinle from Ireland who scooped the €63,400 top prize in the €1,100 buy-in event in the scenic locale of County Kerry.

Fakinle topped the field of 253 runners in the €250,000 guaranteed event and said after his victory, “It was fantastic having one of my kids, fiancée, and friends on the rail.”

The final table payouts were: