News, Reviews And Interviews From Around The Poker World

Harrah’s Now Offering Free Online Poker to U.S. Residents
Site Will Award World Series of Poker Seats and Vegas Trips
By Stephen A. Murphy

As the 2010 World Series of Poker began airing on ESPN this summer, Harrah’s began its PR rollout to publicize its newest online venture — a free poker site for American players.

Harrah’s advertised its new project in print-media outlets such as USA Today, and in commercials during the WSOP broadcasts.

It’s official — Harrah’s and the World Series of Poker are in the American online-poker market.

But for now, no money is exchanging hands.

The completely free website allows U.S. residents to compete for play chips at the moment, but WSOP Communications Director Seth Palansky said that significant prizes, like a seat in the 2011 World Series of Poker or exclusive trips to Harrah’s properties in Las Vegas, will be unveiled in the near future.

“This was the next logical step for us,” said Palansky. “We’ve seen a very good response, with a lot of folks downloading the game.”

Harrah’s is running the site with its gaming partner Dragonfish, which also runs its real-money online-poker operations in the UK.

The recent passage of Rep. Barney Frank’s poker bill out of the House Financial Services Committee stirred up buzz that a completely open and regulated U.S. market may not be all that far away, and Harrah’s recent actions might indicate that it is gearing up for such a scenario. But Palansky says that’s not the focus right now.

“We watch these things closely, but it doesn’t affect how we operate on a day-to-day basis,” said Palansky. “We have enough opportunities to seize and deal with currently that we don’t have to worry about what may or may not happen.”

Although Frank’s bill cleared its initial committee, it remains a long shot to become law in this legislative session.

The WSOP also launched a poker application for social networking sites on July 27, according to Palansky.

“We’ve had video games in the past. We’ve had a very successful WSOP mobile game that’s in the market now, and has done really well. Now, you can play through Facebook,” said Palansky. “This and [the play-money poker software on wsop.com] basically have the same intent — a brand-building World Series of Poker official online game.”

Harrah’s signed a multiyear contract in September 2009 with 888 Holdings PLC, which runs Dragonfish, to provide online gaming services, support, and payment software.

European Poker Tour Under Way
By Ryan Lucchesi

Major competition on the European tournament trail for the 2010-2011 season kicked off on the shores of the Baltic Sea in the medieval town of Tallinn, Estonia, on Aug. 11. The brand-new €4,250 no-limit hold’em tournament started the PokerStars European Poker Tour season-seven schedule, attracting 420 players to create a total prize pool of €1,596,000.

The tournament crowned a champion on Aug. 16, and the winner was Kevin Stani, who took home €400,000 and 1,920 Card Player 2010 Player of the Year (POY) points. This was his first POY cash for the year, and it places him in the top 50. “It feels awesome to win. I’ve been through some tough times, which have made it hard to focus, made it hard to play, but I stayed with poker and told myself things are going to get better. I’m glad I did,” said Stani.

Stani was a PokerStars qualifier in the event, and was one of the last players to qualify for EPT Tallinn, winning his seat in a $530 qualifier on PokerStars only four days before the event began. “I was playing cash games online and just randomly saw the satellite advertised in the PokerStars lobby. I wanted to come here anyway, so I thought I’d play it,” said Stani.

Stani is a 27-year-old business management graduate who has been playing poker for seven years. Most of his success has come online, where he plays under the name “KevBoyStar.” He finished sixth in the $10,000 high-roller World Championship of Online Poker event last year, for $134,000, and topped 1,204 players to win the PokerStars Sunday 500 in February 2009, for $108,000. His best live result was a 127th-place finish in the 2010 World Series of Poker, which was worth $57,000.

The player Stani defeated in the heads-up final was Konstantin Bilyauer from Moscow, who was awarded €250,000 and 1,600 points, which puts him in the top 100. The only other player to earn more than 1,000 POY points in Estonia was Team PokerStars pro Arnaud Mattern. He won €160,000 and 1,200 points for finishing in third place, and he now has 1,655 points for the year, which puts him in 76th place.

Here is a breakdown of the prize money and POY points awarded at the EPT Tallinn final table:

PokerStars Announces Vienna Return in EPT’s Seventh Season
Last PokerStars Vienna Event Held Six Years Ago
By Stephen A. Murphy

The European Poker Tour will be making its long-awaited return to Vienna in October as part of its season-seven schedule, PokerStars recently announced.

The Austrian capital will host a €5,300 event with a €500,000 guarantee for first place from Oct. 26 to Oct. 31 at the Concord Card Casino at the Kursalon Palace in City Park. This will be the first EPT event in Vienna in six years.

“I am really looking forward to playing in an EPT event in my new hometown,” said Johannes Steindl, a Team PokerStars pro. “I have been living in Vienna for three months, and it is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. I’ll be playing my best game to try to take home the €500,000-guaranteed first prize.”

Season seven of the EPT kicked off with a €4,250 event in Tallinn on Aug. 11.

Not all events have been finalized, but the tour is also scheduled to stop in Vilamoura, London, Barcelona, Prague, Deauville, Copenhagen, Berlin, San Remo, the Bahamas, and the Alps.

With $2 Million Lead on Antonius, Dwan Finds Next Opponent in ‘Durrrr Challenge’
“Jungleman12” Dwan’s Next Foe
By Stephen A. Murphy

Many people thought Tom Dwan was crazy when he first proposed the idea of the “Durrrr Challenge”: If anyone could beat him over 50,000 hands of either pot-limit Omaha or no-limit hold’em while playing on at least four tables simultaneously, he would fork over $1.5 million (compared to the $500,000 that his opponent would have to shell out to him if he lost).

The 3-1 odds piqued the interest of some of the top pros, including Phil Ivey, David Benyamine, and Patrik Antonius, the latter of whom took on the young pro as his first challenger.

Nearly 80 percent through the challenge, with about 10,000 hands remaining, Dwan has racked up an impressive lead of nearly $2 million over the Finnish pro.

After taking most of the summer off because Dwan was competing in virtually every World Series of Poker event that he could enter, due to a number of bracelet bets, the two players played a challenge session on July 31 for the first time in 92 days. Antonius booked nearly a $250,000 win, but lost it all and then some the very next day, as Dwan completed a session that put him $460,000 in the black.

As of press time, Dwan holds a lead of $2.06 million over Antonius.

As that match slowly approaches its conclusion, it appears that Dwan has found his second opponent for the 50,000-hand challenge. He is Daniel Cates, more commonly known as “Jungleman12” online.

Cates has been a player on the high-stakes scene for almost two years, and has fared very well against Dwan in recent months — so well, in fact, that Dwan himself chatted to Cates on Full Tilt, “y dont u take challenge … since u never lose to me?”

Cates apparently liked that reasoning, and accepted the offer. The two players have said that they hope to complete the challenge by the time the World Series of Poker Europe and EPT London kick off in late September.

PokerStars Launches Women’s Poker League
Largest Poker Site Starts New Project
By Stephen A. Murphy

Ladies events have become regular fixtures at some of the biggest and most prestigious live poker tournaments in the world. Now, PokerStars is trying to provide that same kind of atmosphere online.

The site recently announced the creation of the PokerStars Women’s Poker League, which will enable females to compete against each other over the course of the year online for exclusive prizes and significant bonuses.

PokerStars will be running two daily tournaments for the league at 1:10 p.m. and 9:10 p.m. EDT, with buy-ins as low as $5.50. Besides a regular cash prize pool, points will be awarded to the entrants based on how they finish.

All entrants are awarded one point, while those ladies who cash in the tournament get an additional five points. The players who make the final table earn between 10 and 20 points, based on how they finish at the final table.

There will be two distinct divisions for the new league, a U.S. dollars division and one using euros. At the end of each month, the woman who has earned the most points will win either $300 or €200, depending on her division.

The top 50 players in each division will win some kind of monetary award.

There is also a yearly competition that awards cash and prizes to the top 50 finishers, with the top spot getting $1,500 or €1,000, as well as a luxury event package — which could include an entry into one of the PokerStars live events in the Bahamas, Monte Carlo, or London.

Card Player Launches Magazine in India
India’s First Poker Magazine Hits Newsstands in September
By Brendan Murray

Hot on the heels of the news that Card Player Media was expanding further into the South American poker market by launching Card Player in Argentina and Uruguay comes the announcement that the company is set to launch India’s first poker magazine in September.

Card Player Media has reached a licensing deal with Rakesh Press, India, to create the new edition of the world’s foremost poker magazine.

The magazine will contain a fresh mix of local and international poker news, features, columns, analysis, and opinions.

It will join an ever-growing array of magazines in the Card Player Media stable in countries such as Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, UK and Ireland, Finland, France, Germany (online only), Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland (online only), and Canada.

2010 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker
Win Your Own Gold Bracelet Starting Sept. 5
By Julio Rodriguez

Over the past eight years, the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) has grown to proportions that even the world’s largest online poker site, PokerStars, couldn’t have imagined. The popular tournament series began as a modest nine-event run in 2002 that concluded with a $1,000 main event with just 238 players. This year, PokerStars already has put $50 million on the line in guarantees for a 62-event schedule with buy-ins ranging from $100 to $25,000.

2009 WCOOP

Lower buy-ins, no travel costs, and larger prize pools have made the WCOOP a can’t-miss event on the poker calendar, and the 2009 edition was one for the history books. The series culminated in a $5,000 championship event with 2,144 players and a $10,720,000 prize pool, making it an automatic qualifier for the Card Player Player of the Year award.

A total of 43,973 unique players participated over the course of the 45 events, winning an amazing $51,652,800 in prize money. Those players represented 140 countries, of which 104 had a player cash.

Player of the Series Daniel “djk123” Kelly capped off an impressive run that saw him win two bracelets and make the final table of the main event, where he finished in fourth place. He earned a combined total of $950,000 in the tournament series. The biggest winner, however, was Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, who won the main event and $1,715,200.

2010 WCOOP

This year’s WCOOP will run 62 events over a three-week stretch and will feature three high-roller events. The biggest change in the schedule is not only the addition of 17 events, but also the addition of extra days for those tournaments that are likely to run long. A total of 14 events will be paused, allowing the surviving competitors to return to their screens the next day to battle down to a champion.

The action kicks off on Sept. 5 with a $10,000 no-limit hold’em tournament with a $2 million guarantee. On Sept. 18, the world’s best will compete in a $25,000 no-limit hold’em heads-up tournament with a $750,000 guarantee. Then, on Sept. 26, an eight-game mix will be on display as the players battle it out in a $10,000 buy-in tournament with a $1 million guarantee. The main event will once again have a $5,000 buy-in, and will award a guaranteed $10 million to those who are fortunate enough to make the money.

In addition to all of that cash, all WCOOP winners will receive custom championship gold bracelets to commemorate their achievement. Those who do exceptionally well will be in the running to win the Player of the Series award, for buy-ins to future PokerStars events.

How to Qualify

If you’d like to play but don’t have a PokerStars account, visit the CardPlayer.com home page. Card Player readers are eligible for a deposit bonus of up to $600.
Once you’ve downloaded the software, created your account, and set up your online bankroll, you can buy in for each tournament directly or you can try to win your way in via satellite. Satellites start at $1 or 100 Frequent Player Points. Players can also win their way into the tournaments by using PokerStars Steps Satellites.

Players can even get helpful tips and valuable strategy advice from Team PokerStars pros, including such notables as Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso, Greg Raymer, Joe Cada, Joe Hachem, Barry Greenstein, Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand Grospellier, and Jason Mercier.