pokerdelta.com

David Benyamine and Patrick Antonius accept !

Fri, 09 Jan 2009 13:33:15 +0100

Since Tom "durrrr" Dwan challenged the poker world through his offer (as reported) and Phil Ivey officially accepted the challenge, also David Benyamine and Patrick Antonius followed and announced that they would play the 50,000 hands online against Dwan.
Patrick Antonius had to think about it once, because he suspected a catch of the matter. Apparently he could not find anything that convinced of a big disadvantage he would have to face.

Barry Greenstein has already stated in his radio-telephone interview with Phil Ivey that playing 50,000 hands means so much as playing 4-5 hours each day simultaneously at 4 tables and always playing against the same guy ( "durrrr"). While Barry believes that Ivey will quickly get bored, he is nonetheless convinced that Ivey is the best heads-up player.

Tom Dwan had a good year in 2008, but is that enough to prevail against the three challengers? Phil Ivey joked with Barry Greenstein about it and wondered if Dwan had still enough money in his bankroll when he competes against Ivey. The odds that Dwan goes busto are fairly high. HighStakes players have calculated that playing blinds of $ 200 and $ 400 a bankroll somewhere between $ 10 and 20 million is required. This also seems to be the reason that until now only three HighStakes players have accepted "durrrr" 's challenge.

In order to further clarify: Guy Laliberté, billionaire and founder of Cirque du Soleil, has in recent years lost approximately $ 21 million in HighStakes poker. That is about 56% of the total profits of all professionals in HighStakes poker. Thus one can assume that out there in the virtual world of online poker there are not many players worth $ 10 million in their accounts.

Perhaps soon you will watch a video on Youtube showing Ivey, Antonius and Benyamine playing crabs, playing out the order of who is playing poker first against Dwan. Indeed, at the latest after the second round against the challengers, not much is suspected to be left of Dwans money.

Tom „durrrr“ Dwan challenges the poker world !

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 14:43:20 +0100

Apparently, the Christmas season must have been too boring for Internet PokerPro Tom "durrrr" Dwan, as he challenges the poker world. Whoever plays 50,000 hands heads-up against him either Texas Hold'em No Limit or Pot Limit Omaha with $ 200 - $ 400 blinds and at least 4 tables online and leads after the 50,000 hands played against him will receive additional $ 1.5 million from Tom "durrrr" Dwan as a bonus. If Dwan is in the lead, he retains the profit and receives additional $ 500,000 from his challengers. Dwan has also expressed an exception to his offering: His good friend and PokerPro Phil Galfond is not invited and limited to railing.

Whether now Phil Ivey felt insulted by this exception, or simply the 3:1 odds appealed is a detail we do not dare to judge. In any case, he has commented the challenge: "Somebody’s propably going to go broke."

Ivey told his friend Barry Greenstein yesterday that he officially accepted the challenge and informed Dwan. Greenstein is not sure whether Ivey ever has the patience playing against the same player over a month. According to his quick calculation, one would have to play daily 4-5 hour sessions on 4 tables for about a month in order to come up to 50,000 played hands. Nevertheless, Greenstein believes that Ivey is the best heads-up player and would have expected from Dwan that he excluded Phil Ivey from his challenge instead of Phil Galfond.

Apart from Phil Ivey there are also other pros like David Benyamin and Patrik Antonius interested in the challenge.

The 22 year-old online pro, who already proved his skills at the live poker tables of the Poker After Dark and HighStakes Poker shows , polarizes the poker friends. One side will find him arrogant and his challenge seems to be a proof of it, the others are impressed with his strength and his self-confidence.

In any case, it is once again a successful PR campaign, which the poker fans fascinates. More of it can be read in the new edition of the CardPlayer Magazine.

RFID smart cards track every card in the deck

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 14:18:00 +0100

Whoever is still looking after an unusual gift for Christmas, we have a great idea from Australia. A gift that offers new perpectives to your home poker rounds.

The Australian Andrew Milner has built a poker table, equipped with RFID chips in each game card and HD cameras that follow every movement. So you can even find out where a particular card is located in the deck.
Wafer-thin RFID cards are available on each game card and movements are followed by 4 separate HD cameras and then fed into a video encoder, creating a live feed. A special software combines video feeds with data from the RFID chip cards. So that the viewer can see exactly where and what card is precisely, and which move each player is doing. The RFID chip cards are so thin that a complete deck is stacked properly.

The whole set-up cost Milner about $7.000 and 3 months of work, but it is very impressive for what it is. For those of you who do not like to wait any longer on the HighStakes poker videos, we recommed this as a nice Christmas gift for your poker peers.

Time will tell whether the technology also receives admission into Vegas card rooms. Card tricks would be severely restricted and in any case traceable.

-0E0ab8dUwU

With SunPoker to CAPT Bregenz

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 17:09:45 +0100

As of December 16 SunPoker has become a member of the iPoker network. The iPoker network, operated by the London Stock Exchange-listed Playtech, enjoys rapidly growing popularity. The network has developed in a very short time to the third largest online poker network worldwide.

There are already some well-known online poker rooms member of the iPoker network, such as Titan Poker, VC Poker, Noble Poker and Kiwi Poker.

Until January 31 2009 SunPoker continues to run parallel on both the old software and the Cryptologic network, as well as on the new platform in the iPoker network, in order to facilitate the migration of the existing accounts. You can speed up the process by signing up on the new software, i.e. through our link to SunPoker, and then send a brief e-mail to migrationSunPoker.com, mentioning your old and new user name. The account balance will be transferred from the old to the new account.
The advantage is that the online poker room finally is available in various language formats. Latest during the first installation of the new software you will be asked to choose between 7 different languages.

While the tables in the Cryptologic network remained relatively isolated and in our view there was no particularly good reason for us to recommend playing on SunPoker, with the integration into the iPoker network, which already includes Titan Poker, we can now recommend SunPoker in good conscience. Differences between the various poker rooms on the iPoker network remain. The colors of the graphics at SunPoker are red and on Titan blue. Promotions and offers of various tournament obviously differ, too. For our friends of the Casino Austria Poker Tour, SunPoker offers interesting qualification tournaments for the Main Event. For those who do not want to qualify through our exclusive deal with Titan Poker for the CAPT events, can instead try SunPoker.

As of January 2009 you can qualify on a daily basis through three stages for the main event of CAPT Bregenz. Every day at 1, 3, 5 and 7:00 pm (Germany time) mini-qualifications with a buy-in of € 5 + € 0.50 are played. The winner will receive a free seat in the daily qualifying tournament with a buy-in of € 25 + € 2.50, running from 9:00 pm on. The winner of this qualifier will receive a seat in the major qualification tournaments for CAPT Main Event (€ 2,500 package guaranteed) with a buy-in of € 200 + € 20. The major qualification tournaments are to be held on the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25 January and on 1 and 6 February. You can also buy-in directly into each qualifier.

Here you can download the new software!

2008 Year-end Retrospective

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:12:39 +0100

As usual, we will use the quiet, contemplative time between the years, which also usually provides very little action, for a retrospective on the past year of our poker life. Scandals after scandals after scandals .... Not interested in it now and not today, because we want to conclude the year with a little laugh about us, and especially about others. Anecdotes hidden in approx. 70 images follow and Kudos to the Photoshop experts!

Throwing Cards or Shoes?

Mon, 15 Dec 2008 21:43:12 +0100

Didn’t we say so? Poker reflects our society! Who has not experienced that anger over a suckout on the river or bad beat, and a player has thrown his cards and perhaps those of his teammates at the dealer’s head? Actually, the cards want to be thrown in front of the feet of the dealer. Since the dealer usually sit fairly close to the tables, only half the upper body is left as a target. Some of the live targets, whether guilty or not is completely irrelevant, required medical care even after the attack.

One could now lead a discussion about whether the dealer is rightly so punished for his involuntary inability with throwing sharp projectiles. In any case, he himself has drawn the "arse card", because he can ultimately only rarely win. He would need to regularly deal split pots and this is hardly possible. So it is somehow always a given, the cards will be thrown at him anyway. At the latest after the third split pot in a row, he will see flying cards and chips around him, and that would be from everyone who wants to participate.

So, rightly or wrongly, it is completely irrelevant in poker. This is about luck or bad luck. And if you see fV3_EanmPMgthis video , then all dealers can only be glad that they have seen mostly just flying cards. Because poker reflects our society, but poker players know to behave. Otherwise shoes would have long since flown. Or not?

P.S.: 'To draw the arse card'; i.e. to have very bad luck or to DRAW A BLANK. This expression has its roots in the conventions of football refereeing: in the days of black-and-white television, when viewers could not easily tell if a player had been shown a yellow card or a red card for a foul, referees began the practice of taking the yellow card out of their breast pocket, and the red card out of the back pocket of their shorts. The 'arse card' is worse than than either yellow or red, since it comes out of the referee's backside.
Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase & Fable, 17th ed.

Norway Prohibits Online Poker and Gambling

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:41:28 +0100

On Friday last week the Norwegian government ruled the approval of a proposal to ban online poker and gambling in the region. Norwegian residents will not be allowed to access online poker and gambling sites.

The enforcement of the new law is not expected before mid-2009, as the Norwegian government needs to prepare regulations of the law. The regulations are consistent with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) of the United States.
The law is opposed both by the European Commission and Norway's Financial Service Association, as well as some well-known Norwegian financial institutions. Some experts have expressed their concern and believe that the fate of the new law will be decided in the European Court of Justice.

Opponents of the Norwegian government claim that the law was introduced in favor of protecting the government monopoly, Norsk Tipping Lottery.

The Norsk Tipping Lottery offers a variety of online games such as Lotto, sports betting, etc., and returned to the Norwegian government about 78 billion kronor since its introduction in 1948.

PokerStars to Hold Largest Poker Tournament for a New World Record

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:40:33 +0100

On Sunday, 28 December PokerStars organizes the official attempt, to set the world's largest poker tournament in the Guinness Book of World Records.

The biggest online poker room guarantees a prize money of $ 500,000 for a buy-in of only $ 11. The tournament is capped at 35,000 players, ie in a best case scenario, 3,500 tables would be employed . Blind levels are limited to 10 minutes, similar to a turbo tournament, tables will be 10 handed and the official prize money will be announced after the end of the registration period. The tournament (tournament ID: 126551369) starts at 15:30 ET (21:30 pm Germany) and players can sign up until 2 minutes before the tournament starts.
Last summer in August, PokerStars hosted a similar tournament, which at a buy-in of $ 11 and a prize money of $ 100,000 recorded 20,000 players. Lynna1 won 1st place and a prize money of $ 20,000.

We are already eager to see whether the official PokerStars attempt will be successfully completed and recorded in the Guinness Book of Records. The verification and confirmation will take about 6 weeks and is conducted by the Guinness headquarters in London.

If you signup at PokerStars through us, you will receive a bonus of $50 for your first $50!

Titan Poker started ECOOP with over 1.400 Players

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0100

Titan Poker’s third European Championship of Online Poker started last week Monday with it’s largest guaranteed prizepool of US$ 4.150.000 for the whole series. The first tournament with a buy-in of $200+$15 and a guaranteed prizepool of $250.000 attracted 1.420 players.

After the first tournament week of the series, it is easy to state that Titan Poker is expanding successfully and the ECOOP has become a set member of the „online-poker-tour“. Event nr.1 attracted 1-420 players and booked a prizemoney of $284.000, far more than the guaranteed $250.000. The player „IamBetterThanU“ won the ECOOP bracelet and $59.640.

Event nr. 2 and 3 also exceeded expectations. The prizepool of event nr. 2 with $106.600 was higher than the guaranteed sum of $100.000. Player „PUPAA“ took home the bracelet and $24.518. The prizepool of event nr. 3 reached more than double size of the guaranteed prizemoney of $100.000 with $221.900 in total. The winner „miffy444“ won a bracelet and $46.599.

This years ECOOP, which is the longest lasting and largest ever, is running on Titan Poker until December 7th, and it is offering tounraments in different variations and limts.
If you register through Pokerdelta on Titan Poker, you will receive a sign-up bonus of 100% match up to $500 max. and you can still qualify for any of the ECOOP III events through satellites.

Following is the remaining tournament schedule:

Tournament	Date	Buy-in	Guaranteed Prize
THNL	Monday, 1.Dezember	$2.500+$100	$250.000
7Card Stud	Tuesday, 2.Dezember	$250+$18	$50.000
THNL (6 max)	Wednesday, 3.Dezember	$300+$20	$250.000
PL Omaha	Thursday, 4.Dezember	$100+$9	$150.000
THNL	Friday, 5.Dezember	$100+$9	$300.000
PL Omaha	Saturday, 6.Dezember	$400+$30	$150.000
THNL Main Event	Sunday, 7.Dezember	$1.000+$60	$1.500.000

Titan Poker is one of the most popular online pokerrooms in Europe and is a member of the iPoker network, which ist he 3rd largest poker network worldwide. Titan guarantees more than $16.000.000 in monthly prizemoney and books almost 30.000 players online in peak time.

Play at the CAPT Seefeld with Titan Poker

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0100

On Monday December 1st at 6:30 pm the race is on for the qualification tournaments on Titan Poker to the CAPT tournament week in Seefeld in January 2009.

The qualification tournaments with a buy-in as low as €5,-- will start on Titan Poker at 6:30 pm, 7:00 pm, 8:30 pm and 9:00 pm , and winners will qualify for the Mega-Satellites to which direct buy-ins are also possible. The Mega-Satellites will also be played on Titan Poker every week on Sunday at 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm. Winners will get a seat for the CAPT Seefeld tournaments on January 10, 2009 (Buy-in €500,-- THNL Freezeout), January 11, 2009 (Buy-in €400,-- THNL Freezeout) and the main event on January 17, 2009 (Buy-in €2.000,-- THNL Freezeout).

Seefeld i.T. is regarded as one of the most beautiful pokerlocations in Europe. Ideally scheduled, one can enjoy a sporty snowy winter day in the region around Roßhütte, or even test his stamina on the Nordic Olympic cross country slope from 1976, which is also illuminated during night on the small round in the direction of Mösern. Who, however, pokers all night long and therefore eyes the sun only from noon on, you may want to be pampered in the newly renovated Olympic Wellness Center or simply hike through the beautiful snow scene in healthy fresh air. In Seefeld poker fans can connect intense Poker weeks with a great family vacation.

Titan Poker offers satellites exclusively to Pokerdelta.com members, who register through our Titan Poker link or sign-up with our promotioncode "pkrdeltade" at Titan Poker. In addition to the usual first deposit bonus of 100% match up to $500, and the exclusive satellites to CAPT events, we offer freerolls and various other satellites to live tournaments.

For those of you, who are already members of Titan Poker and therefore are not eligible for our promotion bonus, due to the official start of Pokerdelta.com we offer access to our exclusive satellites at Titan Poker. When you register for the specific satellites with Titan, they will ask for a password. To receive this password, please send an e-mail beforehand to infopokerdelta.com.

Excalibur automates live Poker

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:19:00 +0100

Since last week, the seasoned dealer of the poker room in the Excalibur Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas are just a memory of the past. On one hand it was somehow nostalgically nice when the mostly elderly senior dealer in their pretty baroque west shuffeled the cards and one would only awake from the'70s dream by the even older cocktail ladies. On the other hand this kind of poker, which reminded one rather of a home game in a nursing home, is no longer particularly profitable for the casino.

So summarily an experiment was launched that could result in a new direction for some of the casinos in the middle category. Since last week, the poker room at the Excalibur is equipped with automated poker tables from 4OJBV5aEo-APokerTek (click here to watch a video about it). That alone is not the hit, however. But playing pot-limit Omaha at the tables with low limits in the $ 0.50-$ 1 is asupposed to be a winner. In addition, Texas Hold'em no limit with low limits of $ 0.50-$ 1 will be offered. A novelty in Las Vegas, but reactive to the increased interest in the PLO game that has become known to people particularly through the High Stakes headlines of online poker.

The low limits of the PLO game allow the PLO inexperienced players, with a relatively small investment to better learn the game. A $ 1 - $ 2 PLO game would monetarily be played like a $ 2 - $ 5 Texas Hold'em no limit game, and thus a much higher bank roll is necessary than a beginner is willing to risk.
Besides the general advantages of a fully automated poker table, excluding the usual conflicts, such as misdeal, act out of turn, and other human errors, additional features are offered. With "Rabbit hunt" you can, for example, for a small fee see which card on the River would have hit if the hand had been played.

For all poker enthusiasts it is a great experiment, because hopefully the various poker variations are promoted to people and so little action is there to find for everyone.

Christmas Championship and Nationscup in Bregenz

Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:17:05 +0100

The annual test of whether this years Christmas gifts are going to be generous or may fail yet again,to the esoteric self handymen, will take place at Casino Bregenz. During the first week of December (2nd until December 7) the Casino Austria Bregenz invites for the Christmas Championship and the 2nd Nationscup.

The list of participants reads now like a "Who's Who" of European poker scene. With two teams Germany, Switzerland, Italy and Austria are each represented at the Nationscup in Bregenz. Bracelet winners Katja Thater, Michael Keiner, Edi Scharf, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Jens Vörtmann, Thomas Bihl, Dario Alioto, and Ivo Donev are going to start for their countries. The Christmas Poker Championship still also attracts many more internationally successful tournament players like Andreas Krause, Erich Kollmann, Harry Casagrande, Stefan Rapp, Rino Mathis, Vito Branciforte and Severin Walser.

Details of the tournament week in Bregenz can be read in our tournament calendar section.

Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth Aiming at the Catwalk

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 23:51:42 +0100

The self-proclaimed best No Limit Hold’em player of all times and 11 times WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth is reaching new levels of his personal marketing and follows in the footsteps of superstars Paris Hilton, Heidi Klum and P. Diddy by releasing his own clothing line.

At PokerBrat.com he is presenting his art work, where you can purchase apparel like shirts, baseball hats, books, dvds and energy drinks.

“We've worked with artists in Las Vegas, Missouri and West Hollywood and I told them to create whatever their hearts desired and, man, did they create some great poker designs.” said Hellmuth.

Phil Hellmuth is one of the best poker players, who polarizes the fans of the game. Some believe the recordholder of 11 WSOP bracelets and winner of most WSOP cashes (69) is one of the best tournament poker players of all times. Others think of Hellmuth as a brat, which is the reason for his ironic choice of the nickname „Pokerbrat“. By all means, both sides would not contest the statement that he is a marketing oriented ego-maniac.

Mansion Poker starts German and Spanish Site

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 23:03:59 +0100

Online poker room Mansion Poker, which just recently moved to the iPoker network, the world’s 3rd largest poker network and also home for Titan Poker, offers with immediate effect their services in German and Spanish.

The German and Spanish Mansion Poker sites also offer the same promotions and progressive jackpots as the English site. The $50k Fort Knox progressive jackpots as well as the $25k Rio progressive jackpots will continue to be available.

Register your account with Mansion Poker through Pokerdelta.com and you will receive a sign-up bonus of 100% match up to $500.

„60 Minutes“ Story on Poker Scandal to Air Sunday on CBS

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 18:22:30 +0100

Coming Sunday it will finally arrive: CBS will air during their well-known „60 Minutes“ news show the long-awaited investigative documentary about the poker scandal surrounding UltimateBet and Absolute Poker. Tactically, the broadcast station waited until the WSOP 2008 final table finished in November, in order to avoid a prejudice against the popular and growing poker industry, but to single out the rotten apples.

The interviews have been conducted in summer 2008 during the WSOP, and some respected poker pros share their opinion: Annie Duke, who works for UltimateBet, Greg Raymer, the WSOP 2004 Main Event Champion, Linda Johnson and Mike Sexton.

CBS is summarizing the documentary on their website:
„A collaboration by two of the world's most respected news organizations reveals how online poker players suspecting cheating were forced to successfully ferret out the cheaters themselves. That's because managers of the mostly-unregulated $18 billion Internet gambling industry failed to respond to their complaints.
The results of the four-month investigation by 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft, producer Ira Rosen and The Washington Post’s two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Gilbert Gaul will appear this Sunday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. ET/PT on 60 Minutes.“

Gilbert Gaul, winner of two Pullitzer Prices and four times nominee, is said to also publish a report in „The Washington Post“. It is expected that he will call for clear regulations of the online poker industry.

rsZL4aWLj4MClick here to watch the preview!

UltimateBet and Absolute Poker start a new Network

Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:24:21 +0100

Already in summer 2008 Tokwiro Enterprises, the owner of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker, announced the merger of both player pools into their newly established Cereus network. The merger has been concluded.
Trigger for such a move is definitely the general consolidation of the online poker industry and the strategic adjustment to increasingly difficult conditions.

Whilst the software of each poker room continues to run under their respective name, the players enjoy a much higher liquidity of playing opportunities and variations of the game due to the combines player pool. Also the combined Bad Beat Jackpot offers some attractive reason to signup with this network.

After the cheating super user account scandals surrounding both poker rooms, Tokwiro promises a much improved security in addition to higher player liquidity and a combined Bad Beat Jackpot.
The grown player pool will most likely also increase the guranteed prize money of the regular 200k tournnament on Sundays with a buy-in of $200.

The iPoker Network is expanding rapidly

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 13:29:56 +0100

Today it has been announced by the poker management company "Peak Entertainment", registered in Malta, that they moved their online poker business from CryptoLogic to the iPoker network. This will directly affect CS Casino, Omni Casino and SunPoker (formerly known as Caribbean Sun Poker). The move will take place in December and the loyalty points will be transferred over to iPoker.

The iPoker network, owned and operated by Playtech, a listed shareholding company at London exchange, enjoys rapidly increasing popularity. Within a very short period of time, the network expanded to the third largest global online poker network. Members of the iPoker network are already Titan Poker, VC Poker, Noble Poker and Kiwi Poker.

Daniel Negreanu wins the B.C. Poker Championship

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:00:00 +0100

It ended up as a spezial win for the most recognized poker representative from Canada, Daniel Negreanu, when he won on Sunday the second largest poker tournament in Canada, the British Columbia Poker Championship and US$ 371,910. He overcame 689 competitors in the Texas Hold’em Main Event with a buy-in of US$ 2,500.

“Being Canadian myself, playing and winning the BC Poker Championships is extra special to me,” said Negreanu. “It may have been a smaller tournament but I would say this has been the best $2,500 buy-in event structure I’ve ever played.” said Negreanu after his win.
Among the 60 places in the money, there were also other big names like Steve Paul-Ambrose, who finished the tournament in 43. Place, taking home $6,931. Dennis Phillips, third of the WSOP 2008 Main Event, became 30th and took home US$ 8,543. Others were Brad „Yukon“ Booth, Gavin Smith, Lacey Jones, Gabe Kaplan, Isabelle „No Mery“ Mercier, Liz Lieu, Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho.

The River Rock Casino Resorts in Richmond, B.C., booked a great success with the 5 tournaments they ran from November 16.-23. A totl prize pool of more than US$ 2.9 million and three events sold out, the B.C. Poker Championships confirmed its place as the second largest tournament in Canada, just short of the WPT North American Poker Championship, which takes place every year around autumn in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

France back on EPT Schedule

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:03:48 +0100

EPT sponsor Poker Stars announced the return of France on the EPT schedule. After 2 years absence due to poker unfriendly changes in laws in France, which have been revised in the meantime to the positive side, France's Casino Barriere Deauville will host an attractive stop of the EPT during the 5th season.

The EPT France will be played from January 20 until 24th 2009, and as usual, Poker Stars started to offer satellites to the event.

WPT Online Players transferred to InterPoker

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 15:49:47 +0100

The WPT, World Poker Tour, one of the most recognized names in poker, pulls the plug on their still relatively young online poker room due to economic reasons (and certainly due to some other factors). Whilst this development was observed since the start of the year 2008, it wasn't obvious to WPT what to do with their online poker players, who had already registered with the site. It has been announced recently that the players will be transferred to InterPoker.

High Stakes Poker Going into New Season

Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:20:24 +0100

The most famous poker show for all poker fans, High Stakes Poker, produced for GSN by Poker PRO-ductions, will be back. Some say the show is a marketing tool for the Phil Helmuths of the world, for others it started their interest in the game as the viewer can see the holecards while the hand is played.

The fifth season will be taped at The Golden Nugget from December 19-21 and players will need to buy-in for $200,000, which has been raised from last season’s $100,000. Now that is called inflation.
„High Stakes Poker, by a wide margin, has become a must-see on GSN for poker players and poker fans all over the world“, said executive producer and recent Poker Hall-of-Fame inductee Henry Orenstein. „We are happy to bring back the top amateurs and professionals risking hundreds of thousands of their money in the new season.“
Previous seasons included some of the biggest names in the game: Doyle Brunson, Sammy Farha, Jennifer Harman, Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren, and who does not remember the most discussed played hand of Season 2 between Gus Hansen and Daniel Negreanu ?

HighStakesClick here to watch the video of the hand played between Gus and Daniel !

Whilst the fifth season roster has yet to be announced, Executive Producer Mori Eskandani said: „I am very excited about the mix of players that we will bring together for this next season of High Stakes Poker. Viewers are in for a thrill.“

Phil Ivey climbs back to Top Money winner list

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:09:52 +0100

High-Stakes action on Full Tilt Poker was relatively quiet this month. Only Patrik Antonius was on a streak beginning of the month and sat comfortably in the No. 1 seat of the top 100 money ranking. But Phil Ivey discreetly stole the rank from him.

This happened, however, not by media attracting mega-sized pots and multi-million dollar sessions, but in the typical style of a sustained, successful cash player. Instead, Phil Ivey elaborated in several smaller sessions a sweet profit of $ 1.5 million profit.

One of these meetings took place on Sunday against Matt Hawrilenko in a Limit Hold'em game. After approximately 2.5 hours heads-up with $ 2,000 / $ 4,000 blinds, Ivey left the arena with a profit of $ 300,000. But Hawrilenko had been hurt already the previous days as Ivey took from him $ 1,000,000 through 1609 hands played.

If Hawrilenko loses a further $ 40,000, then he will receives the less honorable award for player with the biggest monthly loss, which currently is held by lady marmalade. Lady marmalade, the alleged nick of Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque du Soleil, was one of the main involuntary donor for Antonius' success earlier this month. Guy Laliberté won 4th place at the WPT in 2007 and won a prize money of $ 700.000. In 2007 he lost under the nick "noataima" on Full Tilt approximately $ 6.1 million. High-stakes databases recorded for him at Full Tilt already a loss of $ 17 million in total. Phil Ivey is certainly guilty as charged...

CAPT Seefeld 2009 Satellites

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:55:53 +0100

Starting December 1st 2008, Pokerdelta.com hosts exclusively in cooperation with Titan Poker daily satellites to CAPT events of the Casino Austria Tour 2009, which stops over in Seefeld in Tyrol from January 10 until January 17, 2009. You get the chance to qualify for various tournaments of the CAPT Seefeld through mini-satellites with a buy-in of only €5,--. The main event in Seefeld with a buy-in of € 2.000,-- can be entered through satellites with a buy-in of only €10,--.

The rumor mill around Full Tilt is running hot

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:55:48 +0100

The rumor mill round Full Tilt Poker is running hot. Since people speculated in several forums about David Benyamine's contract with Full Tilt possibly not being re-newed, and Clonie Gowen filed a $40 million lawsuit against Full Tilt last Friday, rumors are that the 2nd largest poker room is still not making money despite or thanks to huge advertising campaigns. Accordingly a conversation between the operational brain behind the curtain, Howard Lederer, and a poker colleague was overheard.

Already last year around the same time David Benyamine chatted openly on Full Tilt with Gus Hansen and claimed that he was several millions behind and intended to stop playing Poker on Full Tilt. Was it just well planned PR ? Did FT give David a decent period of grace for repayment of his debt? Still weird enough, if you just ignore all the elaboration: Benyamine loses millions and starts complaining openly on FT. FT then offers him a contract (again?). Benyamine plays a financially successful season 2008. Apparently FT does not renew his contract... The pre-flop game, flop, turn and river does not add up. It might be a good reason why this rumor ends up as a rumor only, but where there's smoke, there's usually also fire.

In contrast, the filed lawsuit of Clonie Gowen against his former employee Full Tilt Poker and the individuals named in her complaint, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius, is definitely no rumor.

The suit is based on facts stated by Gowen that she was hired by Full Tilt to be one of their “celebrity players” and that her compensation for that job was a one percent ownership of the company and any extended parts thereof. From 2004 until November 11th of this year (when Gowen was informed that she was being released by Full Tilt), she played under the “Team Full Tilt” banner, wore their logos and promoted the site at poker tournaments around the world, pointing out in court documents that she did not receive any buy ins for tournaments or other financial backing from the company for that time other than her 1% ownership. She also alleges that there were undisclosed regular payments to the members of Team Full Tilt that started in May 2007 and that she was denied the same compensation.

Gowen’s legal representation backs up her claims by stating that there was a verbal contract offered by Bitar in 2004 and that, in November of 2007, Lederer offered her $250,000 for her “past performance” with the company, which Gowen refused. Her refusal was based, according to the complaint, that she was due much more as per her 1% ownership. Her attorneys have also stated that, after 2007, Gowen was “ostracized” from the group and, in effect, pushed out of the organization. Gowen is seeking her one percent of the entirety of the Full Tilt operation, which her attorneys have estimated at $40 million, with the additional possibility of punitive damages adding on to that amount.

The WSOP experiment of ESPN and Harrah's

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:51:51 +0100

It seesm as if the WSOP experiment of ESPN and Harrah's, delaying the play of the the final table until November and building up a media hype, apparently worked out well. Last week Thursday ESPN announced that the number of viewers, watching the broadcast of the final 2 hours last Tuesday, increased by 46% compared to 2007 up to a total number of 1.9 million homes and 2.4 million viewers in an average minute. The entire schedule of 32 shows has been viewed in average by approx. 1,126 million people. This represents an increase of 15% in comparison to previous year.