Annie beat a cast of poker superstars to make the final where she faced legend Erik Seidel. She overcame good friend and heads up specialist Andy Bloch in round one and beat World Series of Poker 2009 runner-up Darvin Moon in round two. In the last sixteen Paul Wasicka, who won this event in 2007 and is known as an excellent heads up poker player was beaten in a classic match, then the run of Jerry Yang was ended in the quarter final by Annie. She beat Dennis Phillips in the semi finals to make her first final. Seidel won the first of the best of three heads up matches but Annie held her nerve and won the title winning the next two matches.

The final payouts for the highest placed finishers in this event are as follows, which reads as a who’s who list of poker personalities.

1: Annie Duke — $500,000
2: Erik Seidel — $250,000
3: Scotty Nguyen — $125,000
3: Dennis Phillips — $125,000
5: Jerry Yang — $75,000
5: Doyle Brunson — $75,000
5: Jason Mercier — $75,000
5: Peter Eastgate — $75,000
9: Paul Wasicka — $25,000
9: Eli Elezra — $25,000
9: Annette Obrestad — $25,000
9: Barry Greenstein — $25,000
9: Gabe Kaplan — $25,000
9: Phil Laak — $25,000
9: Chris Moneymaker — $25,000
9: Jamie Gold — $25,000

Annie’s win is very respectable based on this field and she has a brilliant list of tournament wins that puts her on par with the most successful players of all time. Annette Obrestad may have to wait a little longer to become the best female player in the world now that Annie has re-established herself as a force in the game. Jason Mercier also deserves praise for living up to his EPT promise over the last year with a strong finish in this prestigious tournament winning $75,000. Dennis Phillips also continued to prove that appearances can be deceptive with another excellent result in a poker tournament. He was once mocked as a lucky player but has to be considered a player of massive talent with yet another great result.

In other news, if you have spared a thought for Tiger Woods during his fall from grace then remember he is pretty rich even without his sponsors. Paddy Power, the Irish bookmakers, recently offered him a five year sponsorship deal worth $75 million dollars which he turned down. They say they will return with a better offer. Should he refuse this increased offer and they seek an alternative poker player on a similar deal, I accept! Woods and fellow PGA tour pros are banned from promoting gambling websites anyway but Paddy Power are experts at using the media to generate publicity.

Whilst I wait for a reply from Paddy Power, I shall return to my favourite poker room bwin.com and play some Texas Hold’em poker.

Look out for more poker news in the near future.

By Malcolm Clarke

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To make a value bet you must have a strong hand as you are making a bet you wish your opponent to call. You need to have a pretty good indication that your opponent will interpret your bet the way you want them to and then call. The perfect value bet would be to bet the most that they will call but not enough so they fold. Sometimes an opponent would call any bet thanks to the strength of their own hand; part of the skill of value betting is working out how the opponent will interpret the bet and how they will respond.

Players like Tom “Durrrr” Dwan make large river bets sometimes over betting the pot. This looks weak because it is exactly what they would do if they were bluffing. An aggressive player like Tom will have bet throughout the hand and created a large pot. By aggressively firing at the river he will scare opponents off the hand a lot of the time and when called be holding a hand a lot of the time too. Overall this is a winning move for him. When he is called and is beat there will be many other occasions where he has bluffed opponents from hands to make up for that one loss.

Large over betting as a value bet forms part of an aggressive strategy. You need plenty of heart to make these bets as you need to balance the strategy by doing this with nothing too and that is risky. If you think your opponents will pay you off and are holding a strong hand (preferably where you are holding the nuts) you can make a big bet. Be careful though because if this bet is too strong your opponent may be forced to fold. You cannot afford to only get called on these types of bets when you are beaten as that would be unprofitable.

Small value bets is like giving a player just enough rope to hang themselves. They may know they are behind but because they are getting, for example, three to one odds on the pot they decide to call because it looks like a good value move. Small bets are usually half the pot or less and the strategy is to squeeze as much as you can from the player when you believe a larger bet would result in your opponent folding. For example, if you have a hidden flush your opponent probably has top or two pair to have remained in the hand through the flop, turn and now the river. A big bet is good for you but is unlikely to be called. A smaller bet may entice a call especially if they have two pair. The small value bet needs to be just enough to get a call but not enough to make folding look a better move.

Value betting is very important to winning poker. You want your value bets to be called and to look like bluffs, so consider your bluffing technique and make the two similar in appearance. These marginal calls can turn a break even player into a winning player and rescue a losing player from losses. It is a vital concept in playing poker that you need to study and master.

By Malcolm Clarke

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Pick any three poker players who have heard of Luke and two will probably dislike him and the third will probably dislike but respect him. He evokes emotions but he is definitely a great poker player. The $258,000 and the prestige that this will give him in the poker world may go some way to repairing an image tarnished by clashes with airport crew, being barred from casinos and making personal remarks when playing poker online that have caused the poker world to dislike him so much.

The big story of the tournament was Giovanni Safina who won his seat into the tournament via a 100 Euro ticket. The $158,000 will be an amazing amount of money for him. We all love seeing players have a great run like this, one day we hope it is us getting the big win! Safina was determined to enjoy his run to the final table and gave as good as he got in various verbal exchanges with the ever loud Schwartz. His third place is very credible in such a quality field.

Benyamine and Schwartz entered the heads up battle with Luke holding a large chip lead. After losing an all-in confrontation it appeared that Schwartz, according to pokernews live updates, went up to Benyamine and offered him a deal. This was quickly declined by Benyamine who rightly sensed the tide had turned in his favour and he had a good chance to win. Given the high stakes games David frequents it is unlikely he would ever want a chop in any situation.

Holding Q2 Schwartz raised it pre-flop and was called by David Benyamine holding Q8. Schwartz made a continuation bet and was raised by Benyamine. Luke shoved for about $280,000 more with about 500,000 in the pot and after some thought David called. Luke complained about a slow roll, but his hopes of a reprieve by the poker gods were in vain when the board blanked and the title belonged to the popular Frenchman. David said he was not used to picking up titles, but it felt good. Luke said he felt he had played the best throughout the week and next time he would take down a big title. He just might too.

Congratulations to British player Roland De Wolfe who enjoyed another good week picking up $114,000 for a fifth place finish in this event, which is promoted by Matchroom Sports.

Here are the final payouts and league positions.

Final Table result and total prize money (one league point equals $2,000 in prize money)

1 David Benyamine $476,000 (38 points)
2 Luke Schwartz $258,000 (29 points)
3 Giovanni Safina $158,000 (29 points)
4 Daniel Negreanu $132,000 (26 points)
5 Roland De Wolfe $114,000 (22 points)
6 Phil Laak $146,000 (48 points)
Beaten heads-up players:
Ian Frazer $52,000 (fifth spot with 26 points)
JC Tran $40,000 (eight spot with 20 points)

The following players failed to qualify for the final table:

9 Phil Hellmuth $38,000 (19 points)
10 Yevgeniy Timoshenko $32,000 (16 points)
11 Vanessa Rousso $32,000 (16 points)
12 Tony G $22,000 (11 points)

By Malcolm Clarke

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Judge Robert C. Jones granted the dismissal of the court case filed against Howard Lederer, Raymond Bitar and Full Tilt Poker by well-known professional player Clonie Gowen. She had alleged that a verbal agreement was made that she would be given a share of Full Tilt and this case has been pending for much of the last three years. No comment has been made as yet from anyone at Full Tilt on the matter, nor has Gowen commented on the ruling but the dismissal of the case is likely to draw a line under this unfortunately episode for Full Tilt.

Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz is back in the news again for predictably the wrong reasons. He arrived late and was denied boarding a flight for Las Vegas. He was forced to board a different flight and just arrived in time to reach the poker tournament. Unfortunately that was only after being asked to leave the airport after firing a volley of abuse at the flight attendents who refused to allow him to board his orginal flight. Schwartz recently featured in a programme by the BBC in the UK about young gamblers where he said he had lost $1 million in one day on more than one occasion and “was stressed out just thinking about it”.

Harrah’s have completed the next step of acquiring the Planet Hollywood Casino. By doing so they have assumed responsibility for another $550 million of debt having already taken on board part of the overall debt totalling $300 million during 2009. After final approval by the Nevada gaming commission they expect to complete the purchase of Planet Hollywood in around one weeks time, at which point Planet Hollywood employees will become employed by Harrahs. Harrahs have pledged to retain 95% of the workers currently employed by Planet Hollywood despite Planet Hollywood having so much debt.

Doyle Brunson is not expected to be seen at the poker tables until the World Series of Poker after unexpected requiring dental surgery. He posted on his blog that his recovery time is going to be a little longer than he anticipated and he pulled out of appearing in the Premier League. He assures his fans that he will be ready to play poker once the WSOP starts and will be back to full fitness to try and win his eleventh bracelet.

Isildur1 made a quiet return to the high stakes games but his results were less than satisfactory for him. He lost around $454,000 in a session against nemesis Durrrr, after losing around $150,000 against a variety of opponents a few days previously.

Tom “Durrrr” Dwan was back in action against Patrik Antonius in the Durrrr challenge. The challenge has become something of an anti-climax and has been criticised by poker fans for taking over one year to complete. Tom issued the challenge because he struggled to get good games and we all know things took a turn in late 2009 where good cash games were everywhere. After 32,795 of 50,000 hands to be played Tom is ahead by $1.3 million. Antonius has been losing consistently for the last few sessions and has less than 17,000 hands remaining to turn around the deficit. As he can win $1.5 million if he is even $1 ahead at the end of the challenge the action is bound to heat up when this challenge recommences. When that will be is anyone’s guess.

By Malcolm Clarke

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The Democrats lost the election to fill the senate seat vacated by the passing of Edward “Ted” Kennedy. This meant that they now hold only 59 seats in the senate. With senate elections coming up in November poker blogger Lou Kreiger now fears the focus in the senate has now shifted into protecting their majority rather than supporting online poker. Believing that this will now cause Democrats to view online poker as an argument they can do without Kreiger also believes the UIGEA act will therefore come into force on June 1st as proposed which is a devastating blow to the campaign to legalise and therefore regulate poker in the USA.

Without counter legislation UIGEA defines the key term “Unlawful Internet Gambling” as “…means to place, receive, or otherwise knowingly transmit a bet or wager by any means which involves the use, at least in part, of the Internet where such bet or wager is unlawful under any applicable Federal or State law in the State or Tribal lands in which the bet or wager is initiated, received, or otherwise made.” Passing UIGEA would make life very difficult for USA players to play poker and prevent another poker boom taking place when the USA players return to the player pool online.

Another blow to the US poker players market was that MasterCard, known for its proactive efforts to prevent players depositing to online gaming, worked out how poker rooms were manipulating the code for transactions and blocked such uncoded transactions from taking place. This immediately meant that Doyles Room, Bodog and Absolute Poker among other sites immediately removed MasterCard as a deposit option.

There has been a “cat and mouse” war raging between MasterCard and poker rooms for many years and this is not the first time that MasterCard worked out a way to block such transactions. Poker rooms have, in the past, worked out a way to get deposits working again and will be working to do so again. Part of the six month hiatus between UIGEA being announced and being implemented is to allow the Federal Reserve to consider how it will be enforced. It looks like that may be difficult, but unfortunately for poker players the bill looks increasingly less likely to be repealed. Players will hope that VISA does not also work out a way to block deposits, and VISA are rumoured to be researching how to block such transactions at the moment.

Poker players are prepared to pay tax on their poker playing in return for being allowed to play it. Indeed the US government would have access to hundreds of billions of dollars from US player gaming revenues to raise tax which makes the ban even more bizarre.

Players look determined to exercise what they believe is their right to do what they wish with their own money in spite of the ruling. Mass refusal of the bills authority would make it very difficult to enforce and the players look like rebelling in numbers. I believe the US government would do better to use revenues from a regulated poker playing community to generate extra tax to help the economy recover from recent recessions rather than forcing gambling, which will occur regardless as it has in the past, into a black market situation.

By Malcolm Clarke

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The main event is always No Limit Texas Hold’em and is becoming a major tournament that many top players are adding to their calendars as one of the first big tournaments of each year. Annette Obrestad did very well in this years Aussie Millions series, she won Event 4 which was the PLO event winning $40,000 AUD and then went on to make the final table of the main event. She managed to finish in 21st position last year so you can bet she will be back next year to participate in a tournament that has done so well for her in recent years. She finished in 6th place winning $175,000 AUD.

Local player Stephen Shelley had won his seat to the main event by winning $22 satellite. How magnificent for him to make the final table and turn that small investment into a life changing $125,000 AUD! He was eliminated, as was Annette, by Tyron Krost whom destiny had picked for the big win in this poker tournament. Top pro Sorel Mizzi continued to show what a great player he is by finishing third in the event and taking home $715,000 AUD.

The bwin poker blog reported on the many players bwinpoker.com had sent to the event via their tournament packages. Their players did extremely well cashing for a combined total of $250,000 AUD in the main event. They also enjoyed side event success with player Denzey112 finishing 6th in Event 19 to take home a prize of $22,050 AUD. Other players also cashed in various events showing that bwin poker players know how to play poker! Check out their poker blog and you will see some great pictures of them on the beach, enjoying the sunshine and even watching the Australian Open Tennis tournament! You know that these players will remember this trip for the rest of their lives.

The next trip for the bwin players is the Irish Open, so stay tuned to see how they get on in that tournament and check out bwin for tournament package satellite offers to perhaps get there yourself!

In his interview immediately after winning the tournament Tyron was a little overwhelmed and said he had no plans to spend the money as yet but he would be enjoying himself and then deciding. He said that he had won his way into the tournament via a $600 AUD satellite and was happy with the return on his investment. He also said that it was a dream come true and he had not dared think that it could happen. With such a good name Tyron Krost could be snapped up by a poker room very soon and we could see a lot more of him on the circuit. Despite his win Tyron said he was unsure if becoming a full-time poker professional was for him.

The final table positions and payouts for the main event are as follows,

1st: Tyron Krost – $2,000,000
2nd: Frederik Jensen – $1,100,000
3rd: Sorel Mizzi – $715,000
4th: Kosta Varoxis – $450,000
5th: Peter Jetten – $350,000
6th: Steve Friedlander – $250,000
7th: Annette Obrestad – $175,000
8th: Stephen Shelly – $125,000

By Malcolm Clarke

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The poker tournament was played over six days with 768 players taking part for the big first prize of €847,000 Euros. The final table contained World Champion of 2008 Peter Eastgate who added yet another top final table to his poker CV. It was not to be another big win for Peter as he busted in 8th place earning €70,000. Another big name who only just missed out was final table bubble boy Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. The poker tournament phenom finished in 9th place for yet another massive performance in an EPT event. Elky was unlucky not to do better and must feel unbeatable in tournaments right now. Well-known cash game pro Freddy Deeb finished in 12th place earning himself €35,000.

When the action got down to heads up only the 21 year old from Rochdale Jake Cody remained along with Romanian poker player Teodor Caraba. It looked like the Romanian may prevail but Cody produced some poker magic to take a chip lead into the break. In a pivotal hand Cody raised to 560,000 and Caraba called. The flop was Jc-Tc-5s. Caraba checked to Cody who fired 580,000 into the pot which Caraba called. The turn card was the 6s and Caraba checked again. Cody fired 1.32 million which Caraba called again. The river was 9h. Caraba checked, Cody bet 2.44 million and Caraba quickly folded. Cody showed 7c-4c for the busted flush draw. This amazing bluff brought him back to around even in chips going into the break.

Caraba later shoved with 5c-6c and was called by Cody holding 88. This held and gave him a 19 million to 3 million chip lead. The final hand was Cody holding KK and Caraba AK. No Ace arrived and Cody was crowned champion amid a shower of confetti wearing his trademark red hooded top. He said later that winning the EPT was a dream come true for him.

The final table placings and pay-outs are as follows,

1. Jake Cody €847,000
2. Teodor Caraba €516,000
3. Mike McDonald €295,000
4. Craig Bergeron €221,000
5. Claudius Secara €165,000
6. Stephane Albertini €129,000
7. Michael Fratty €92,000
8. Peter Eastgate €70,000

The EPT once again won praise for the excellent tournament structure allowing a good mix of young talent and established professional players to reach the final table. Other well-known players who performed well and cashed in the event are Dario Minieri (48th place winning €12,500), Luca Pagano (72nd place winning €10,900), Eric Haber (he staked eventual champion Joe Cada into the main event of the WSOP and stakes many players into tournaments around the world. He finished in 79th place winning €10,900) and Vadim Markushevski (89th place for €8,800).

Cody joins a list of British poker players who have enjoyed massive poker success and it looks like the British poker players will continue to dominate the international poker scene through 2010. Long may it continue, next time it might be you! Good luck!

By Malcolm Clarke

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You must appreciate that family and friends who get concerned about online poker and gambling usually do not know how to play poker and because they care about you they get concerned. Whilst you appreciate bankroll management and understand the potential dangers associated with irresponsible poker playing they just see a family member gambling. It looks scary to them.

I work hard to maintain balance between my everyday life and playing poker. I maintain a poker website and I also do hospital radio at my local hospital. My whole life does not revolve around poker and I would be worried if it did. That does not mean that I do not work hard at reviewing hand histories and working on my game as poker is a large part of my life. I love my website and writing about poker and following the news. When I play poker I enjoy my time at the table, if I was playing over twelve hours a day I imagine I would get bored and resentful of poker very quickly.

Many young men between the ages of thirteen and sixteen become obsessed with football and train everyday with their friends hoping to make their fortune as a professional footballer. Because football is not about wagering or betting this activity is generally encouraged by parents. The only time it becomes a problem is when they begin to neglect their studies towards important exams to pursue their sporting dreams. People usually do not have a problem with things you do in balance. One way to avoid hassle from family, partners or friends is to purposefully balance what you do so engaging in a variety of activities so when you do play poker you can enjoy it without resentful comments or worry from your close family and friends.

From a poker strategy perspective being obsessive about the game is a positive thing. I would favour a player who had his head in “Theory of Poker” by Sklansky or “Super System” by Brunson over a player who searches for a deck of cards or online poker game and starts playing. If you are going to play a lot of poker then you want to be winning when you play. Most of us play poker to win money we just happen to enjoy playing the game aswell. Being able to show yourself that you can win the game will give you a reason to keep playing and will make you feel good too.

Anyone who constantly loses and may be a bad player needs to think carefully before continuing to pass their bankrolls to better players. Hopefully by reading the articles on this site and others you will develop your online poker skills to a point where winning is expected and not merely hoped for.

By Malcolm Clarke

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As always poker fans were able to follow the play live via the various poker blogs, twitter updates from players and some of the many spectators in attendance and live tournament updates by some of the tracking websites. Even a UK newspaper was covering the action live via their website such is the interest of poker nowadays. After seven days of action and over thirty two levels those in attendance were treated to excellent poker that matches the prestige of the PCA tournament which ended in a WSOPE champion, a teenager and an online poker player the final three in the tournament.

The final hand between Harrison Gimbel and Ty Reiman was dramatic. Gimbel had TT to Reimans 88. The flop held a T, which gave Gimbel the set. Reiman needed running 8’s for quads and got the miracle 8 on the turn. Unfortunately the runner runner quads were not to be with a J ending the tournament.

Early in the tournament it was the Hit Squad yet again making the headlines with third place finisher in the World Series of Poker Europe main event Praz Bansi holding the chip lead for much of the opening days of play. Bansi collected a massive pot when he flopped a flush and J.C. Alvarado a set of Queens the two big stacks collided unfortunately eliminating Alvarado.

Praz Bansi was unable to make the final table being eliminated in 18th place earning yet another great cash prize of $87,500. It is a great start to the year for Praz who will be looking to come out of James Akenheads shadow this year and continue to have great results. Jeff Madsen finished in 19th place taking home the same prize money. Jeff will also hope for big things to happen for him in 2010.

The final table contained WSOPE winner Barry Shulman who did fantastically in finishing in third place earning $1,350,000. With Jeff earning $1.9 million at the WSOP main event and Barry another $1.5 million for winning the WSOPE the Shulman’s are probably quite happy with the world in poker right now!

Other notable finishers were John Duthie in twelfth place earning $130,000 and Aaron “aejones” Jones in 27th place winning $66,000. Although a great score Aaron plays nosebleed cash games so will have hoped for more, this is like winning a moderate pot in the games he regularly plays! Well-known professional poker players Huck Seed, Johnny Lodden, Dan Shak, Vicky Coren and Phil Ivey were among the 224 players who cashed in this event.

After Barry Shulman busted it was left to Harrison Gimbel and Ty Reiman to fight it out for the bracelet, title and the big prize of $2.2 million. Ty is to be congratulated for earning $1.7 million for his runners-up placing as Gimbel played excellently to beat him. Ty was primarily an online poker player but had 91 live career cashes to his name. This tournament proved to be his big breakthrough and we can expect to see a lot more of this player during 2010 thanks to his increased poker profile.

But the day belongs to the champion, 19 year old Harrison Gimbel. Even the UK newspaper the Mirror ran a story on this young champion and the online poker sites will be clamouring to get him signed to a deal. The one time high school wrestler said he felt like a rock star after his win and it is a massive moment for him as he was an online grinder before his big win never enjoying a big cash before now. Gimbel had won a $1000 satellite tournament into the $10,000 event making his win even more amazing.

Gimbel will undoubtedly have a great future in poker and keep checking this website for more news on poker tournaments around the world.

By Malcolm Clarke

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News of his passing broke after Mark Seif posted a short blog breaking the news. Many poker players posted RIP messages via their Twitter accounts and messages from Joe Sebok, Howard Lederer, Bryan Micon and other well-known professionals have appeared on Twitter and quoted in various poker articles since new of his passing was made public. All of the players who paid tribute to him spoke of a gentle and kind man who would be much missed. Although poker players are normally spoken of fondly when they pass away, you get a sense reading the messages that Amir Vahedi was a very popular member of the poker playing community and the sentiments expressed in the messages of remembrance were very genuine.

Vahedi broke through as a player literally just before the poker boom commenced. He finished in sixth place at the World Series of Poker 2003 main event where Chris Moneymaker won the tournament and signalled the beginning of the glorious poker boom that we still enjoy the effects of today. For his sixth place finish Amir collected a prize of $250,000 which was his second big cash of the World Series that year.

Before the poker boom Vahedi was a regular participant in many poker tournaments particularly in the LA Classic series and New Orleans events. He posted many final table appearances and won events collecting between $16,000 and $19,000 at a time when prizes were small. Although small compared to the prize money poker players can win today for winning a poker tournament Amirs results in 2001 show many final table appearances and many victories. This participation made Amir a very visible member of the poker community and he met thousands of players during a lengthy and full career. After the fields grew thanks to the Moneymaker effect Amir still managed to cash in many tournaments, this is a testament to his poker playing ability.

During the 2003 World Series Amir won Event 22 for $270,000 and his first bracelet. This allowed him to buy into the main event where he made the final table. He also cashed twice more in the series. After the series he won the Legends of Poker WPT season 2 event for $41,000 beating Kenna James who also featured at the final table of that event. He continued to show good results every month and was a constant part of the poker tournament circuit.

2005 was a big year for Amir. He won four major tournaments cashing in the region of $600,000 in combined prize money. These victories came in both Limit and No Limit Texas Hold’em. He continued to play in many poker tournaments and his final big win was the final table bubble in a seventh place finish at the WPT World Championship season 6 taking home $237,435.

He was renowned for his serious approach to the game and willingness to put his tournament on the line when going for victory. Amir Vahedi always played to win and his results show that his aggressive style paid dividends for him. He was ahead of his time in his aggressive approach to the game and his style is perhaps continued by the play of online poker tournament specialists. Amir Vahedi will be remembered as a good poker tournament player who lived his poker life to the full and is missed by all of the poker playing community.

By Malcolm Clarke

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