Two of poker’s most recognizable personalities will be putting on a show in Montreal next month with penalties in place for the loser. Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari are hosting a $2,200 NLHE heads-up event at Montreal’s Playground Poker Club with various “humiliation” penalties for the loser. The competition takes place from March 1-4 and the heads up tournament has a 32-player limit. The first punishment will be dished out to whichever of the two players busts out of the heads-up first. It will happen in the poker room whilst the tournament is unfolding so that players get a chance to see the embarrassment unfold. Following this each player will take a starting flight of players (Laak – day 1a, Esfandiari – day 1b) in the $550 NLHE Deepstack with the loser also receiving a punishment. No punishments have so far been decided and much could depend on how harsh the first penalty is as to the extent of the second one.
PokerStars has confirmed that season 8 of the European Poker Tour (EPT) will culminate at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel and Casino, Monaco from April 23 to May 1. The Grand Final centerpiece is a €10,000 buy-in NLHE and in addition there will be a €100,000 Super High Roller for the first time on European Soil. EPT President Edgar Stuchly commented: “We’re delighted to be heading back to Monaco for the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino EPT Grand Final. This will be the biggest and best EPT festival ever held and we’re putting together an incredible tournament.”
Matt Juttlestad leads the World Poker Tour (WPT) Lucky Hearts Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock as it heads into a third day. The WPT’s latest event, which got underway on Friday, is down to 34 players and will reduced to just six before Tuesday’s streaming of the final table live on the WPT.com site. Juttelstad currently has a stack of 825,000, which is marginally ahead of Gigi Gagne (725,000) and Uri Kadosh (685,000).
