Jannick Wrang (pictured smirking at right) has taken the European Poker Tour main event in Campione, Italy, earning a healthy €640k and a snazzy bracelet designed by Shamballa Jewels. Wrang’s triumph makes a hat-trick for Danish players at the EPT, following back to back wins by Mickey Petersen in Copenhagen and Frederik Jensen in Madrid. For you trivia buffs, it’s the first time in EPT history that three consecutive titles have gone to players from the same country. From a starting field of 570, the action came down to Wrang and Olivier Busquet. After 75 minutes of heads-up action, Busquet’s pair of aces fell to Wrang’s flush, relegating Busquet to second place and €430k. Fabrice Soulier took third and €240k, while the rest of the final table placed as follows: Balazs Botond (€157k); Koen De Visscher (€124k); Mario Nagel (€92K); Stefano Puccilli (€71.5k) and Robin Ylitalo (€54k).
Bwin.party has become the latest company to ‘rush’ to fill the void left by the continued absence of Full Tilt Poker’s much-loved Rush Poker product. In a conference call discussing the pan-European operator’s full-year results this week, co-CEO Jim Ryan said a fast-paced poker product was “in development” although no launch date has been established. PokerStars recently debuted its own Rush clone, Zoom Poker, and Relax Gaming has promised to debut its Fast Poker on Betsson, Unibet and other sites soon.
GTECH G2 has introduced a Mac poker client it dubs Poker 8.0 for the Boss Media/International Poker Network (IPN), home of (among others) Virgin Poker and Sportingbet’s Paradise Poker. Poker 8.0 works for both tournament and cash games.
Joe Hachem’s inaugural appearance in his new role as Asian Poker Tour ambassador will take place in April at Resorts World Manila in the Philippines. The APT Philippines 2012 gets underway on April 19 and the Aussie mega-pro will take part in the US$2,700 buy-in main event beginning April 21.
Despite the economic woes of its bankrupt parent company, the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) is looking ahead to its first ever event outside the United States. In partnership with Cardplayer Cruises, ‘HPT on the High Seas’ will kick off the HPT’s ninth season with a week-long stint (Jan. 19-26, 2013) aboard the MSC Poesia cruise liner as it sails from Fort Lauderdale, Florida with stops in Mexico, the Cayman Islands, Jamaica and other exotic locations. Booking info can be found at HPTpoker.com.
