Calling The Clock: ONE DROP Goes Posh With Plenty of Dosh; Holz Heater; Schwartz Sunday

Calling The Clock: ONE DROP Goes Posh With Plenty of Dosh; Holz Heater; Schwartz Sunday

In this week’s Calling the Clock we bring you news of the ONE DROP omitting professional players from the field; the continuing rush of Fedor Holz, and much more.

In 2011, Erik Seidel won $6.5m in live tournament cash after going on a heater of a lifetime. In 2014, Dan Colman upped that when he won $22.3m.

It’s happening again.

Right in front of our very eyes.

With five months of the year remaining, Fedor Holz has won $14.7m. Last year he earned $3.5m. When it comes to lifetime earnings from live tournaments only Sam Trickett, Phil Hellmuth, Scott Seiver, Phil Ivey, Dan Colman, Antonio Esfandiari, Erik Seidel, and Daniel Negreanu has won more. And Holz earned his lot in only four years. He is 22-years old.

“He has confidence; he is making plays, he is catching cards.” Said Negreanu when I asked him to share his view on Holz. “If he could continue to do this over the next few years – now that would be something.”

Holz had only made Day 2 of the $111,111 ONE DROP High Roller when he told PokerNews that he would never again compete in a full-length World Series of Poker (WSOP). He then went on to win the event for close to $5m. Somehow, I think he will stick with his original statement.

Calling The Clock: ONE DROP Goes Posh With Plenty of Dosh; Holz Heater; Schwartz SundayThe key now lies in motivation.

Does Holz want to be a legend?

I don’t think so.

The Best of the Rest of the WSOP

In other WSOP news, Yue Du pulled off a shock by winning the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) event. A bracelet and $800,586 will be heading to China. And David Prociak won the bracelet and $156,546 first prize in the $1,500 Stud 8 event.

The new tag team event was deemed a success after 863 teams entered hoping to become poker’s Demolition. Doug Polk and Ryan Fee eventually taking down the event and $153,358 in prize money. Both players received a bracelet, so Polk now has one for each wrist.

The World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Raw Deal host, Tony Dunst, is only a European Poker Tour (EPT) title away from completing the Triple Crown after overcoming a field of 2,452 entrants to win the bracelet and first prize of $339,245 in a $1,000 NLHE event.

Dunst wasn’t the only well-respected pro picking up gold this week. Kyle Bowker has been trying to win a bracelet for 10-years, and he finally felt the feel of one when he defeated 473 entrants in the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better event. Bowker earned $294,960 for the win, and then would take that confidence into the Main Event where he had the audacity to lay down quad sevens to a river shove on [Ks] [9s] [7x] [7x] [Js].

We are living in a simulation, Jared. However, there was no misreporting on the hand. Kyle Bowker is God. Courtney Kennedy cashed for the first time in her life when she won the Ladies Event for $149,108; Clayton Maguire came back from two big blinds, during an epic heavyweight heads-up battle with Simeon Naydenov to win the $1,000 WSOP.com online bracelet; and the Main Event is currently speeding into Day 3 with the eight-time World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) ring winner Valentin Vornicu leading the way. I almost forgot. Fedor Holz was eliminated in Day 3 proving that he must have transferred his soul into the body of Kyle Bowker.

The ONE DROP Gets Posh

The Big One for ONE DROP is doing a Nicholas Cage and leaving Las Vegas. The largest buy-in event the world has ever seen is going to grow by roughly $111,112 per buy-in after the WSOP and Guy Laliberte announced plans to host a €1m buy-in event in Monte Carlo Oct 13-17.

There’s a catch.

Professional poker players are not on the list.

The event will be invitational with only non-poker players allowed to compete. I formed the opinion that Dan Colman’s mood at the end of his 2014 win may have been the reason for the change, but Daniel Negreanu seems to think it may have more to do with the attitude of the younger pros.

“If they were fun, engaging and made the atmosphere more pleasant, there is a strong likelihood this wouldn’t have happened.” Said Negreanu.

Perhaps, it was the only way to prevent Fedor Holz or Kyle Bowker from winning it?

PokerStars, Pennsylvania, and Paternity

What do you do if you are one of the most talented poker players in the world, and suddenly a baby drops on your lap?

In the case of Luke ‘lb6121′ Schwartz, he stopped travelling, opened up his laptop and started crushing in between feeds. On Sunday, Schwartz defeated 6,030 players to win The PokerStars Sunday Million for $130,717.53 after cutting a four-way deal. He has also won five Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) titles. And while that’s great an’ all that. I can’t wait for his kid to grow up so we can have Schwartz back doing what Schwartz does best.

In your eye David Benyamine!

Americans must be salivating over the possibility to don their slippers, smoke their pipe, and compete in events like The Sunday Million, and Dustin Gouker, over at OnlinePokerReport believes the largest online poker room in the world is one of the main reasons you can’t do that right now.

In a beautifully balanced piece titled View: PokerStars is Also an ‘Obstructionist’ When it Comes to California Online Poker, the talented scribe points out that one of the reasons online poker hasn’t broken through in California is because of the resistance major players have with PokerStars presence. And if PokerStars just walked away, then the resistance would diminish, and online poker legislation would pass. It’s an interesting point of view, and one worth checking out.

From California to Pennsylvania and regulated online gambling might become a reality after the state’s revenue bill passed without Gov. Tom Wolf’s signature (the bill contains $100m in revenue allocated to gambling expansion). News sources from the interwebs suggest a vote will take place sometime in the fall. As I am from the UK, I have no idea what that means. Wasn’t it an indie band?

One state that does have a fully regulated online poker market is New Jersey, and the only problem the Garden State has is making any decent money. Forget underage gambling, cheating, and collusion. The only issue seems to be making the thing turn a decent profit.

June is always a tough year for New Jersey’s online poker revenue. However, it’s a bit of a knife to the groin to see it grow by only 7% year-on-year considering PokerStars are now a player in that market. In the words of Chris Grove: ‘Stars is barely expanding the market.’

What’s the answer?

New Jersey officials believe one idea is to expand the liquidity of the online poker fields by buddying up with another location that already has a fully regulated online poker market.

Like the UK.

Everyone might be running around like Chicken Little right now, but they do have one of the most proficient pieces of online gambling legislation in the world, and according to numerous sources the pair has started discussions to share player pools.

New Jersey has some experience in this field after becoming the first state to share liquidity when they made a pact with Delaware. The only problem New Jersey has is trusting the UK as they will probably severe their partnership with the US state when they remember they prefer to be all alone on their little island.

Time, ladies and gentlemen.

Someone has just called the clock.