In this week’s poker news round-up we bring you up to speed on the action at the One Drop in Monte Carlo, the two new incumbents of the Poker Hall of Fame and a sprinkling of celebrity poker stories.
When I tell ordinary people, who shop in Tesco that there are individuals in the world who pay €1m to play in a poker tournament they think I am going all Mad Hatter on them. But this week’s that’s what happened, and to make the story sound even more insane, two of them paid €2m to play.
The Big One for One Drop pulled the tent pegs out of the Las Vegas desert and set up camp in Monte Carlo this week. 26 players entered, Guy Laliberte and Andrew Pantling re-entered, making it the smallest One Drop event since its inception.
The players raised €3.1m for the One Drop Foundation, and it could have been so much more had Laliberte not taken the decision to ban professional poker players from competing.
But let’s not cry over spilt milk. The event winner was Elton Tsang who immediately jumped to #21 in the All Time Live Tournament Earnings rankings on Hendon Mob after his €11,111,111 win, the third largest of its kind ever.
Tsang’s victory is good news for poker in the Far East, and it received another boost this week courtesy of Tencent Poker and Natural8. Tencent inked a deal with the Global Poker Index (GPI) that would see them promote the GPI, and the GPI incorporate Tencent live events into their scoring system.
Natural8, a Philippines-licensed online gambling company, hired three Asian players to promote their brand throughout the world with a primary focus on the Asia-Pacific market. Xuan Liu, Kitty Kuo and Dong Kim are the three lucky blighters.
Poker Hall of Fame; PokerStars and partypoker
Carlos Mortensen and Todd Brunson will become legends of poker when they are inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in a special ceremony held at Binion’s in Downtown Las Vegas.
Mortensen becomes the first European to make it into the Hall, and Todd joins his father, Doyle, making them the first father-son team. There is no space for Dave’ Devilfish’ Ulliott, who misses out for the second successive year after his recent passing.
And the UK poker scene lost another one of their crew this week when Dave ‘El Blondie’ Colclough lost his battle with cancer, aged 52. Colclough, who hails from South Wales, earned over $2.6m in live tournament earnings and was the Wales All Time money earner for many years before Roberto Romanello recently overtook him. Colclough was well known for his battles on the legendary Late Night Poker TV show that dragged so many UK players into the game by their eyeballs.
PokerStars will not fall under the wing of William Hill after their proposed merger with Amaya Gaming fell through. One of the primary reasons behind the breakup was an open declaration by Hills largest shareholder, Parvus Asset Management, that poker was a ‘mature, if not declining market.’
PokerStars Head of Comms, Eric Hollreiser, wasn’t too happy with that view and penned an op-ed on the PokerStars Corporate blog to explain away the inaccuracies and promise everyone that all is well in pokerland.
PokerStars player in Romania who enjoy playing at the $0.01/$0.02 stakes got a shock this week when the Red Spade removed the games without supplying a reason. The move follows a similar decision to withdraw games in Belgium meaning players residing in both of these countries will now have to move up in stakes and pay more rake.
And if you do like to play poker for a cent then why not give partypoker a shot? The former giant of online poker this week increased the MILLIONS guarantee from £5m to £6m. It’s the largest guaranteed prize pool ever in European poker. The winner will pick up £1m. You can qualify for the event for a cent playing online.
Protection Poker & Poker Brat
Gaming Advancement Marketing Entertainment LLC (G.A.M.E) have added to their Action Clock product by creating a form of poker called Protection Poker.
It’s essentially a game of Texas Hold’em, but if you get it in all-in with at least one card to come and a caller, and you have a 65% statistical advantage to win the hand, you are guaranteed to win 20% of the pot. The new form of poker was rolled out at the Aria in Las Vegas this week, and Mike Sexton will host their first tournament in December.
Aria’s most precious son, Phil Hellmuth, was also in the news this week. D&B Publishing has managed to convince the great man to finish his autobiography. D&B will release Poker Brat sometime in 2017.
Celebrity Poker News
Justin Bieber was spotted playing poker at The Empire Casino in London this week. The 22-year old was taking a break from his UK tour by playing £1/£2 Texas Hold’em. An interesting choice of game for someone paying more than £100k rent on a 15-bedroom mansion during his UK stay.
Who is the greatest celebrity poker player in the biz?
Many people believe it’s Tobey Maguire, and this week his wife of nine years Jennifer Meyer called time on their marriage citing his constant time at the poker tables as part of the problem.
Individual Praise
Congratulations to Sam Panzica for winning the World Poker Tour (WPT) bestbet in Jacksonville for $354,335 and painter Brett Blackwood won the largest tournament in the history of Michigan when he bested a field of 884 entrants to take the first prize of $188,134 in the Mid-States Poker Tour Michigan State Poker Championships
Time ladies & gentlemen,
Someone has just called the clock.
