Another round up of the week’s poker action including partypoker successfully hosting a $5m guaranteed event in Sochi, 888Poker preparing to open shop in Italy, and much more.
PokerStars dominate the poker news columns, week-in and week-out, but not this week. This week, the column inches belonged to partypoker.
We will begin in Sochi Russia where partypoker successfully ran a $5m Guaranteed partypoker LIVE MILLIONS event. The $5,300 buy-in event attracted 999 entrants, and turned Aleksandr Gofman into a millionaire, after beating the Spaniard David Laka in heads-up action (Laka also banked a combined million bucks after winning the High Roller a few days before).
It was a significant milestone for partypoker in their pursuit of the live tournament crown. When PokerStars held their Championship at the same venue, for the same price, back in May only 387 entrants turned up, and the winner walked away with $515,774. It seems, when it comes to Russian poker, partypoker is the Czar, without question.
It wasn’t only Russia that felt the
partypoker LIVE experience this week. They were also at the Playground Poker Club in Montreal. The partypoker LIVE Canadian Poker Championships attracted 899 entrants, and Kevin Rivest won the top prize of $336,325, after cutting a heads-up deal with Daren Keyes. Mike Leah finished fourth. Patrick Serda finished seventh several days after multi-tabling this event and the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) $10k High Roller, which he won for close to half a million dollars.
Switching from Canada to Ireland and Thomas Gallagher defeated 906 entrants to finish first and bank €33,329 in the partypoker LIVE Grand Prix Killarney. Ronan Sweeney finished second but banked the top prize of €38,393 after negotiating top dollar during a three-way deal. Also, during that festival, partypoker announced they would be the sponsor for the 2018 Irish Open.
And it’s not just the live realm that partypoker has been kicking ass this week. Sam Trickett, Patrik Antonius, and Rob Yong have been playing the highest stakes online PLO action in the biz, and tournament players have had their fill with the $35m GTD Powerfest, including a new $10k guaranteed Ladies Event as part of partypoker’s attempts to create a more female friendly zone.
Match IPL Start Delayed; GPI India Additions
partypoker isn’t alone in their thinking that changes need to be made to attract more female players to the game. This week, the Match Indian Poker League (IPL) franchise owners met for the first time to discuss the impending league and made two significant changes. The first was to delay the beginning of the event until November, giving them more time to market the league, and the second was the decision to carve out a slot for a female poker player in all eight franchises.
Global Poker Index (GPI) India hears you.
The first team manager of GPL India is Muskan Sethi. The former Adda52 sponsored pro will take charge of the Delhi Diehards, Vidwath Shetty takes charge of the Bengaluru Hackers, and two-time WSOP champion Nipun Java joined as an ambassador and caster.
Poker Central in China Deal; Poker Masters on PokerGO
Moving from the second most populous country in the world to the first, and Poker Central agreed on a deal with DOUPAI.TV allowing them to broadcast the final table of the WSOP China Main Event, as well as show a highlight package. Viewers in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau are the lucky recipients of some Asian WSOP action.
And the Poker Masters kicked off on PokerGO this week. The world’s best poker players will square off in a series of $50,000 & $100,000 buy-in events, with the person accruing the highest amount of cash becoming the recipient of the first-ever Poker Masters Purple Jacket. The first $50,000 event attracted 51 entrants, and Nick Schulman defeated Matt Hyman to win the $918,000 first prize.
ITM Results
1. Nick Schulman – $918,000
2. Matt Hyman – $561,000
3. Stefan Schillhabel – $306,000
4. Steffen Sontheimer – $204,000
5. Dominik Nitsche – £178,500
6. Koray Aldemir – $153,000
7. Adrian Mateos – $127,500
8. Daniel Negreanu – $102,000
888Poker Italian Move, Sao Paolo Results, Aspers Action Clock
888Poker turned up in the news with three stories worth a mention this week. The second-largest online poker room in the world is preparing to enter the Italian poker market. 888Poker already has a foothold in Spain, and one assumes the move is to take advantage of the recent decision from gaming regulators in Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal to share liquidity.
In other 888Poker news, Haroldo Silva defeated 757 entrants to secure the R$200k first prize, and a $13k World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) package, in the recent 888Live Series Sao Paolo. And, finally, 888Poker announced plans to return to Aspers Casino, Stratford, in three weeks time. It will be the first time they use the 888Poker Action Clock in both the Main Event and High Roller. Chris Moorman, Kara Scott, and co will be out in force for that one.
PokerStars WCOOP News
The World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is currently underway on PokerStars. Notable names picking up heaps of cash include Pascal “Päffchen” Hartmann winning a $215 PLO event for $37,014.66, Artem “veeea” Vezhenkov taking down a $1,050 NLHE Progressive KO for $97,389.47 and $100,514.32 in bounties. And Jerry “hummylun” Wong winning a $1,050 Stud Hi/Lo event for $32,625.
Nicolas “chlenocl” Yunis became a Triple COOP winner after taking down the $1,050 NLHE 6-Max Shootout event for $35,991.08. Jens “Fresh_o0_D” Lakemeier won the $1,050 NLHE 6-Max for $97,459.68. And Patrick Serda won the $10,000 High Roller for close to $500,000 while multi-tabling live at the partypoker LIVE Canadian Poker Championships where he also finished seventh.
And PokerStars announced for the second time this year, their intention to donate the tournament fees for their $25k High Roller to Raising for Effective Giving, as well as lumping an additional $50,000 on top. They did a similar thing during the Spring Championships of Online Poker (SCOOP) where they raised over $100,000 for effective charities.
Bits and Bobs
Australian online poker is dead, but a resurrection could be on the cards thanks to the continued harrying of David Leyonhjelm. The Liberal Senator has received a letter from Communications Minister Mitch Fifield advising Leyonhjelm that there is a team looking at the possibility of carving out a deal that may hand licenses to offshore online poker rooms to work in Oz.
In other news, I sat down with Ryan Gittleson, Head of Business Development and Marketing, for Virtue Poker, to talk about his vision to create the safest place to play poker on the planet. And for the second week running a member of the Solve For Why Academy has allowed us to peek under the hood as Jordan Young was our guest on Poker Routines.
Time, ladies and gentlemen, please.
Someone has just called the clock.
