Another round-up of poker news including the outcome of the $10m Guaranteed World Championship of Online Poker Main Event, partypoker unleash a monster, and Phil Galfond involves himself in Daily Fantasy Sports.
The 2017 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is over for another year, and Steve “SvZff” van Zadelhoff is the Champion of the World.
The man with the most cultivated beard in the business defeated a field of 2,183 entrants to capture the $1.64m first prize in the $5,300 buy-in event. The Dutch grinder qualified for the event via a $215 online satellite, but alas, swapped action until he only had 16%, good for $262,400.
Another player who is sitting in a backyard somewhere blowing comforting smoke rings while in a deep state of reverie is Nick Petrangelo. The former Global Poker Index (GPOI) #1 ranked player in the world, beat the current #1 ranked player in the world, Bryn Kenney, to take down the $25,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) event for $625,000.
In other PokerStars related news, James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton celebrated 100 episodes of the PokerStars sponsored Poker in The Ears Podcast with a live feature in London’s Hippodrome Casino. Former sporting stars Michael Duberry, Wayne Bridge, and Stephen Hendry agreed to appear at the PokerStars Festival Dublin. And the world’s largest online poker room this side of my pot belly announced plans to send 200 online qualifiers to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in their largest online Bahamian promotion to date.
Other Online Poker News
In other online poker news, partypoker will venture into the micro stakes online festival arena for the first time when they launch the Monster Series in October. The event promising tiny buy-ins for monster prizes consists of 140 games and $5m in guaranteed prize money.
Rounding off the news from partypoker and Ben “CowEyed” Tollerene defeated Viktor “Isildur1” Blom in heads-up action to bank the $846,722 first prize in the $25,000 NLHE PowerFest High Roller. The event attracted 127 entrants.
Outside of the big two, Unibet announced plans to revamp their online MTT lobby. The new look space theme appears this coming weekend, as will brand new marquee Sunday special events.
Live Tournament Round-Up
Switching to the live arena and Guo Liang Chen won the World Poker Tour (WPT) Borgata Poker Open for $789,058. Cliff Josephy finished fifth in that one. And Bryan Huang beat a tiny field of 20 entrants to win the WPT Korea High Roller for $48,719.
Nick Pupillo earned $170,286 after winning the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event in Thunder Valley, and JC Tran banked $43,500 for winning the $2,200 High Roller at the same festival.
The tour moved swiftly onto the Seminole Hard Rock where Niovel Alvarez defeated a monster field of 1,612 entrants to capture the $135,022 first prize in the first gold ring event.
Otto Richard won the €92,000 first prize after besting a field of 1,069 entrants in the Winamax Poker Open Dublin Main Event. And Jeff Birt took down the $81,402 first prize for victory in the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Running Aces Main Event.
Bits and Bobs
Phil Ivey popped up in Beijing this week where he was planning to visit the Great Wall of China after a spot of promotional work on a friend’s new poker app. Phil Galfond announced that his RunItOnce team had launched a new Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) company called Draftboard.com. And Liv Boeree, Espen Uhlen Jørstad, and Per Hildebrand won PokerListings Spirit of Poker awards.
Poker Central announced plans to launch a new dating show called Chasing Hearts. And I wrote about the ensuing madness in Mallorca and how poker seems to be the only place not willing to close its borders, and how poker dealers are heading the way of the Dodo thanks to Jackpot Blitz.
Time ladies & gentlemen.
Someone has just called the clock.
