3 Barrels carrying World Poker Tour love juice including a Super Bowl charity event hook up with Latitude, and live tour wins for Ole Schemion and Scott Baumstein.
Do you remember when American footballers kneeled?
It seems an age ago.
They say politics and poker don’t mix. I think the same is true of all sports. Except for late night pool games. I don’t mind bending the knee for those types of games. Rubbing skin until it vanishes leaving behind a sore that reminds you of the word spontaneity.
It’s a word that I think of when the World Poker Tour (WPT) pops into my head. The team, led by the suave and sophisticated Adam Pliska, is always on the lookout for something new and exciting. They don’t wait for Christmas. At the WPT every day is Christmas.
In a few weekends time, Americans all over the world will burn their guts with all manner of alcoholic beverages when the Super Bowl rides into town. The cure for snoring in a single afternoon. And the WPT is going to make sure they make the most of it.
Outside of being the greatest televised poker show in the universe, the WPT is also at the forefront of poker’s charitable drive. Since 2012, the WPT Foundation has raised over $8m, benefiting more than a dozen charities, and it will add to that number after partnering with the Minneapolis-based brand experience design agency Latitude.
The pair is putting on a charity poker event on Feb 2. It carries the name NVRFLD, and the tagline Raise the Stakes. Elevate the World. Money raised throughout the game will head into the coffers of MATTER, Healing Haiti and the Starkey Hearing Foundation.
Latitude founder, Jeremy Carroll believes the event is on track to generate $1m for people living in poverty both in the US and abroad.
Poker stars already signed on the dotted line to feature in the game include the WPTs Tony Dunst and Lynn Gilmartin, WPT Champions Club member Jonathan Little and reality TV star Anna Khait.
Ole Schemion Wins WPT European Championship
Ole Schemion has begun 2018 by bringing his guillotine style of poker down on the heads of the 339 people who paid €3,300 to compete in the inaugural WPT European Championships.
The WPT took over the Casino Spielbank, Berlin, Germany hosting 11-events between Jan 5-15 with €1.6m in guarantees, including €1m reserved for the Main Event.
Four of the six final tablists were from Germany, but it was Michal Mrakeš who gave Schemion the biggest headache. The former partypoker MILLION winner and World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) gold ring winner coming second.
Schemion’s earnings move over the $13.8m mark making him the third highest live MTT earner in the country, and that’s no mean feat when you consider the land of his birth.
Final Table Results
1. Ole Schemion – €218,435
2. Michal Mrakes – €143,845
3. Patrice Brandt – €93,105
4. Michael Behnert – €60,730
5. Han Kuo Yong – €46,705
6. Amjad Nader – €39,010
Other WPT Champions Club members who came within a melting snowflake of this thing were Marvin Rettenmaier (10th), Davidi Kitai (19th) and Julian Thomas (21st)
Scott Baumstein Wins WPTDeepStacks Hollywood
Scott Baumstein has won the biggest score of his decade-long career after taking down the WPTDeepStacks Main Event at the Lucky Hearts Poker Open in the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Hollywood.
Baumstein, who has a connection to the WPT through his past live stream commentary work, earned $220,238 after besting a field of 1,366 entrants, and it was a tough ask. Nesrine Reilly made the final table finishing eighth, the former World Champ Joseph McKeehen finished tenth, Mukul Pahuja was 11th, and Josh Beckley took 13th.
Final Table Results
1. Scott Baumstein – $220,238
2. Lumni Zhuta – $155,126
3. Matthew Zarcadoolas – $100,579
4. Stephen Smith – $74,549
5. Andrew Kelsall – $56,239
6. Justin Harvell – $45,398
7. Ramon Miquel – $37,440
8. Nesrine Reilly – $29,587
