888Poker receives approval for shared liquidity between Portugal and Spain, Dominik Nitsche and Chris Moorman make it into the ’50 Greatest Players’ list, and Ana Marquez and Vivian Saliba secure big six-figure scores.
It’s a strange world.
Portugal decriminalised drugs in 2001. Want to shoot up, no problem, but please, over my red right hand, and decaying corpse, do not attempt to play online poker.
The country is slowly waking up.
Portuguese poker players who had their online poker accounts ripped from their homes like a spinal cord are slowly returning to the online felt, and today we learn that those that love life competing at 888Poker will join the fray.
888Poker received approval to launch their online casino business in Portugal in January, but it’s had to wait until a few days ago to return to the online poker market.
Portugal’s regulatory body Serviço Regulação e Inspeção de Jogos do Turismo de Portugal (SRIJ) swung a bottle of champagne against the hull of the good ship 888 on June 27, and that means the online gaming giants can merge the player pools of Portugal and Spain into a new European Shared Liquidity market. The license is for Hold’em and Omaha tournament and cash games.
Once billed as the ‘Second Largest Online Poker Operator in the World’ 888Poker has struggled as of late, in part due to partypoker’s resurgence, and a poker vertical that fell 37% in 2018, and has continued to slide like an oyster down the neck of the devil with a 28% decrease (YoY) for the first five months of this beautiful year.
Nitsche and Moorman Enter WSOP Top 50; Marquez and Saliba Go Deep
The poker world hurled ripe grapefruit and sweet-smelling roses at the feet of 888Poker Ambassadors, Dominik Nitsche and Chris Moorman after the pair found a seat in the ’50 Greatest Poker Players’ list.
The list, compiled by the World Series of Poker (WSOP) as part of their 50th Annual WSOP celebrations, came into being thanks to the votes from a panel of 26 poker media representatives, and industry stalwarts. Panel members received a list of 200-players and were asked to select their Top 50 with the ability to add names, not on the list.
Nitsche has earned more than $18.1m playing live tournaments, including four WSOP bracelets and a World Poker Tour (WPT) title, as well as $4.8m playing online tournaments.
Moorman remains the All-Time Leading Online MTT Money Winner with $16.1m, and the Global Poker Index (GPI) recently honoured him with the PocketFives Legacy Award in April’s Global Poker Awards (GPA). Moorman has also won a record 30 online Triple Crowns, and in the live arena, has earned more than $5.7m including a WSOP bracelet and WPT title.
Here is the final list.
1. Patrik Antonius
2. Doyle Brunson
3. Allen Cunningham
4. Chris Ferguson
5. Jennifer Harman
6. Fedor Holz
7. Jeff Lisandro
8. Carlos Mortensen
9. Steve O’Dwyer
10. Huck Seed
11. Bobby Baldwin
12. Joe Cada
13. Shaun Deeb
14. Ted Forrest
15. Dan Harrington
16. Phil Ivey
17. Adrian Mateos
18. Johnny Moss
19. Puggy Pearson
20. Erik Seidel
21. Billy Baxter
22. Johnny Chan
23. Tom Dwan
24. Phil Galfond
25. Isaac Haxton
26. Berry Johnston
27. Jason Mercier
28. Daniel Negreanu
29. Amarillo Slim Preston
30. Vanessa Selbst
31. Chris Bjorin
32. Stephen Chidwick
33. Eli Elezra
34. Barry Greenstein
35. Phil Hellmuth
36. John Juanda
37. Michael Mizrachi
38. Scotty Nguyen
39. Brian Rast
40. Dewey Tomko
41. Justin Bonomo
42. TJ Cloutier
43. Antonio Esfandiari
44. Gus Hansen
45. John Hennigan
46. Bryn Kenney
47. Chris Moorman
48. Dominik Nitsche
49. Stu Ungar
50. Chip Reese
The ladies of 888Poker are also having a great week. Ana Marquez followed up on her 10/8809 finish in the Millionaire Maker where she earned $95,720, with a 3/536 finish at the partypoker MILLIONS Vegas event for $445,000.
And Vivian Saliba has reached the final table of the $888 Crazy Eights competition. At the time of writing the Brazilian star is 7/7 in chips having secured a minimum $136,888, with $888,888 up top.
