In this week’s poker news roundup we bring you the scoop on two book deals from two very different poker pros, more news on the poker charity front, and an appearance from Boris Becker.
As the PokerStars World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) heads into the final weekend most of you will be thinking who the hell cares?
I get your point, I really do.
$5,000 is a lot of money, and as Haley Hintze said during her interview with CardPlayer Lifestyle’s Robbie Strazynski this past week ‘The amount of disposable income usually determines the recreational outlet, not the other way around.’ But miracles do happen, and if you don’t believe me, just ask 34-year old Iwan Roberts.
The French nurse, living in the Czech Republic, who goes by the PokerStars pseudonym ‘Ethanolol’ – which is probably a hark back to his drunken past – logged on to play in $2.20 & $11 buy-in Mini-WCOOP events and promptly won both of them simultaneously for a $19k profit.
Roberts defeated over 30,000 people to capture both titles, and his fairytale tugged on the PokerStars heart strings so much that they gave him a free seat into the $5,000 buy-in Main Event.
There are other ways of competing in a $5,000 event other than stumping up 100% of the cash or beating 30,000 people in Mini-WCOOP events. One way people manage to play in exceptionally high buy-in tournaments is to sell action, and the dark art has never been showered in as much light as it is today thanks to the likes of StakeKings.com.
This week, the staking platform signed Antonio Esfandiari as an ambassador, and the former ONE DROP winner immediately promised to share some of his action with his fans.
It would have been nice to have had a piece of Doug “WCG|Rider” Polk’s and Phillip ‘Grindation’ McAllister’s action this past week. The pair of them ended up heads-up in the final of the $10,000 buy-in WCOOP No-Limit Hold’em High Roller and Polk captured all of the action on his ever growing Twitch stream.
It was McAllister who picked up the trophy and $584,415.23 first prize – a record for the most money won when playing on a Twitch stream. Polk picked up $455,000 for a runner-up spot that broke the record for the most money earned while streaming live on Twitch. The previous record was $250,000 and belonged a certain Mr Solid Penis.
One man, I would have lumped on in the past was Chris Moorman. The 888Poker Ambassador was the first player to top $10m in online tournament earnings. This week Moorman’s publisher D&B Publishing announced plans to launch his second book during the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The book will be a combination of strategy and a dip into the personal life of one of the most private poker players on the circuit.
Moorman wasn’t the only player who was in the news because of a book this week. Dan Fleyshman published a business book called ‘How to Set Up Your Business For Under $1,000’ including a Udemy training course of the same name.
Chris Moorman plays for the Global Poker League’s London Royals and this week the GPL began its second half of the first season. The other good news on the GPL front was the grand opening of their online store. Fans of the GPL can now buy baseball caps, jersey’s and hoodies embossed with the logo of their favourite teams.
It would have made my balls tingle to have seen the Wimbledon tennis champion, Boris Becker in the GPL. This week the German star aligned himself with partypoker and the DT38 Charity. Becker will make the trip to the Mazagan Beach Resort to compete in the Mazagan 10 Poker Festival where he will help raise funds for awareness into testicular cancer.
Becker used to be a member of PokerStars, and the Red Spade also announced plans to do their bit for charity this week announcing their second ‘Lads Night In’ promotion designed to raise funds/awareness for Prostate Cancer UK.
The less charitable gaming regulators from Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, Austria and the UK met in Paris this week to talk about, amongst a lot of things, the potential desegregation of poker liquidity in those countries mentioned (The UK excepted). Nothing revelatory came out of the meeting, but a meeting is better than no meeting.
Individual Songs of Praise
David Williams didn’t win Masterchef, but deserves a round of applause for making the final; Dan ‘djk123′ Kelly earned a record fifth WCOOP title, and the former Colossus winner, Cord Garcia, won the $164,988 first prize at the Heartland Poker Tour Main Event in Black Hawk.
Time ladies & gentlemen, please,
Somebody just called the clock.
