American besting Finnish player Ilari Tahkokallio heads-up to take down the first European Poker Tour event ever held in the German capital.

This event continued for six-days and almost 945 players from 48 countries participated in the event. This event was held by the Casino Spielbak Berlin and offered a prize pool of €4.725 million.

MacPhee is the most famous poker star of the PokerStars.com that has the most prominent leadership points in the year April 2008. And this was the second time he had gone heads-up against Tahkokallio after losing in a £1,000 side event at the European Poker Tour’s London event in October.

“Winning a European Poker Tour event was a real goal of mine,” said MacPhee.

Kevin ‘ImaLuckSac’ MacPhee after qualifying for the seat via Poker Stars.com have recently won the European Poker Tour’s Berlin event and got a reward of one million Euros cash.

“I have worked very hard for this. It feels awesome. Ilari is an extremely good player and I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”

Everyone knew about MacPhee’s track record when it comes to winning seats into European Poker Tour events but he was never rewarded as high as now. He affirmed that he’s been following the circuit since the beginning of Season Five and has won seats into 14 events while competing in 15.

As well as in the events that was held in Berlin, a member of PokerStars Boeken came on the 5th number in the €1,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha competition while Team Poker SportStar member Fatima De Melo made the final of the ladies event.

There is also a local of Idaho who won a seat for the nest month’s European Poker Tour Grand Finale. This Finale will be held in Monte Carlo and will take down to Germany’s largest poker tournament.

Posted by Diana Sterling in EPT, Poker Articles, Poker Tournaments | No Comments » March 17th, 2010

The huge EPT Tournament has generated winners again. This time an American amateur online poker player has won the Poker London Poker Festival main event and its £850,000 prize after defeating World Series of Poker (WSOP) champion Peter Eastgate heads-up.

The Twenty-three-year-old American Aaron Gustavson qualified for the prestigious tournament through PokerStars.com. The Las Vegas resident also did well at a preliminary event of the Borgata Summer Open to take home $53,592. The £5,300 buy-in EPT London tournament was the largest ever held in the UK and had 730 players from all over the world. Gustavson was one of 149 players that had won their seats on PokerStars.com and plays online under the pseudonym ‘Aguskb’.

“I’m speechless, totally overwhelmed,” said Gustavson. “I don’t think it’s going to hit me for a quite a while. Having this title is amazing; it is a dream come true.”

Among the 104 players to cash in London were WSOP finalist Kevin Schaffel, Darus Suharto, Maria Mayrinck, Arnaud Mattern and former England footballer Teddy Sheringham.

Despite that, the day belonged to Gustavson as he defeated Denmark’s Eastgate after only seven hands and 15 minutes of heads-up play. In addition to this, Eastgate took home £530,000 while third-placed Nikolai Senninger from Germany walked away with £285,000. In fourth, Norwegian Martin Gudvangen won £227,000 followed by British player Dominic Cullen in fifth for £173,000. Also, Rui Milhomens from Portugal finished in sixth for £124,000 while Taipei’s Raymond Wu took away £87,000 for eighth followed by Karim Bennani Smires from France with £50,100.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” said Eastgate. “I made it to second place, which is far more than you hope for going into a final table. Big applause for Aaron who won, he deserved it. I’m pleased I made it to heads-up.”

The next fabulous EPT event takes place in Warsaw from October 20th to 25th and online satellites are currently running Poker Stars com. So let’s see what the next tournament has in store for its participating poker pro players.

Play poker with the pros now at Poker Stars!

Posted by Diana Sterling in EPT, Poker News, Poker Pro Players | No Comments » October 18th, 2009

The PokerStars EPT London main event was a huge success and played down to the final 24 Monday and it appears that the young crowd was pretty active.Along with older poker players like John Juanda, Jeffrey Lisandro and Chris Ferguson there were also younger ones who did quite well. More PokerStars pros!

“I think they have an edge just because they are so fearless,” said 2007 WSOPE main event champ Annette Obrestad. “They’re used to playing so many tournaments and they really don’t give a shit if they bust. At this stage of a tournament they’re really not scared of four-betting all in with like six-seven. If they have a read on someone they are just going to go with it”

2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner Benny Spindler reached the top of the chip counts as the tournament went on. The 24-year-old from Darmstadt, Germany starting playing online three years ago and believes the style he learned on the Internet is as effective live.

“The young players all come from the Internet and have a much different approach to the game than the older live players,” he explained. “It’s much more aggressive and it seems that it’s much better.

Another player, Seattle’s Vivek Rajkumar, 23, also sits among the leaders here in London, and he says adding another gear to your game is just as important.

“I used to play like that one or two years ago, but people are really too good now,” the Full Tilt pro said. “People know how to play back at over-the-top aggression, so you have to tighten up, especially if you have an aggressive image. More Full Tilt poker pros!

Obrestad, who’s been playing since the age of 15, says she’s matured as a player and is starting to understand that patience in poker is almost as important as aggression.

“I actually started out playing live (very aggressively) and after a while I saw it wasn’t working,” said the Betfair Poker pro. “I was busting with stupid hands and pots I shouldn’t be involved in – stuff that’s just so unnecessary.”You have so much time and the blinds go up so slowly, you can just grind it out; take it easy”.

Obrestad is now starting to reap the benefits of playing tighter with a loose image.

“It’s unbelievable how some people just don’t give me any credit at all,” she said. “To be honest, I would really like to be able to get away with more stuff, but I don’t. I can’t do anything about that. My image is already there, now I just have to take advantage of it.”

Click here to play poker with pros at Poker Stars!

Posted by Diana Sterling in EPT, Poker News, Poker Tournaments | No Comments » October 12th, 2009

World Series Of Poker

Once again, it’s the time of year when all serious poker players begin to turn their attention towards Las Vegas. We are of course talking about the Big Dance -the 2009 World Series Of Poker!

Continuing their proud tradition of qualifying more players to the Main Event than any other poker site, Poker Stars WSOP satellites will be available from April 13, starting from as little as $1 or 40 FPP, giving you the chance to win your seat in poker’s premiere event.  Watch your PokerStars.com lobby for updates on their availability.

European Poker Tour (EPT)

With just one stop remaining on the EPT schedule before the Season 5 Grand Final in Monte Carlo, there is still time for a highly anticipated return to Italy for EPT San Remo from April 18-23.

A hugely successful debut last year saw 701 players compete for a share of the €3.1 million prize pool, and this year you could join us by qualifying through our online satellites. Cash and FPP qualifiers are available from $2.22 or 111 FPP, find them under the Events > EPT tab.

Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT)

The Grand Final of the Latin American Poker Tour’s second season is quickly approaching, as the action prepares to head to Argentina for LAPT Mar del Plata.

The final event will run from April 16-19, and qualifiers giving you the chance to win a seat at the event are running now. Satellites are available from as little as $0.25 or 250 FPPs and are located under the Events > LAPT tab in your PokerStars.com lobby.

Posted by Diana Sterling in EPT, LAPT, Poker Articles, Poker News, Poker Tournaments, WSOP | No Comments » April 1st, 2009

The European Poker Tour inaugurated flaunting hordes of gorgeous showgirls but by the end of the show the real winner remained, for the second time in the history of the European Poker tour a woman, Sandra “The Black Mamba” Naujoks, won the title declaring to the world that women certainly are equal to men in any occupation or game.

After winning the title Naujoks stated that she could not believe her luck and winning her first season of the European Poker Tour in her home turned out be the cherry on top of the cake. When the play initiated all eyes were set on Canadian Mike “Timex” McDonald  who was participating for the second time in the European Poker Tour aiming to go down in the EPT history as the only an to win Two European Poker Tour Titles.

For sometime it looked as though Timex was indeed going to win what he had set his heart to an early case of double up helped him reach that summit. It didn’t come as a surprise when the unconventional hand player from Turkey by the name of Ulusu was eliminated shortly afterwards in eighth spot. Next to leave the table was the ever so reliable Swede William Thorson who manages to fall short every time at a European Poker Tour final table. Losing a crucial pot again Holger Kanisch Thorson witnessed some cruel twists of fate and had to make his exit quietly. Meanwhile Timex was seen to experience some stormy weather when it came to his chips but as the dinner break approached he regained his strength and got back into the game at full throttle adjusting swiftly to the ever increasing blinds.

After the play resumed Naujoks sprang into action winning an array of crucial hands and it was she who ended Timex’s run in the tournament putting an end to his dreams of going down in history as a distinctive part of the European Poker Tour.

The heads-up game saw Naujoks handling a critical hand that involved a very rare element of fortune, though she was losing behind in chips with ace-nine versus ace-queen Naujoks manages to come out triumphant. Destiny smiled upon her when she made aces-up to knock out Kranisch and take home the title as well as the staggering amount of €917,000

Posted by Diana Sterling in EPT, Poker Articles, Poker News, Poker Pro Players, Poker Tournaments | No Comments » March 23rd, 2009

Similar to his previous performance at the last European Poker Tour stop in Copenhagen , Denmark in the month of February, Norwegian poker celebrity  William Thorson continues to flaunt his dexterity by comfortably positioning himself at the top of the leader board  after the first two grueling Day ones at the Pokerstars.com European Poker Tour Dortmund Main Event.

On the Initiation of the play on Tuesday, a staggering number of 306 players were witnessed at this grand event and by Thursday Day 2 only 115 were left standing in the battle field. Everyone could feel the tension in this event as one player after the other strived harder to move ahead and survive to carry on the legacy of their endeavors at the distinctive European Poker Tour.

After a vicious eight levels of play had been utilized Throson managed to give closure to everyone’s dream by owning the largest stack of chips than anyone else. Winning an overwhelming and quite impressive 84,500 chips considering he only started with 10,000 placed him ahead of Germany’s own star Robert Zipf, an online qualifier who ended the day coming in second with 72,300 chips.

Johannes Strassmann, who had owned the final table of the same event last year and had finished at seventh place saw a few ups and downs at this event but managed to claw his way back up and survive the inhospitable environment around them. Joining him were some other noticeable poker players such as Alexander Kravchenko, Rolf Slotboom, and Soren Kongsgaard. As for those who did not manage to make it through to Day 2, no need to despair your names will still be written down in this events history and among these great players were Remy Biechel, Barny Boatman, Rasmus Nielsen, Roberto Romanello, and Ivan Demidov.

Other familiar faces of the poker world are also expected to make an entry for the second and last Day one session on Wednesday which includes the valorous Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier, Marcel Luske, and everyone’s beloved champion Peter Eastgate.

Following are the leaders at the end of Day 1a:

William Thorson — 84,500
Robert Zipf — 72,300
Jan Collado-Fernandez — 71,100
Martin Bjerring — 70,500
Jens Wiegel — 69,300
Holger Kanisch — 69,000
Petter Petersson — 65,800
Sebastian Zink — 64,100
Dino Dinler — 63,100
Michael Kwiek — 62,700

Posted by Diana Sterling in EPT, Poker Articles, Poker News, Poker Pro Players, Poker Tournaments | No Comments » March 15th, 2009

Gathering the right thrust in snowy Denmark the 184 qualifying players played down to the money at the grand event held by Poker Stars.com. Day 2 was set to conclude the minute the bubble had burst and that defining moment was contravened swiftly as the highly belligerent Scandinavian Poker that has become the personification of this event continued. Big names triumphed and big names collapsed under the grueling pressure of the savage battle that continued for several hours with a persistent pace and brought down many talented and renowned poker pros standing strong in the field, leaving only 40 survivors.

The young and charming Norwegian Annette Obrestad stood her ground to the latter stages of the day when she gave in and was unable to achieve another result for her sparkling C.V. Crashing out just shy of the payouts Annette was not going alone as the highly dexterous and talented Trond Eidsvig joined her shortly along with Arnaud Mattern and Luca Pagano, not to mention.

Witnessed with awe, 2007 William Hill Grand Prix winner Martin Wendt and two-time European Poker Tour final tablist Andrea Benelli were seen among other renowned players scuffling through the bustling tables to the pay out spots. While the earlier eliminations headed to the bar for consolatory drinks Wendt made it through Day 3 of the European Poker Tour holding a big stack as one of the chip leaders. Given the title of the underlying surprise package Thor Hansen joined the tournament with the idea of showcasing his veteran dexterity and intuitiveness in front of the younger Scandinavians and teaching them a thing or two. Providing himself with a chance to win the European poker glory as well as the title Thor guided his stack impressively through the day to make the final 40.

Near the conclusion when the players bagged and tagged their chips, Norway’s Langest was left standing as the chip leader pocketing $327K. Also expected to be the man with the highest odds to win European Poker Tour Glory in Denmark’s Langest was closely followed by the second in chips Dane Rasmus Nielsen, who made fourth here last year with $254k at the conclusion of the play and Ramzi Jelassi is also expected to return tomorrow well-placed with $143k in his stack.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… Rank: wait… Traffic: wait… Price: wait… C: wait…

Posted by Diana Sterling in EPT, Poker Articles, Poker News, Poker Pro Players, Poker Tournaments | No Comments » February 23rd, 2009