Launched in 2001, Poker Stars has now become a very popular site for playing online poker games with more than 28,600 real money ring game players. Poker Stars is considered the industry’s current leader as it also created the concept of “Satellite” Tournaments, which means that the winner of an online tournament gains entry to a real “Poker” tournament.

Poker Star is in a limelight again by introducing “Team Pro Tuesday” and now this week they are having their second installment of it.

Poker Stars also introduced a pair of “Outlast the Pro” tournament for playing with pros in cash games. Each tournament has a buy-in of $11 and a $1000 in cash added to the prize pool. And a prize of $1000 will be added into the funds for those pro`s who will remain longer in each tournaments than others.

This season Poker Star team includes the victor of the “World Series of Poker (WSOP)” tournament, Joe Cada, who won the $1000 buy-in tournament in November and became the youngest winner ever for that tournament. Chris Money Maker, who defeated the established Pro Sammy Farha in a feature tournament in 2003, is also a part of this team.

Other member include Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier and Humberto Brenes.Poker Stars also includes top female pros as well like Maridu Mayrinck, who was introduced in this year’s “WSOP” main event. The team also has Vicky Coren, Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown and Gavin Griffin.This year Poker Star team has also signed Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem as their ambassadors for this game. More Poker Stars Pros!

The experience of playing with such experts is similar to the main rival of online poker site called “FULL Tilt”. This tournament has two separate time blocks each Tuesday. One is from 12:00 to 15:00 ET and other is from 19:00 to 22:00 ET.You can find out online pro`s on the “Team Pro Link”, located at the bottom of the Poker Star lobby. You also can find a Poker player by hitting “Find a team Poker star player”.

But as a whole, it will be a great opportunity for all the players for having good experience with great winnings. Another good thing is that they are also accepting U.S players. So now U.S players have a chance to try their luck as well.

Click here to play poker at the biggest online poker room!

Posted by Diana Sterling in Poker News, Poker Pro Players | No Comments » December 17th, 2009

Although it is the end of the year 2009, the world of online poker is as active as ever. Despite the fact that there are more poker tournaments and matches to come, we can see the fantastic achievements of the greats in the poker field. The online poker tournaments of this year have taken place in casinos all over the world namely; Las Vegas, Warsaw, Marrakech, and London, as well as online.

One player, Antoine Saout has made quite the name for himself as a talented French poker player who won third place in the World Series of Poker. Antoine Saout claimed more than four million dollars in poker winnings in 2009.

In addition to this Joe Cada won the main event of the World Series of Poker this year creating a big name for himself as a professional poker player. He has won about eight and a half million dollars this year playing poker.

Another fine player, Daniel Kelly won the World Championship of Online Poker. This new online poker pro player is just twenty years old. He’s a student from the University of Vilanova and in just two weeks Daniel Kelly, or djk123 as he is known, earned two titles in the World Championship of Online Poker. With these players came Cornel Cimpan who won the Poker Classic of Los Angeles this year, just as he did with the World Poker Tour in 2004, thus proving that he is a skilled poker player and not just a guy who had a lucky break.

There have been some amazing poker tournaments this year, online and in person and have generated some great winners. Some new names have popped up and some old names reclaimed their territory in professional poker. Big prizes and titles have been earned in some amazing games of skill in this year of 2009.

Posted by Diana Sterling in Poker Articles, Poker Pro Players | No Comments » December 3rd, 2009

Recently on Full Tilt Poker Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Tom Dwan were in on the action but then two other major contenders came to Full Tilt. The first one was martonas and the second was from Sweden, named Isildur. Among the vast profits hehas scooped from high profile players is a $4 million run against Tom “durrrr” Dwan..

He may now be on the verge of collapse. In a recent heads up Pot Limit Omaha session with Patrik Antonius he shipped back $2.7 million to the Monaco-based Finn. The 2189 hands included one in particular which has the railbirds ablaze. This eventually broke the record for the largest ever pot ever player in online poker history and was of $723,938 previously held by Dwan and Di “Urindanger” Dang.

This happened when both Isildur1 and Antonius were near $450,000. It involved a $5k bet from Isildur1 and a call from Patrik. The flop came 5h-7h-Qs, prompting Isildur1 to bet another $5,000 and Patrik to raise to $21,000. Then Patrik got into gear and this made him lead out with a $48,000 bet. Isildur1 then reached up to $192,000.

Antonius then pushed his whole $415,000 stack in the middle, meaning that if Isildur1 called it would become the biggest online pot in history. He did call and it was a tie.

Patrik held Ah-Qc-9s-6h, Isildur1 on the other hand had As-Ks-Qd-10h. The final card was an 8d, handing Antonius the straight and the gargantuan $878,958 pot.

The identity of Isildur1 is still completely unknown, with many players guessing but poker pro Barry Greenstein in a post on the PokerRoad forums, claimed that he had an idea but it was to be kept a secret. He’s not a publically known player at this time, but he has done very well in big head-up games on European sites and he just started playing on American sites.

Barry went on to defend Isildur1’s anonymity, pointing out that many Scandavian players either emigrate or maintain a low profile to avoid the huge tax sums they are required to pay on poker winnings. Whoever he is, he is a true champion for Full Tilt’s high stakes tables.

Play poker now with the pros at Full Tilt Poker!

Posted by Diana Sterling in Poker News, Poker Pro Players | No Comments » November 23rd, 2009

The 21 year old poker player Joe Cada has taken the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet, in a battle that began in July. Joe Cada played against Darvin Moon in the Penn and Teller Theatre in Las Vegas Nevada when Heads up play began Monday night at 10:00 P.M.

The tournament started when Vince Neil of Motley Crue was brought into the Las Vegas Rio. Vince Neil then kicked off the Heads up portion of the WSOP Main Event with his poker skills. Cada was in the lead and Moon began final table play in the lead, but faced tough players like Phil Ivey out of the WSOP. Moon initially won but then lost.

At the ultimate tournament Cada, started heads up play with 136,925,000 in poker chips, whereas Moon began with 58,875,000 in WSOP tournament chips. The confident Cada showed up preflop with a couple of 9’s, and the trips were pretty much evened up. After a while 70 hands in, Cada had 1/3 of the tournament chips. Cada raise and so did Moon, after which Moon re-raised Cada’s 3 million bet after a 10c-5d-9h flop and 10d turn.

Eventually Cada made the call and Moon needed a jack or a six to win the WSOP. Cada then showed second pair with Jack 9 and eventually Cada turned the game around.

Not ten hands later, in the 88th hand of the 2009 WSOP, Cada raised Moon re-raised.

Cada showed a pair of 9’s and throughout the last few moments of the game it was all luck and a crucial moves. In due course Cada became a 21 year old World Series of Poker Champion!

The World Series of Poker thus welcomes another winner in their league of great poker play and there are many more to come.

Play poker at Bodog Poker. You can be the next WSOP bracelet winner!

Posted by Diana Sterling in Poker News, Poker Pro Players, WSOP | No Comments » November 12th, 2009

The poker action has resumed for the players with the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) XIV starting today and running till Nov 15th. The series will feature 25 different events including knockout, shootout, turbo, and two-day events. Not to mention the $2.5 million guaranteed main event. All together the total guaranteed prize pool is more than $16 million.

The first event, the $200 plus $16 no-limit hold’em six-max tournament, starts off tonight at 9 p.m. (ET). The event will be hosted by Allen Cunningham and it guarantees $1,000,000. The satellites are running all day starting at as little as $5.

In addition to this there are many competitions and challenges also going on at Full Tilt Poker during the FTOPS, which makes it more exciting. In the FTOPS XIV Satellite Challenge players can win as many FTOPS XIV tournament entries as possible. First you need to qualify for the event and then any additional entries will be turned in to tournament dollars. If a player wins more entries than anyone else, he will receive the Tournament dollars equivalent of two more buy-ins, and the player in second place gets them equivalent of one more buy-in.

Any player who finishes on the bubble of an FTOPS event gets the chance to return with the “Bouncebackability” free roll. This is takes place on Nov. 21st at 3 p.m. and a main event buy-in is the main focus.

There are other challenges as well at FullTiltPoker.com, where players can win special prizes including cash bonuses and free roll entries.

Also, a limited-edition FTOPS jacket goes to anyone who makes an FTOPS final table, and those who win get the jacket, plus a gold FTOPS jersey and a gold jersey Full Tilt Poker avatar. The player who tops the FTOPS XIV leader board will win a custom Full Tilt Poker avatar and a special package including $7,500 worth of entries to FTOPS XV events.

The 2nd event is tom which is the $200 plus $16 seven-game, six-max event with $150,000 guaranteed and it will be hosted by David Chiu.

Play Online Poker at the FTOPS XIV!

Posted by Diana Sterling in FTOPS, Poker News, Poker Pro Players, Poker Tournaments | No Comments » November 6th, 2009

Absolute Poker is at it again with its great new poker playing opportunities for the players. The Absolute Poker College Challenge is back with a bang and students are getting ready to show off their playing strategy through pure competitiveness.  The Absolute Poker College Challenge Main Event is going to be held on November 30th and will award $10,000 dollars for tuition.

The game of poker is now being appreciated on a greater level. More colleges are starting to see that poker is not a game of chance but takes knowledge and skill in order to win the game. Harvard Law Professor Charles Nesson is bringing poker into the classroom and is an active supporter of the game.

According to him, online poker is among the best ways to teach people how to conduct negotiations, manage risks and develop tactical thinking and other skills that are essential to succeed in life.

Absolute Poker Pro and APCC consultant Matt Vengrin said, “Nesson’s concept that playing poker teaches students other life skills is on the money. Poker has taught me how to deal with a lot of different aspects of my life from business to my personal relationships. My life is where it is today due to learning what it takes to be a professional poker player”. More Absolute Poker Pros.

The Absolute Poker College Challenge offers daily qualifiers and freerolls starting at $0.25 to $5 dollars. Along with this, every week there will be a Main Event qualifier on Sunday at 9pm EST that awards seats.

The top six players at the Main Event will battle it out live in Los Angelas, California and be streamed online at Bluff. The winner will receive $10,000 dollars tuition money and an APCC Championship Ring. If you are not a player at Absolute Poker then create an account today to take advantage of this promotion and get a welcome bonus.

Click here to play poker at Absolute Poker!

Posted by Diana Sterling in Poker News, Poker Pro Players, Poker Tournaments | No Comments » November 4th, 2009

The Full Tilt poker group is constantly innovating, and this time it has come up with a fabulous new game. It seems like Pot Limit Omaha and HA might be sidelined; this new game has definitely created a buzz. Ever since the 7-Game rotation was introduced on the Full Tilt this summer, the combination of limit and no limit action has gained popularity amongst the high stakes online cash game players.

The Full Tilt Wednesday nights action has proved that 7 Game can generate big wins and losses that go against those of action games like PLO. At a certain point 3 simultaneous games were running with three different $2,000/$4,000 7 Game tables and players like Phil Ivey, Cole cts South, Gus Hansen, Phil OMG Clay Aiken Galfond, Tom durrrr Dwan, Chau Giang and Ilari Ziigmund Sahamies were all getting in on the fun.

Th most happening thing however was the two Phils. While Galfond had a rough time, dropping almost $445,000, but Ivey went on in full action and made a total of $1,160,000 in profit for the day. His seven figure session is one of the biggest wins in online poker cash game history and rivals Iveys guaranteed minimum payout for 9th place in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event which is worth $1,263,602. He lost back $330,000 on the tables on Thursday, but is still up over a million dollars on the week.

Iveys profits were generated at the hands of Galfond as well as Dwan (down $344,000), Giang {down $290,000), David Oppenheim (down $245,000) and Sahamies (down $116,000). Ivey was at a much higher level and was biggest winner of the night, but DINFRU (up $336,000), who is rumored to be Erik Sagstrom, Patrik Antonius (up $104,000) and Richard Ashby (up $71,000) all had great gaming sessions as well.

The game carried on again till Thursday and Ivey was the big loser while Sahamies came out on top, more than making up for Wednesdays losses with a $336,000 win. Currently it seems the 7-Game craze is not going anywhere anytime soon, which means some of the Texas Holdem and Omaha high stakes specialists are going to have to broaden their poker dimensions if they want to get in on the action.

Play poker at Full Tilt Poker. Click here!

Posted by Diana Sterling in Poker News, Poker Pro Players | No Comments » October 19th, 2009

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 World Championship of Online Poker has once again come to an end and from this event have emerged some great winners! The recent addition to the list of winners is the Ukrainian player, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko who brought down the field of 2,144 players in the PokerStars World Championship of Online poker to bring home $1.7 million dollars.

An entire month of high stakes tournaments ended Monday, with the main event yielding the largest prize pool of all of the events. The game was No Limit Texas Hold ‘em, and the stakes were $5,200. The top 306 of the tournament brought down a prize, with the lowest prize still being a gain of $3,000 from the $5,000 dollar buys in. Even the second place winner took home $1 million dollars, causing this tournament to create two millionaires over night.

In total, the WCOOP gave out prizes equal to $51,652,800. More than 112,000 players took part, and over 104 different countries watched players in the money. Among these 104 countries involved, the United States won the most first place positions.

Twenty-five of the bracelets handed out by the WCOOP went to USA players, with the United Kingdom taking the next largest set of four. One player, djk123, minted money more than any other player, making money 11 times, and was at more final tables than the rest of the field. More USA Online Poker!

The WCOOP comes once a year, and this year the games featured 45 exciting events over 18 days. The next WCOOP starts in around a year’s time, and all PokerStars pro players are legible to attend. Anyone else who is legally able to gamble in their jurisdiction may sign up for PokerStars, and feel the magnetizing power of their newly revamped deposit bonus; a 100% match to $600 dollars.

PokerStars is the largest and most reputable online poker room, and there is not a day that goes buy that over 100,000 players are not actively tossing chips around the tables.

Click here to play poker with the Pros!

Posted by Diana Sterling in Poker News, Poker Pro Players, Poker Tournaments, WCOOP | No Comments » September 28th, 2009

The renowned poker room LockPoker.com has recently signed sponsorship deals with three American professional players while Jon ‘PearlJammer’ Turner is now at the training site PokerVT.com. A member of the Cake Poker Network, LockPoker.com has added Brett ‘Gank’ Jungblut, Vinny Pahuja and David Zeitlin to its ranks and they will now participate in its Pro Programme.

This is Jungblut’s first deal, while Zeitlin, a former attorney, has made seven final table appearances this year including winning the main event of the Mohegan Sun Summer Showdown. Pahuja, a former trader on Wall Street, has won two.

“We have a true partnership with these players and understand the value of each one of them,” said Jennifer Larson, Chief Executive Officer for LockPoker.com. “With Eric ‘Rizen’ Lynch and Lock Pro driving our product, we are confident we will have the best online poker experience worldwide.”

PokerVT.com has revealed that Jon ‘PearlJammer’ Turner has joined Daniel Negreanu, Jason ‘JCarver’ Somerville, Adam Junglen and Grayson ‘SpaceGravy’ Physioc as part of its faculty.

Turner is a challenging professional and had two final table appearances at the recent World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas alongside a pot-limit Omaha win at the Wynn Classic. He placed third at the $10,300 buy-in main event of the PokerStars.com Spring Championship of Online Poker and has earned over $920,000 this year.

“I’m thrilled to be part of the PokerVT.com team,” said Turner.

“Having greats like Daniel Negreanu on board gives us an image and separates us from other training sites in regards to attracting the casual poker player and fan. However, something else really sets our training apart. It is PokerVT.com’s use of live games in its studios that is revolutionary. It’s this kind of innovation that really attracted me to the company.”

Posted by Diana Sterling in Poker Articles, Poker News, Poker Pro Players | No Comments » September 19th, 2009