I guess you can now say that the king just accumulated even more treasures for himself.

Carter ”ckingusc” has beefed up his already glowing poker resume. After winning the PokerStars’ 2008 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event, King won the Sunday Million after arriving at the final table second in chips.

King had to outlast 7,905 other participants to take down the $193,697 prize the 2009 PokerStars Sunday Million had for its participants. The sheer number of players pumped the prize pool to $1,599,800 and 1,170 players ended up in the money.

Terris ”tpreston” Preston entered the final table as the short-stack and he was the first to be eliminated for $11,068.50. Rabbiej, who was also nursing a short stack, was eliminated several hands later in eight place for $18,183.80. BigSexyKN was the next one to go courtesy of a bad beat dealt by Carter King. BigSexyKN settled for seventh place and $27,671.

At 250,000/500,000/50,000, Craig ”1GENERAL_TAO” Bergeron was eliminated when…

Read More » Carter King can now add winning the 2009 PokerStars Sunday Million to his impressive poker resume

And Patrik Antonius is gaining ground.

Finally, the two pros have resumed their marathon match after a fifteen-day break. Tom ”Durrr” Dwan and Patrik Antonius played $200-$400 pot-limit Omaha last Monday evening and ended up playing 914 hands in three hours.

Patrik Antonius who has been trailing Tom ”Durrr” Dwan for over $140,000 has narrowed the gap by winning $87,611 during the last match. However, it’s still anyone’s game as the two have only played 5,086 of the 50,000 required hands.

There have been a lot of speculations on why this marathon match is taking even longer than expected. Rumor has it that Dwan is reeling from a $3.5-million loss he suffered during poker games since the year has started.

Still, it doesn’t look like Dwan is quitting his own ”Durrr” Poker Challenge anytime soon as he is still leading Antonius by $53,640.

Three pots crossed the six-figure mark during the last match-up. Antonius won two of the big hands, and Dwan took down one of them. In the biggest hand of the evening, Dwan raised to $1,200 from the button and Antonius re-raised with $3,600. Dwan called and saw a Qs-Jd-7c flop. Antonius bet in with $5,400 getting a call from Dwan.

After the turn turned up a 4h, Antonius bet out $15,600. Dwan moved all in for his remaining…

Read More » The Tom Durrr Dwan Poker Challenge is still On

Oh yes, the countdown for the 2009 WSOP has begun.

While college basketball fans go ga-ga over the 2009 March Madness bracket tournament, there are some people who are already gearing up for the 2009 World Series of Poker.

You read it, the anticipation for the 2009 World Series of Poker is heating up and as usual, poker sites are doing their best to take advantage of the buzz this event brings by offering satellites.

Full Tilt Poker has started the frenzy by launching satellites for the 2009 Main Event; as well as Event no.4, $1000 Stimulus Special tournament.

For those who have been dreaming of getting a cheap seat to the 2009 WSOP Main Event, Full Tilt offers daily double shootouts for 81 players with $216 buy-in. The winner takes home a $12,000 package inclusive of the buy-in and $2,000 pocket money. Tournaments will begin at 3:30PM EST and 9:30PM EST.

Another interesting satellite is Full Tilt’s 150-seat guarantee to the Main Event which will start on June 21st at 6:00PM EST. Buy-in for the 150-seat Guarantee tournament will cost $500 + $35. If that’s a little pricey for you, you can get in through satellites that can cost…

Read More » The Start of the 2009 World Series of Poker Craze brings us Poker’s own version of March Madness

Well, they’ll try anyway.

Who can forget the scandals that threatened to bring down some of the biggest online poker sites? With online bots and allegations of ‘’super accounts,” can online poker players really feel safe or is it better off for everyone to retreat back to live poker games?

CogniSafe Ltd. claims to have the solution to the problem. Based in Tel Aviv, the company has announced that it has developed a program called PitBoss that online poker rooms can use to detect cheating from online bots, software cheats, hacking, super user accounts and even collusion. The Chief Technical Officer of CogniSafe has dubbed the software as ”the complete solution to online cheating” and assures everyone that it works across a large variety of game types.

It sounds complicated and it is. The system is an elaborate data model that has a cheat detection engine that is rooted in semantics. It is supposed to read some behavioral aspects of the player; as well as game logic and processes. It can work across a lot of game types because a lot of card games share rules and policies. Aside from varieties of poker, PitBoss can also work with Blackjack.

The benefits of employing the software are apparent. Real-time detection can prevent money from being shipped to the alleged poker cheat. This can prevent a lot of bad press which can result in loss of business. Online sites that…

Read More » CogniSafe Ltd. launches Online Cheating Software ‘Pitboss’ to stop Cheating in Online Poker Rooms

Just pretend this story interests you.

The 2009 World Poker Tour Celebrity Invitational was a colorful event. The Commerce Casino was filled with hundreds of poker pros and celebrities all vying for a World Poker Tour title and a chance to donate to charity. In the end, it was WPT Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic winner Freddy Deeb who walked away with the championship and $100,000 in winnings.

It only took 73 hands for the final table to play out. Just seven hands into the game, Jose Tavares was sent home in 6th place with $5,000. The blinds were a staggering 30,000-60,000 with 10,000 ante and Tavares pushed all-in pre-flop with his A-Q with around a million in chips. Unfortunately for him, he was called by Nick Gonzales who held Pocket Rockets.

Ottavio Tassone was the next to go when he lost against WSOP bracelet holder Scott ”BigRiskky” Clements. Tassone shoved all-in before the flop with K-J and was countered by a push by Clements with Pocket eights. The board didn’t help Tassone and he ended up in 5th place with $10,000.

Clements’ victory was short-lived as he was the next to bust out with $15,000. After Tom Hall raised to 200,000 pre-flop, Clements pushed all-in for 1.32 million. Hall called Clements with As-3s. Although Clements was ahead A-9, the flop gave Hall trips with 3-3-2.

The blinds were at 40,000-80,000 with 10,000 ante when…

Read More » Freddy Deeb wins 2009 WPT Celebrity Invitational

It was a fitting end to yet another big poker tournament.

And while it was supposed to be Chris Ferguson’s time to shine, the favored poker pro floundered and Cornel Andrew Cimpan was crowned the 2009 L.A. Poker Classic champion.

Almost 700 players competed for the title but in the end, it was luck that determined the latest World Poker Tour champion. For overcoming the odds (and a marathon heads-up match against Binh Nguyen), Cimpan wins $1,686,250 in first prize money.

It was unfortunate for Chris Jesus Ferguson since he was in the chip lead before ending up with the shortest stack in the final table. He was eliminated first in what has been one of the biggest collapses in the tourney.

In his final hand, Ferguson raised only to be called by eventual champion Cornel Andrew Cimpan pre-flop. Flop was 10s-8d-8h. Ferguson checked and Cimpan moved in over the top pushing the pro all-in with pocket 4s. After thinking about it for a long time, Ferguson called with Ac-Kc.

Unfortunately for Jesus, God wasn’t on his side this time as the turn and river drew blanks. (We apologize for the blasphemous remark…)

Pat Walsh was eliminated next when his all-in preflop with Ad-2s were just no match against Binh Nguyen’s Ah-Jh. Fourth place and $430,963 went to another former chip leader, Chris Karagulleyan. Both players went…

Read More » Chris Jesus Ferguson eliminated early as Cornel Andrew Cimpan wins the 2009 L.A. Poker Classic

I guess looking like Jesus Christ himself has worked for Ferguson so far.

There are only 20 players left vying for the title of Main Event Champion in the 2009 L.A. Poker Classic after Day 4.

It was fast and furious action and after the bubble burst, it was Chris Ferguson who emerged as the chip leader with 1,721,000 in chips.

From 63 players, the field was whittled down with several notable eliminations during the day including David Pham (50th), Men Nguyen (36th) and Bertrand Grospellier (32nd).

The eliminations started very early in the day as everyone was guaranteed to be in the money. A few minutes into play, David Daneshgar and Paul Darden busted out on the very same hand to take 63rd and 62nd place respectively.

Men ”The Master” Nguyen had to settle for a 36th place finish, pocketing $38,085 in the process. Bertrand ”ElkY” Grospellier’s dreams of another WPT title were dashed when his all-in with Pocket Jacks couldn’t hold up versus Binh Nguyen’s Ad-Qs.

Although Grospellier was in the lead with a 3d-2s-9d flop, the turn and river hit consecutive diamonds, giving Nguyen the nut flush. Grospellier ended up in 32nd place for $38,085.

On the hand where Chris Ferguson took over the…

Read More » Chris Jesus Ferguson leads the 2009 L.A. Poker Classic

Yes, this $1.5 million poker challenge has begun.

When Tom ”Durrr” Dwan told Card Player magazine that he would pay $1.5 million (versus his opponent’s $500,000 side bet) to any player who can beat him in 50,000 hands at four simultaneous heads-up tables online, Patrik Antonis was one of the first ones to take the challenge.

Patrik Antonius agreed to the terms including the minimum stakes of $200-$400 in Pot-Limit Omaha or No-Limit Texas Hold’em. Now that months have passed, the moment everyone has been waiting for has officially begun. Dwan has announced that the challenge has started and that he has played a total of 1,541 hands with Antonius.

A very long way to go considering we’re talking about 50,000 hands. That’s merely 3 percent! If the trend continues, Dwan may very well be looking at a massive payday as he is now up $134,911.50.

Other top poker players such as Phil Ivey and David Benyamine has expressed their interest in taking on Dwan’s challenge. Antonius, however, wanted to go first. Ivey and Benyamine need not worry about not getting their shot though. Dwan has said he would almost definitely play two and will probably play against all three.

We’re talking about a lot of hands so don’t expect to hear about final…

Read More » Patrik Antonius & the Tom ”Durrr” Dwan Poker Challenge

FINALLY, it’s over. Now we can move on to more important things like Mickey Rourke’s WrestleMania match.

And in case you didn’t get that, I was kidding. ANYWAY, the 2009 Full Tilt Online Poker Series XI has ended. The highlight was the $500 + $35 No Limit Hold’em Main Event that concluded with Adam ”csimmsux” Geyer taking top honors.

Full Tilt had no problems meeting the event’s $2,500,000 guarantee as 5,287 contenders entered the tournament. The prize pool was pumped up to $2,643,500 giving the winner a healthy payday of $456,056.62.

It took almost 13 hours before the final table. Eventual winner, Adam ”csimmsux” Geyer, was in 2nd place with 6,785,550 in chips. KA1SERfknS0ZE was in the lead with 8,652,650. Event no.9 winner Luie Sojo also made it to the final table with 2,624,144 in chips. Bringing up the rear was Supermanpunch with 1,607,481.

Luie Sojo ended his winning streak when he was eliminated first at the final table. His As-8s was no good when Clubflush5’s pocket fives hit a set on the flop. Luie Sojo hit two pair at the flop but didn’t improve. He left with $34,365.50.

Supermanpunch (yes, we so dig this guy’s nickname…)

Read More » Adam ”csimmsux” Geyer wins the 2009 Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) XI Main Event Finale

Yes they are, and they have something special in mind on the lucky one who’ll eventually win it.

PokerStars players are eager to find out who will win the Mega Milestone Hand at the very popular online poker room. Currently, the number of cash games is just a little over 24,850,000,000 so it’s only a matter of time before someone wins the 25 billionth cash game on PokerStars.

But the winner doesn’t just walk away with bragging rights and a story to tell. He or she will also win several jackpot prizes of such great magnitude that it is enough to induce players to play online poker non-stop for weeks.

Just how great are the prizes? The winner of PokerStars’ 25 Billionth Cash Game Hand will win $100,000 in cold cash, a grand final package to the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo, a package to the PokerStars Carribbean Adventure, a World Series of Poker package and a Main Event ticket to the World Championship of Online Poker.

PokerStars wasn’t kidding when they said that the prizes would be spectacular. These are the stuff poker dreams are made of.

Players on the same table as the Mega Milestone Hand winner will not leave empty-handed too. They will share amongst themselves $100,000 in cash and prizes. So just hanging around…

Read More » PokerStars reaching its 25,000,000,000th Hand