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

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

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

And on TOP of it all…

Sorry, force of habit. Anyway, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series XI is in full swing, drawing in thousands of players including poker professionals and casual online players. Event no.5, $200+$16 Limit Hold’em 6-max, was no exception as a total of 1,603 players came to play. After the dust cleared, TOPTEN came out on top to take the $44,327.10 first prize money.

TOPTEN was nowhere near the chip lead at the start of the final table with only 301,235 in chips. It was tom10167 on top with 1,624,496. Killinda_sts was close behind with 1,432,881. Bringing up the rear was Michael ”benvo123” Benvenuti with 147,152 in chips.

It was Benvenuti who made an early exit after he was eliminated by killinda_sts. He took home a respectable $7,228.40 for his sixth place finish. After suffering numerous bad beats, it was pool_shark_10’s turn to go as he finished in fifth place for $11,267.80.

Fourth place went to Scott ”TheMrC” Castelluccio courtesy of killinda_sts when Castelluccio’s A-4 proved to be no match to killinda’s…

Read More » TOPTEN becomes one of Full Tilt’s Top Online Poker players after topping FTOPS XI Event (on top…)

We have no idea why they haven’t thought of this sooner.

Then again, we probably won’t give a rat’s ass anyway. But just two week ago, online poker site DoylesRoom announced that something was brewing and that they were working on something really special.

Finally, the poker site has formally announced that it has moved to the Cake Poker Network and as a result, American players can start playing in the highly popular online poker site again.

Doylesroom was forced to enforce the ban on American players when it was part of the MicroGaming Network. Due to strict poker legislation, Microgaming Network decided that it could no longer justify accepting new player registrations. Doylesroom, since it was part of the network, had no choice but to stop accepting American poker players since last November.

Now that Doylesroom has moved to the Cake Poker Network, U.S. players can rejoice. To add to the festivities, Doylesroom is hosting a $5,000 freeroll this Saturday at 5pm EST. On February 1 during the same time slot, the poker site will host a $100,000-guaranteed tournament for the much reduced price of $162.

Already a regular player at Doylesroom? Don’t worry because your rights are protected. Your current balance will transfer to the Cake Poker Network seamlessly. Furthermore, you will keep the ”loyalty points” you have so carefully accumulated…

Read More » Online Poker Room DoylesRoom opens to Americans

Talk about national pride.

Australian Stewart Scott battled a tough field of 679 players consisting of poker professionals, Internet qualifiers and WSOP bracelet holders to come out on top of the 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event. For his outstanding effort on home soil, Stewart brings home a staggering AUD$2 million in prize money.

Stewart Scott was in chip lead at the end of Day 4 and he ended up going all the way to become champion. He entered the final table with 4,520,000 in chips. His nearest competitor, Peter Rho, had 2,420,000.

Barny Boatman had the short stack with 349,000 in chips and he was unable to recover so he exited in 8th place. Just moments after, Richard Ashby was sent to the rail in seventh place ($150,000) after being eliminated by Rajkumar Ramakrishnan. Zach Gruneberg was eliminated in sixth place ($210,000) but don’t feel bad for him. He won a seat to the main event courtesy of Cake poker. Furthermore, he won Event #4 for a cool $35,000.

Another player who was able to join the Main Event cheap was fifth placer Sam Capra who got in through a $330 live satellite. A pretty solid investment since he won $300,000 for his fifth place finish. He was eliminated with Peter Rho who was holding…

Read More » It’s only fitting that an Australian Poker Player wins the 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event Trophy right?

Apparently, that’s what a judge from Pennsylvania thinks.

Here’s one victory for poker folks who are forced to tangle with so many legal issues just to enjoy the game they love. In a decision handed by one judge from Eastern Pennsylvania, poker has now been officially declared (at least in his courtroom) as NOT a game of luck. Instead, he goes on to state that poker is a game of skill, something poker fans been harping about since time immemorial.

The judge those guys should applaud for this decision is Columbia County Judge Thomas A. James. In his ruling, James absolved a certain Walter Watkins who was slapped a lawsuit after a poker game he was hosting was raided.

Unfortunately for Watkins, an undercover Pennsylvania state trooper was present during his little ”poker tournament.” During the sessions, Watkins stressed that he wasn’t charging rake. Instead, he merely encourages players to tip his dealers after every hand.

Nothing wrong with that. After all, it’s a difficult job. (Especially for those people who don’t like math anyway…)

Judge James based his decision on, among other factors, the numerous poker books available that talk about the skill factors involved in poker. His logic? If chance predominates the game of Texas Hold’em, it is gambling. Since skill predominates the game, (according to this judge anyway who, I reckon, plays poker as well…) Texas Hold’em should…

Read More » Poker is a Skill Game, not a Game of Luck. Really now?

Because the guy can’t keep his mouth shut.

Has Tom ”durrr” Dwan taken on more than he can chew? After Dwan discussed a poker challenge where he would put up $1.5 million of his own money versus any challenger’s $500,000, both Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius indicated their interest in playing against him.

In his deal, Dwan stated that the challenger wins if he or she beats him heads-up in either No-Limit Hold’em or Pot-Limit Omaha with a minimum of 50,000 hands played simultaneously at four tables at $200-$400 stakes.

Phil Ivey, who has reputedly won more than $6 million last year solely through online play at ring games, has said that he would play anyone at every game there is. His acceptance of Dwan’s challenge isn’t really a surprise. After all, Ivey has had a history of accepting prop bets.

Patrik Antonius, like Ivey, takes pride that he plays anyone. In an interview, he explained that he also took on the challenge because he believed it would be interesting, and even if he lost, it would help his game a lot. When asked whether he would be playing Hold’em or Omaha, Antonius chose the latter.

During Barry Greenstein’s ”Tuesdays with Ivey” show on PokerRoad Radio…

Read More » Tom Dwan to get his ass handed to him by Phil Ivey