How’s that for making a name for yourself huh?

While the 2008 World Series of Poker gets ready for the final table on November, Jose Miguel Espinar wanted to prove his poker prowess despite being a newbie in the game.

Well, do that he just did. Jose Miguel Espinar came out on top at the end of PokerStars’ Latin America Poker Tour Punte del Este championship. This may have proven that despite starting his poker career only in December 2007, Espinar’s previous cash win at PokerStars’ Caribbean Adventure was not a fluke.

The LAPT Punte del Este, which kicked off last August 7, attracted a total of 351 players. It was a $2,500 buy-in tournament and the total prize pool exceeded $850,000. This meant that the Spaniard Espinar took home a very respectable $241,735.

This guy only started in late 2007? This is the stuff poker dreams are made of.

Espinar was third in chips coming into the final table but he soon emerged on top after eliminating Paulo Cesar Ribeiro and Jose Perez in quick succession. Espinar’s luck seemed unbeatable early in the game when he hit quads to bust Ribeiro and dealt Perez with an ugly bad beat after his A-J won against…

Read More » Espinar wins PokerStars LAPT Punta del Este Title

A contest of endurance.

That’s exactly what poker players not participating in the 2008 World Series of Poker will have once the 36-hour poker cash game gets underway. Some people call it the toughest cash game in the world, obviously because of how long players would have to sit on that table.

A handful of the most-seasoned professional poker players will fight it out in a marathon high-stakes cash game in front of TV cameras. Poker TV doesn’t get any better than this. It’s no wonder Party Poker’s ‘’Poker Den - The Big Game,'’ the entity hosting this poker marathon, is back for a third installment in London’s Poker Den.

The poker pros set to make an appearance are some of the best and most colorful personalities in the game. Scheduled to play are Phil Hellmuth, Dave Ulliot, Tony G, Jamie Gold, Phil Laak, Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Townsend, Mike ‘’The Mouth'’ Matusow, Jennifer Tilly, Andrew Feldman, Sammy ‘’Any Two'’ George, and Robert Williamson III.

The third game is going to be even more tasking for the seasoned veterans. While the first two Big Games were held for 24 hours, this year, the Big Game will run for 36. ‘’The Poker Den has come a long way since we started back in the summer of 2005,'’ noted Eddie Hearn, head of the online gaming at Matchroom Sport. ‘’The Big Game has been such a huge success, and the two series so far have attracted the best players in the world.'’

You can be sure you’ll see some great poker action since the stakes are…

Read More » Can Poker Players in the 2008 World Series of Poker withstand this 36-Hour Cash Game Marathon?

It’s time to take a closer look who will be competing at the final table.

November 9 is the date as nine poker players converge once again at the Rio to play in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Out of the final nine, the chip leader will be Dennis Phillips from St Louis, Missouri. He is 53 years of age, working as an account manager for a trucking firm in St. Louis and has no plans on giving up the job even if he does win the big one.

Dennis Phillips battled some of the toughest poker players in the region when he joined the $200 buy-in to a Satellite tournament at Harrah’s, finally taking down the 2006 WSOP main event finalist Dan Nassif in heads-up action to win a seat in this year’s WSOP main event for a chance to win the 2008 WSOP bracelet.

In his previous WSOP tournaments, Dennis Phillips has only cashed in two events, both being WSOP Circuits held in the nearby city of Robinsonville. On September 7, 2007, Phillips bought into a WSOP Circuit NL Hold’em tournament at the Grand Casino Tunica for $550, finishing in 9th place for $2,386.

Two days later, Dennis reinvested his winnings for another $550 buy-in, this time taking 7th place for $2,192.

Phillips now finds himself having the largest chip stack in the 2008 WSOP tournament. He said that he will just continue what he’s doing right, being calm with his poker face while staring into the eyes of his strong-willed competitors.

According to Phillips, as he went ever deeper into the WSOP main event, he resisted numerous offers from online poker companies, making every effort to get him to don their logos. Full Tilt Poker offered a large sum to Phillips simply to wear a Full Tilt Poker cap backwards, but Phillips declined, preferring the…

Read More » 2008 World Series of Poker Final 9 Part 2: Dennis Phillips

You read it, the final table of the 2008 WSOP is set.

The 2008 World Series of Poker already have its final nine players ready to compete when they resume play on November. And in case you didn’t catch the title of this article, yes, we’ll be introducing who those final nine players are in a series of stories right here on OddJack.

Dubbed as the November Nine, these nine finalists of the 2008 WSOP battled their way through a field of 6,844 entrants, rising to the top of the final 27 players to take their respective positions at the final table.

The final nine of the 2008 WSOP are; Dennis Phillips, Ivan Demidov, Scott Montgomery, Peter Eastgate, Ylon Schwartz, Darus Suharto, David Rheem, Craig Marquis and Kelly Kim. And just because this is the first of ten stories focused on the final nine participants vying for the 2008 WSOP bracelet, we found it only fitting to give ya’ll a glimpse.

Dennis Phillips, one of the oldest players of the ‘’November Nine'’ hails from St. Louis, Mo. and currently is the chip leader. Phillips has some poker success on his resume. He came in ninth place back in 2007 WSOP Circuit Grand Tunica $500 No-Limit Hold’em event.

Ivan Demidov, on the other hand, has…

Read More » 2008 World Series of Poker Final 9 Part 1: Prologue

Everything (or everyone) popular needs a good scandal and poker is certainly no exception.

UltimateBet is still under fire for the cheating that occurred on the vastly popular online poker site and as expected, owners of the site are doing damage control by training their fire extinguishers on a searing blaze trying to extinguish the flames. And all this while the 2008 World Series of Poker is going on.

UltimateBet proprietor Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG has issued an official statement after it turned over to the Kahnawake Gaming Commission its investigative results on the cheating that occurred on the poker site.

It confirmed what we already know, cheaters were able to view other players’ hole cards and that the scheme dates back to at least early 2005.

Can you imagine how much hard-earned money the cheaters milked out of the defenseless poker players in that long period of time? Especially since a total of 19 accounts and 88 screen names were reportedly involved in this grand scheme. Evidence accumulated included IP addresses and withdrawal and transfer histories.

Naturally, Tokwiro is ‘’outraged'’ at the cheating that occurred…

Read More » Bet you don’t have this poker scandal in the 2008 WSOP

What happens when you offer a $1.5 Million Guaranteed Pot on a Sunday tournament online?

If the PokerStars Sunday Tournament 1.5 Million Guarantee is any indication, you’ll find yourself with 8,431 entrants and a massive $1,686,200.00 total prize pool. This ensured a cool $204,198.82 to the winner and with that kind of prize money, you can be certain this tournament is taken seriously.

With such a monstrous field, did the online poker wizards stood a chance? Once again proving that poker is a game of skill, online phenoms Andy McLEOD and Zach ‘’nofingclue11′’ Clark emerged as chip leaders going into the final table despite the sheer number of poker wannabes in their midst. (Yep, these guys should’ve just stayed home watching the 2008 World Series of Poker on TV…)

Unfortunately for both, despite their strong showings, Andy McLEOD and nofingclue11 ended up in 4th and 5th place respectively. Hey, don’t feel too bad for them, that was $75,879.00 for 4th place and a very respectable $59,017.00 for 5th.

The final three saw RProps, betofetus and Fred_Brink battling for glory with Fred_Brink dead last with only 13,553 in chips. The three discussed a possible deal and luckily for Fred_Brink, the deal was never agreed upon.

With RProps having 43,391,921 in chips and betofetus having 27,284,169, Fred_Brink seemed to be well on his way out. But…

Read More » Maybe PokerStars will think twice putting up a 1.5 Million Guarantee in their Sunday tournaments eh?

Since the 2008 WSOP is still on, this is probably a good time to renew this poker TV show.

What do poker players do when they’re not grinding it out in online poker rooms or, if they’re THAT lucky, the 2008 World Series of Poker? Why, watch poker on television of course! So here’s some good news to poker aficionados out there, despite rumors to the contrary, ‘’High Stakes Poker'’ has been renewed by Game Show Network (GSN) for the fifth season.

Living under a rock and have no clue what ‘’High Stakes Poker‘’ is about? It’s basically a show that features the most popular poker personalities putting up $100,000 or more of their own money in a ring game of No Limit Texas Hold-em. With pots so sick that it can reach over $1 million, you can imagine the magnitude of poker drama involved.

GSN was rumored to have plans to axe the widely popular show (one of the highest rated on the network) because the network has plans to gear toward targeting a younger audience. ‘’High Stakes Poker'’ attracts an older demographic and this cast some doubt on the future of the show.

Well, it seems that GSN is not willing to give up its cash cow yet, even if the show may not be skewed in accordance to the network’s future plans. According to AJ Benza, who co-hosts the show with Gabe Kaplan, the new episodes of the show will start filming in September.

Just in case you still have doubts on the…

Read More » Season Five of High Stakes Poker is Coming to ride the 2008 World Series of Poker Bandwagon

DoylesRoom has come up with another gimmick that hopes to drive people away from giving a damn about the WSOP.

The 2008 World Series of Poker is already set for the final table on November. Of course, November is still a little too far away from August and poker sites like DoylesRoom aims to keep you occupied until then.

Are you an avid poker player with a valid passport? Here’s probably the perfect package for poker players up for an adventure. DoylesRoom is giving away a prize package for the Costa Rica Challenge tournament so the winner can play poker in a totally different environment.

This means, you can go on that much-needed vacation and still grind away at the tables. Well, this makes the thought of playing in Las Vegas suddenly seem pretty boring.

The tournament will be held at the luxurious 5-star La Condesa Hotel in Monte de la Cruz. The super satellites have been going on since July 21st and with the Main Event Tournament still pretty far off on September 11 to 13, there is more than enough time for poker players to get into the action.

If you are good or lucky enough to win the satellite, you get a $4,000 prize package which includes the $2,000 + $300 buy-in for the main event. The remaining $1,700 are for your travel and accommodations expenses. You’ll even be decked out on official custom Team Brunson gear so everyone will know which team you are representing.

Running low on cash? Don’t worry. You can still join in on the fun. A satellite…

Read More » While the Big Boys have the 2008 World Series of Poker, Doyle Brunson has his Costa Rica Challenge

That’s one way to kick Full Tilt Poker down to the gutter eh?

Poker room giant PokerStars seem to be determined to put its competitors away especially with the Full Tilt Poker brand all over the 2008 World Series of Poker lately.

Starting August 3, PokerStars’ extremely popular Sunday Million will now feature a $1.5 million weekly guarantee. And to further sweeten the deal, the Sunday Warm-Up (that occurs just a few hours before the Sunday Million) will now have a $750,000 guarantee.

PokerStars is the very first poker site to offer a $1 Million Guarantee in a No Limit Hold ‘em tournament every week. For a measly $215 buy-in, poker players can expect a first prize that is more than $100,000.

Can you imagine the sheer number of poker players that are drawn to this kind of deal every single week?

The Sunday Million occurs weekly at 4:30pm EST. The Sunday Warm-Up (which also has a $215 buy-in) starts at 12:45pm EST. PokerStars has also increased its guarantee on the Super Tuesday tournament to $300,000 from its former $250,000. The buy-in for the Super Tuesday tournament is now $1,050.

Why is PokerStars doing this? The sheer number of participants in…

Read More » While the 2008 WSOP heats up, PokerStars heats up their Sunday Million Guarantee to $1.5 M

Well, playing poker in general anyway.

With the 2008 World Series of Poker underway, it is probably safe to assume that poker is hot. The poker industry is still on an uphill climb and more and more people are getting into the game.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the rules you use in Las Vegas are the same rules being used on the other side of the Earth.

Any serious poker player knows that confusion of the rules in the middle of a poker game (or even worse, in the middle of a hand), can cause a great deal of frustration, not to mention a mountain of chips.

Thanks to the Federation Internationale de Poker Association (FIDPA) and the International Poker Rules (IP Rules), this problem should no longer be a cause to tilt. Professional poker players Marcel Luske and Michelle Lau established FIDPA and IP Rules to make sure that there is an international set of rules and standards for poker games.

The IP Rules consist of 80 rules and also incorporates the Tournament Directors Association’s 40 rules.

Standardization should promote fair play, consistency and clarity, particularly since tournament directors are required to…

Read More » New Rules you have to Live with if you’re Lucky Enough to play in the 2008 World Series of Poker