The biggest poker tournament of the year is about to conclude this Sunday.

You read it, the 2008 World Series of Poker main event final table is on this Sunday and since it’s merely a few more days away, we will continue to bring you the final nine participants who’ll compete for that elusive WSOP bracelet. Feel free to jump on in their bandwagon.

And this time, we have Kelly Kim. Kelly Kim will enter the final table looking to improve from her short stack status of 2,620,000 in chips. The Korean-born Southern Californian has been successful in professional tournaments for more than 4 years now so engineering a big comeback this Sunday is more than just a possibility.

Kim’s first major cash win occurred in the NL hold’em event at the 2003 Grand Slam of Poker in the form of a first place finish and $21,900. His biggest cash win came in at the NLH L.A. Poker Classic Event in 2006, where he finished 3rd for $62,201.

He also has 2 WSOP cash wins from 2007, in the $2,500 NLH 28th for $12,348 and the $1,000 NLH re-buys 57th for $8,067. His poker resume also includes money finishes in a WPT Event 2006 L.A. Poker Classic; 17th for $46,502 and the Caesar’s Palace World Series circuit event in April this year, finishing 29th for $6,440.

Even if the short-stacked Kelly were to go out in 9th place this Sunday…

Read More » 2008 World Series of Poker Part 9: Kelly Kim

No, this dude is not representing the Democrat nor the Republican party on election night.

And no, he’s not going after any presidential seat whatsoever either. What this guy wants to have is that shiny WSOP bracelet at the end of the 2008 World Series of Poker main event final table. And in case you didn’t get it yet, yes, the countdown for the WSOP continues.

And yes, Ivan Demidov is one of the final nine players, dubbed as the ”November Nine” who will sit in the final table all looking to claim the big one. In Demidov’s case, he’s looking for his first bracelet with 24,400,000 in chips.

And it doesn’t matter to him too if he’s 2,000,000 behind chip leader, Dennis Phillips.

STILL, Ivan Demidov is tagged as a 4 to 1 favorite by several bookmakers to win the 2008 WSOP. The 27-year-old Demidov from Moscow came in a respectable 11th place at the 2008 39th Annual World Series of Poker, winning nearly $40,0000.

He also has a final-table finish in a 2006 Russian Poker Championship event as well as a third-place finish in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em evening event during the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in 2007.

Sure, this is his first World Series of Poker event but…

Read More » 2008 World Series of Poker Part 8: Ivan Demidov

Yes, the countdown for that final table in the WSOP continues.

We are merely a few more days away from the 2008 World Series of Poker main event final table as we continue to give ya’ll the final nine participants, all hoping to win the 2008 WSOP bracelet when it’s all said and done.

This time we have David ”Chino” Rheem. Rheem may not have the most chips going into the 2008 WSOP main event this November but he is arguably the most well-known player among the November Nine group at the final table.

The 28-year-old professional poker player has won over $700,000 in live tournament earnings since he first hit the World Series of Poker circuit in 2005. He already has 5 WSOP wins to his name and finished 2nd in the 2006 $1,000 No Limit Texas Hold’Em Re-Buy event.

The World Series of Poker is not the only place Rheem has taken the prize. He has also won three Bellagio Cups and made it the final table of the 2005 EPT grand final, finishing in 3rd place and earning $10,219. David Rheem qualified for the 2008 WSOP by playing at the online poker room, PokerStars.

However, Rheem’s stellar performance has been scrutinized heavily about past criminal convictions that he was…

Read More » 2008 World Series of Poker Part 7: Chino Rheem

We’re back with the 6th edition of this thing you probably don’t give a rat’s ass if you don’t know the difference between a fold in poker from origami.

For the rest of you, yes, we’re only a month away from the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker as we continue to brief you on who you should watch out for in what is the biggest game in poker this year.

This time, we have Darus Suharto. Suharto is one of the players of the November Nine group that will vie for the ultimate crown in poker, that’s a WSOP bracelet of course.

A former accountant based out of Toronto, Canada, Suharto gained entry to the WSOP main event by first winning an $80 satellite on PokerStars. He continued with a victory in another PokerStars satellite tournament, this time the $640 tournament, for a main event package.

Suharto does not play poker on a consistent basis. Born in Indonesia, his family relocated to Canada, living in Toronto. He only plays poker on weekends, getting in around 15 hours online and with friends.

Suharto was introduced to the game while attending Indiana University to receive his MBA. He has only been playing poker for a little under three years. His first exposure to the WSOP was when he saw a PokerStars qualifier for the series. He took a chance and entered the tournament, winning a seat at the 2005 event and going on to the 2006 main event.

Darus Suharto admits that he started playing poker in order to pay off his mortgage. He has been compared to Chris Moneymaker who won the…

Read More » 2008 World Series of Poker Final 9 Part 6: Darus Suharto

How about that huh? It’s already part five.

For all ya’ll new to this, we’ve been writing about all them nine guys participating in the 2008 World Series of Poker main event final table looking to win the WSOP bracelet this November. And yes, this is already part number five.

And for this one, we have Scott Montgomery. This guy is third in chips, with $19,690,000, and despite almost a 7 million chip-deficit to the leader, the odds makers have priced him up at 9/2 to land the greatest prize in poker, which seems very generous considering the sort of form he is in.

The Canadian, has already enjoyed a remarkable year which has seen him cash for over $400,000 even before the life-changing publicity and sponsorship of the ME final table. The 26 year-old professional started out online and in December 2007 made a couple of major scores on UltimateBet, coming 6th in a $109 event for $6,100 and 2nd in the $109 re-buys for $15,701.

He also finished 5th for a cool $296,860 on a final table that included Nam Le, Phil Hellmuth and eventual winner Phil Ivey. This earned him worldwide praise for going so deep in one of the toughest fields the World Poker Tour had ever seen.

He will also be one of the few November Nine participants used to…

Read More » World Series of Poker Final 9 Part 5: Scott Montgomery

How in the hell can you do that? I have no idea but apparently, this guy did.

PokerStars’ APPT Auckland Main Event was the largest poker tournament ever held in New Zealand, rivaling the 2008 World Series of Poker. A total of 306 players flocked to the SKYCITY Hotel and Casino to try to clinch the NZD $257,040 first prize and an entry to the APPT Main Grand Final to be held in Sydney.

On Day 3, only eleven players remained. After the elimination of Edward Holdcroft (11th) and Eric Mutrie (10th), a final table was formed with Luke Stanford in chip lead with 860,000 in chips. Lowest chip stack was held by Jani Karke who had a measly 49,000.

Wai Yuen was the first booted out when she moved all-in with A-K after Wang Jung raised pre-flop. Jung called with Qc-Jc and proceeded to outflop Wai Yuen when a Jack turned up on the flop. A mere two hands later, it was Michael Mariakis’ turn to be eliminated by Jung. Mariakis pushed with As-Qs and was in a coin flip with Jung’s 7-7. Unfortunately for Mariakis, Jung hit his set on the flop.

Jani Karke was able to hold on to his short stack and ended up in seventh place when he was sent to the rail by the reason why you’re probably still reading this story, Daniel Craker.

Jung continued his final table rampage by busting out Nathanael Seet in…

Read More » Some guy named Daniel Craker makes Poker History without competing in the 2008 World Series of Poker

What kind of name is Ddrufnek?

While other poker sites are forced to shell out cash from their tills to meet tournament guarantees, PokerStars isn’t sharing in their woes entirely. In its second week, PokerStars’ 2008 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is still drawing in players like bees attracted to honey, particularly the No-Limit Hold’em tournaments.

WCOOP Event no.23 had a $500,000 Guarantee. Although the NLHE tournament had a somewhat pricey $500 + $30 buy-in with one rebuy and one add-on, a total of 1,159 avid poker players entered the event.

Over 800 rebuys and almost 1000 add-ons pumped up the pot even further, ensuring a prize pool that reached $1,460,000. You can be sure the both the players and PokerStars were happy when the final pot was almost a million dollars over the tournament guarantee.

With such a monster pot on the line, a lot of the poker pros we stalk decided to venture out into the online tournament world to grab a piece of the prize pie. And what do you know? A lot of them did well. Bertrand Grospellier took home $10,950 for 15th place. Greg Raymer joined the fun and finished in 89th place for $2,482. Humberto Brenes also…

Read More » Ddrufnek scores a win at the PokerStars 2008 WCOOP (although this is still a poor man’s WSOP bracelet…)

If you’re playing most of your poker online, consider yourself warned.

Thanks to the thousands of dollars that can be stored in online poker accounts, it is no wonder that the poker community is now the target of high-technology crimes. Still, despite the stories you’ve heard about stolen passwords and account hackings, you never really think it could happen to you. Well, this story about notable pro Peter ”Zupp” Jepsen may instill caution in your mind.

Danish pro Peter ”Zupp” Jepsen was sent an e-mail by a fraudster who pretended to be employed by OTW Media, a Swedish production company that filmed the highly-popular poker show, ”The Game.” Jepsen’s interest was naturally aroused by the show’s interest in him (after all, the best way to get someone’s attention is to appeal to his vanity) and this resulted in an exchange of e-mails.

In one e-mail, Jepsen was asked to visit OTWMedia.com and open a file that was supposed to be in pdf format. Well, Jepson’s momma didn’t raise no fool because upon seeing that it was an .exe file, Jepsen scanned the program and found out it was a Trojan virus that could very well steal his passwords.

A series of investigations determined that the OTWMedia.com domain is not owned by the production company. Furthermore, OTW (who hosts its actual website) has denied that it has contacted Jepsen at all. The plot thickens because a second domain was found which is believed to be an attempt to duplicate the Unibet site.

Why Jepsen? It looks like these wanna-be Ocean’s Eleven thieves…

Read More » Fuck! Somebody’s Hacking Into Your Poker Account!

Yes, this guy is definitely having one heckuva’ year.

When PokerStars’ EPT Barcelona ended, one thing was certain, professional poker player Sebastian Ruthenberg is having a great poker year. He won a 2008 World Series of Poker bracelet already and he now has an EPT trophy to go with it. Aside from bragging rights, the young German also takes home €1,361,000 in prize money. Not bad eh?

Sebastian Ruthenberg started the final table just shy of the chip lead (1,204,000) coming in second after Martin Nielsen (1,229,000). But anything can happen in poker and true enough, it was Nielsen who ended up being eliminated first when Jason Mercier flipped open a better two pair. Samuel Chartier followed Nielsen to the exits just moments later in seventh place after he was eliminated by Fintan Gavin.

EPT San Remo champion Jason Mercier ran out of luck when he pushed with a pair of sevens against Fintan Gavin’s pocket queens.

The board didn’t help and Mercier was eliminated in sixth place. Gavin continued his winning streak by taking out Dren Ukella who failed to make his nut flush draw. Urkella had to be content with a fifth place finish.

Daniele Mazzia’s two pair was no match to Sebastian Ruthenberg’s straight after Ruthenberg and Davidi Kitai both called his all-in and checked down the board. Mazzia’s fourth place finish earned him €351,000.

Ruthenberg then took Davidi Kitai out when his pocket fours held up against A,Q of diamonds. Kitai won €455,000 for third place.

When the dust cleared, it was Ruthenberg against…

Read More » Sebastian Ruthenberg adds another achievement after winning a 2008 World Series of Poker Bracelet

No, we ain’t quite sure if this poker pro really is a cat lover.

As the battle for online poker Sunday domination continues, FullTilt poker found itself having to add a whopping $21,400 to meet the $750,000 guarantee in the popular site’s Sunday tournament.

Don’t think this makes the tournament any easier. A total of 3,643 poker players aspired for the top prize, building the prize pool to $728,600. So even when the site doesn’t meet its guarantee, you can be sure you’ll find yourself against thousands of rabid poker players hoping to snag first place and $133,788.

The final three players were absolute6, nounet, and eventual winner, acatlover. Absolute6 found himself in trouble when he raised from the button and was called by acatlover. When the flop hit 4h 9s 9c, acatlover checked and absolute6 countered by pushing all in for 1,280,476 in chips. Acatlover called, flipping over a pair of aces to absolute6′s dismay. The turn and river were of no help and absolute6 soon found himself on the rail with $52,500 in winnings.

Heads up play started with nounet in chip lead despite acatlover’s win against absolute6. Still, acatlover weathered the chip disadvantage and ended up way ahead through a mixture of aggressive play, a run of good cards and some luck. As every poker player in the world knows, the three factors enumerated makes anyone unbeatable.

On the final hand, acatlover opened with a raise and was countered with a…

Read More » A Cat Lover wins the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed Tournament that goes every Sunday