It you are looking regular updates on Poker from around the world, one of the easiest ways is to get regular updates sent to your wall on Facebook.
Now all you have to do is sign up as a follower of PokerNewsBoy on Facebook by clicking here and becoming a blog follower. Once you have registered as a follower of the PokerNewsBoy Blog you will then get updates every day Read the rest of this entry…
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PokerNewsBoy have been talking to the people over at Reefer Poker and can now offer every player that signs up through PNB and uses bonus code: TOPRAKEBACK , 30% Rakeback at Reefer Poker.
And PNB have also made it super simple to sign up to Reefer Poker and be eligable for Rakeback. All you have to do is follow the instructions below and you will be able to start earning good rakeback as you play. Read the rest of this entry…
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Here’s a question for you, how do you know poker has gone mainstream? When the personal lives of its biggest names make TMZ headlines! This is precisely what happened yesterday when TMZ announced that Phil Ivey and his wife of 7-years, Luciaetta, filed jointly for divorce on December 22nd.
No reasons have come to light –not surprising given Ivey’s tight-lipped approach to his personal life—and the couple has no children together. Read the rest of this entry…
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The much anticipated final event of Everest Poker’s Live the Dream promotion takes place on January 9th 2010. Over 200 players from around the world have qualified online to attend the exclusive event in Vienna where 10 finalists will win a one-year sponsorship deal with Everest Poker worth $100,000.
The second edition of the Live The Dream promotion is set to be even more successful than the first edition with players going through an exclusive selection process judged by a panel at the Palais Auersberg in Vienna, Austria. Read the rest of this entry…
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Soon after clinching the Card Player magazine Player of the Year award (POY), UB announced it has signed the young poker pro to a sponsorship deal, making Eric “basebaldy”Baldwin the newest member of Team UB.
Team UB, which for many years was Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth, has been signing poker pros at a lightning clip recently: Joe Sebok, Adam Levy, Brandon Cantu, Liv Boeree, Shawn Rice, Tiffany Michelle, Dave Stann, and Scott Ian to name a few.
Baldwin’s 17 final tables throughout 2009 catapulted him to the top of the Card Player rankings –the next closest competitor made a mere 9 final tables—in addition to winning his first World Series of Poker bracelet.
Baldwin is considered a very likeable player, and has gained a lot of respect on the tournament circuit after his breakout 2009 campaign: Having amassed over $2 million in tournament winnings it would seem UB chose very wisely in selecting Eric Baldwin to help represent the online poker site.
When Full Tilt Poker set out to break PokerStars’ record for the largest online poker tournament on July 19, 2009 they made two costly mistakes:
* They made the tournament a $5 buy-in
* They capped the field at 50,000 players –the previous record being 35,000
Even with the ‘mistakes’ Full Tilt Poker was able to beat PokerStars record and hit the maximum 50,000 players, but PokerStars was able to organize a $1 tournament in just a couple of days that took place mere hours after Full Tilt’s. PokerStars easily hit their 65,000 player cap with $1 buy-in, and reclaimed the record.
Well, it appears PokerStars wants to put the record out of reach, this time with more planning, a $300,000 guaranteed prize-pool, and no limit on the number of entrants, PokerStars was able to host a whopping 149,196 player online poker tournament on December 27th 2009, easily smashing their own record of 65,000 –and likely keeping PokerStars in the Guinness Book of World Records for many years to come! Read the rest of this entry…
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Out of the 2,000 members that applied, PokerStars have finally announced the 23 candidates to become members of Team PokerStars Online.
On the 23rd December, PokerStars announced 23 hand-picked members representing over eighteen countries to headline the world’s largest online poker room. The figure represents less than 1% of the total that applied; with a range of candidates representing a full spectrum of poker games and varieties. The current lineup for the PokerStars Online Team includes twenty men and just three women.
Poker fans will be very familiar with some of the big names announced in the list. Norwegian Anders “Donald” Berg, who represented his country in the World Cup of Poker and EPT, has been selected. Germany’s online phenomenon Thomas Boekhoff, who goes by the alias Boku87, has also been selected. The online poker spieler managed to turn $100 into $10,000 recently in order to win a prop bet. He’s allegedly has similar plans to make $100,000 from next to nothing.
Steve Jacobs, included in the list, is perhaps best known for winning the $25,000 buy-in heads-up event at the 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker. Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc is another member of Team PokeStars Online. Grayson recently finished runner-up in the PokerStars $10,000 Guaranteed to earn a cool $11,000.
One of the few women to break into the PokerStars Team list, American Nichoel Peppe – who hails from Long Beach – has shown her skill and knowledge of MTT Strategy after coming 75th in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event.
Players at PokerStars will be able to watch any of the PokerStars Team by searching for their screen names below:
1. Andres Alisievicz — lobojiji
2. Jorge Arias — JorgeArias
3. Boumaaza Bachir — Chiren80
4. Anders Berg — Donald
5. Alvaro Blanco — VARICO
6. Thomas Boekhoff — Boku87
7. Diego Brunelli — vgreen22
8. André Coimbra — acoimbra
9. Mathew Didlick — chipstar1
10. Ta-Chih Geeng — socutiesf
11. Andrew Goetsch — Kid Nebraska
12. Martha Gonzalez — marene
13. Keiran Harris — K_Man2307
14. Steve Jacobs — stevesbets
15. Randy Lew — nanonoko
16. Karlo Lopez — elmagopr
17. Alexey Makarov — LuckyGump
18. Kristian Martin — CharismA3
19. Grzegorz Mikielewicz — DaWarsaw
20. Nichoel Peppe — NicP
21. Grayson Physioc — spacegravy
22. Sebastien Sabic — Seb86
23. Amanda Thomas — ROXY24
Click Here to download PokerStars and start playing at the most popular online poker site. Remember to use bonus code psp12612 to get upto $600 FREE.
Full Tilt Poker sponsored pro Brian Townsend will have his ‘Red Status’ –signifying a sponsored player—suspended for 1-month on the heels of his admission of data-mining Isildur1 and sharing the information with other players. The infraction is strictly prohibited by Full Tilt Poker under their Terms & Conditions.
This is the second time Townsend has run afoul of Full Tilt Poker’s T&C’s, the first also resulted in a suspension when it became known that Townsend had multiple active accounts on the site.
The loss of ‘Red Status’ is not the slap on the wrist it would appear to be, since ‘Red Status’ is what conveys the huge rakeback deal the sponsored players receive. The decision –which was first reported by a Full Tilt spokesperson on the twoplustwo.com forum—has left many poker players wondering if Townsend is on his last chance with the popular online poker site.
Townsend is an instructor at Cardrunners.com and is a regular in the highest stakes online poker games at Full Tilt.
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In an incredibly lucid bit of foreshadowing Mike Kosowski told his wife in 2004 that he would one day play face-to-face with poker superstar Daniel Negreanu, and beat him: And that is precisely what Kosowski did on the TV Show PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge!
Kosowski has been playing online poker since 2004, when he retired from the NYPD, and qualified for the television show through an online poker tournament on PokerStars.
The episode will air on Fox, December 27th at 5pm, where you can watch the retired Police Officer, who was in the thick of things on 9/11 make good on a promise to his wife, and earn a million dollars in the process.
The feel-good aspect of this story should help the ratings of the struggling show. Along with Full Tilt Poker’s dismal failure “Face the Ace” the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge is showing there might not be a market for poker-themed game shows.
The “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge” is already the world’s most watched poker program in history.
However with 9/11 hero set to win the six figure cash prize for the episode airing December 27th, the show is set to tower over its previous record. Viewers around the world will see the retired NYPD sergeant Mike Kowoski defeat PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu for the Challenge’s whopper cash prize.
The improbabilities and road to success of Kowoski’s seat on the show is a story in itself for viewers. Having originally been selected as an alternate on the show, the 9/11 hero – whose bravery is well documented in the book “Never Forget: The Oral History of September 11” - grabbed the ‘bull by the horns’, so to speak, for his moment in spotlight – after receiving the chance to play in a consolation SNG after previously being knocked out of the preliminary stage by Joanna Krupa.
Taking down all his opponents in the in the two SNGs, Kowoski forced his way through the event to earn the right to face Negreanu in the final for the Million Dollar cash prize. “After I got knocked out by Joanna Krupa, I thought my shot was over. But with how I played in the sit-n-go, I said I gotta go for it. I knew I could win,” Kowoski said.
Forced to retire from the NYPD after picking up life-threatening injuries looking for survivors at the World Trade Centre, the former Sergeant learned the game as a means of passing time while staying at home dealing with his injuries. Learning the rules of poker and MTT strategy at poker stars, his affiliation with beating 4 time WSOP winner Daniel Negreanu said it made the Million Dollar victory seem like destiny.
“Two years ago, I showed my wife (Fran) the World Series Of Poker on TV and Daniel was playing in it. I told her that one day I would beat him. Later, I had a second dream that I beat him. It inspired me to play better on PokerStars.net and to make the show,” Kosowski said.
Kosowski has altruistically declared plans to spend his TV poker winnings on helping those involved in 9/11. “I’ll be donating to the Families of Freedom 9/11 Scholarship fund and City Harvest New York , and I’ll pay off my mortgage, put some into a nest egg for my daughter’s wedding, fix up the house a little, and put the rest of the money away into retirement savings,” he said.
Despite being a top pro, Daniel Alaei comes in a distant third behind the other two poker pros at the Doyle Brunson Classic final table, Scotty Nguyen and Josh Arieh, in terms of fame in the poker world. However, the power rankings may have shifted slightly after Alaei was able to capture the coveted WPT title, besting Josh Arieh in a heads-up battle.
Alaei now has a WPT title to go along with his two World Series of Poker bracelets, and career earnings approaching $4 million. Alaei’s win puts him in rare company having won a WSOP and WPT tournament in the same calendar year –the $10k Omaha 8 WSOP tournament, and the $15k No Limit Holdem Championship at the Doyle Brunson Classic.
Most poker fans will also recognize Alaei from his appearances on the first three seasons of High Stakes Poker.
Here are the final six placings for the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic:
1. Daniel Alaei, $1,428,430
2. Josh Arieh, $952,290
3. Faraz Jaka, $571,374
4. Shawn Buchanan, $333,302
5. Scotty Nguyen, $249,976
6. Steve O’Dwyer, $202,362
