The past week saw a number of developments in the world of tournament poker, with everything from major tournaments in action, to a major controversy at the Chicago Poker Open, and the announcement that poker is heading back to Aruba in 2012. So here is a look at some of the tournament news you may have missed over the past week.

APPT Seoul

Over in Seoul, South Korea it was an American who would walk away with the top prize from the 2012 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Seoul Main Event. Andrew Kim emerged victorious over the 268 player field, and after a deal during 4-handed play he took home 145,000,000 Korean Won (about $130,000 USD).

* Andrew Kim — 145,000,000

* Vincent Rubianes — 90,500,000

* Rafael Rodrigo — 94,500,000

* Moritz Ortmann — 106,000,000

* Sasa Zorc — 43,000,000

* Jose Severino — 34,000,000

* Taewook Kwon — 27,000,000

* Daisuke Endo — 21,400,000

* Kenneth Wong — 15,889,600

Chicago Poker Open Player of the Series controversy

While the Chicago Poker Open isn’t quite on par with EPT or WPT tournaments, this year the poker series made some headlines thanks to a controversy regarding the $50,000 Player of the Series prize. The controversy centers on William Gibbons, who along with his backer, Shane Sigisbee, feels he was short-changed by tournament officials; I’ll let Sigisbee explain the particulars from his 2+2 post on the matter:

“A good friend of mine (and a player I have a % of) William Gibbons has been playing in the Chicago Poker Classic. He won event 1, besting a field of 2600 players. He was awarded 25 points for winning this tournament. In addition, he made it to the round of 32 in the heads up tournament which awarded 5 points. The Chicago Poker Classic is attempting to say that he does not receive those points because that was not a cash . . .

“ It clearly states that by finishing in 17th thru 32nd place players will earn 5 points in the heads up event. There is literally nothing in the rules stating that you have to cash to earn the points. They are now trying to say after the fact that you need to have cashed to earn the points and are not honoring the rules they put into place themselves. William and I all along have been planning out his schedule for this series based on the fact that he would be awarded these 5 points.

“ William Gibbons won the turbo tournament tonight for an additional 12.5 points. According to their initial rules he should have 42.5 points total and be in the lead for the Points Race which pays $50,000 to the winner, but due to them adjusting the rules mid tournament series they are now trying to say he has 37.5 points, one point behind the leader going into the final event, tomorrow at Noon.

“ I sincerely hope the Chicago Poker Classic will make this situation right as quickly as possible.”

PPC heads to Aruba

For the first time since 2009 there will be a major poker tournament played on the island of Aruba. The six event tournament series, dubbed the Players Poker Championship, will be held at the Westin Resort and Casino Aruba from May 3 through 7, 2012. Here is a look at the schedule for the tournament series:

* Thursday, May 3: $330+20 Mega Satellite

* Friday, May 4: $3,000+300 Championship Event

* Saturday, May 5: $500+50 No-Limit Hold’em

* Saturday, May 5: $300+30 No-Limit Hold’em Second Chance Turbo

* Sunday, May 6: $1,000+100 No-Limit Hold’em Mix-Max 10-8-6-4-2

* Sunday, May 6: $300+30 No-Limit Hold’em Second Chance Turbo

* Monday, May 7: $500+50 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo Deepstack

WSOPC Atlantic City Main Event

With 641 entrants the WSOP Circuit Series stop in Atlantic City was the largest in the tournament’s history, and makes it one of the very few tournaments to see attendance increase from last year. The winner of the event was 27 year-old poker pro from Connecticut Ryan Eriquezzo who pocketed nearly $200,000 for the victory.

1. Ryan Eriquezzo – $191,194

2. David Zeitlin – $118,307

3. Troy Erickson – $86,774

4. Garry Gates – $64,530

5. Eugene Fouksman – $48,638

6. Roland Israelashvili – $37,148

7. Jeremy Halaska – $28,744

8. Ryan Higgins – $22,533

9. Tyler Kenney – $17,888

Tags: Andrew Kim, Backer, Controversy Centers, Daisuke, Endo, EPT, Heads Up Tournament, Kenneth Wong, Pacific Poker, PokerStars, Sasa, Seoul Korea, Seoul South Korea, Severino, Tournament News, Tournament Officials, Tournament Poker, Vincent Rubianes, William Gibbons, WPT

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2012 at 7:36 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.