Anyone else getting whiplash from all the action today? Yes, Sundays are usually a busy and exciting time here at PokerStars, but with several large promotions going on the usual buzz around the Sunday Majors was enough to give an action junkie a contact high without even playing. The road to 60 Billion hands with every one million hands taking in some extra cash was being eaten up by the 350,000+ players at over 50,000+ tables today. Daniel Negreanu was taking on Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom in the Superstar Showdown rematch as they multi-table with $150,000 at stake. You won’t need the MegaMillions lottery to turn $11 into over $200K, just manage to outlast 113,770 players in the $1 million guarantee Sunday Storm for the six figure score. And the reason you are reading this right now, the $750,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up which offers an easier shot at a six figure score with 4,751players and a $215 price tag without having to defeat a capacity crowd at the Rose Bowl to take it down.

Johannes Steindl and Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth and Anh Van Nguyen all found themselves in the running past the four hour mark and well into the money. Randy “nanonoko” Lew would join his fellow Team PokerStars player in the cash but barely past the 675 player mark in which everyone received $323.06, Lew was stopped in 664th place ($323.06).

Steindl would take a nasty trip out of the tourney losing all-in preflop with over 100,000 chips and blinds at 3K/6K ante 600 when Laigaard found a way to make [Ad][Jd] to pass up Steindl’s [As][Qd] when the flop flashed a few too many diamonds [Kd] [5d] [3d] [8h] [9s] eliminating Johannes in 269th place ($513.10). While Steindl dominated preflop, Van Nguyen was dominated preflop in his last hand. Blinds sitting at 4K/8K ante 800 Van Nguyen tried to push LaticsCo6 of his early position raise to 18,999 by shoving for 129,650 total. Passed back to LaticsCo6 who covered and made the call with [Ac][Qs], dominating the Team PokerStars pro’s [Ks][Qd]. [Kh] [6c] [2h] on the flop gave a reason for Anh to cheer but the ace on the turn did not [As], no two-outer on the river [3s] and Anh was gone in 236th place ($532.11).

Shortly after Van Nguyen’s departure, Jude was found limping along with just 15,750 chips and blinds at 4K/8K ante 800 after a 385K pot didn’t go his way. [Qd][Jd] all-in preflop for the Irish pro up against the hammer [7c][2s] of Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen. The hammer showed no mercy to the Team PokerStars pro’s small stack and won with two pair [4d] [Kd] [2c] [9c] [7h] eliminating Jude in 216th place ($570.12).

Getting it in bad worked better

After two consecutive double ups, russellhar would find his chips in the middle again preflop. He defeated BrandanZ’s AJ with KJ, then wacked Kaksnel’s big slick with A5. But, then he made the mistake of getting it in good. With the blinds at 65K/130K ante 13K russellhar opened from the cutoff for 300K, KingOfFilth three-bet to 790K from the button as the blinds folded and russellhar riding some good variance shoved for 2.9 million which was immediately called by KingOfFilth’s big slick [Ac][Kd]. Pocket queens [Qc][Qd] were hoping to squeeze by and looked good after the [7h] [5s] [Jc] flop. However the [Kc] dropped on the turn and failed to overturn on the [7c] river giving KingOfFilth 6.1 million worth of extra scratch for the final table as russellhar was sent out in tenth place ($5,701.20).

Seat 1: SavePluto9 (2669873 in chips)
Seat 2: Kaksnel (4121113 in chips)
Seat 3: ilona_iuby (8633382 in chips)
Seat 4: fabsoul (3714412 in chips)
Seat 5: swede554 (1761590 in chips)
Seat 6: Petit (6960777 in chips)
Seat 7: BrandanZ (2187158 in chips)
Seat 8: KingOfFilth (9538134 in chips)
Seat 9: gutshtallin (7923561 in chips)

Finally!

Wow, in what had to the longest for the first elimination of the Sunday Warm-up final table at 38 minutes we would say goodbye to SavePluto9 who couldn’t do enough to save himself from elimination. By far not the first all-in with a call, but with the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K SavePluto9 would shove from early position with [8h][Ah] for 2.1 million as BrandanZ sat and waited in the big blind to call with big slick [Ad][Kh]. The board ran dry for both players [9c] [3c] [4c] [Js] [Qs] as BrandanZ picked up the 4.6million chip pot and SavePluto9 drifted towards the black hole of railbirds in ninth place ($7,601.60).

Three-way GAMBOOOOOL

Watch below as gutshtallin, Petit, and swede554 all get it in preflop with gutshtallin covering all bets:

Petit: [8s][8h]
gutshtallin: [Ac][Kh]
swede554: [4c][4h]

The flop [2s] [Jd] [Qh] gave gutshtallin his namesake and still had two overs. [2h] on the turn helped no one, as did the [6c] on the river to ship the massive 14.5 million chip pot to Petit and eliminate swede554 in 8th place ($11,877.50).

Someone stirred the pot

After over a half hour with no elimination we lost two quickly, and a third would be right behind them. In the very next hand with blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K it would be gutshtallin’s time on the chopping block as he open shoved for 2.05 million from the cutoff and caught a quick caller in Kaksnel on the button. gutshtallin took no time off from playing big hands and showed [Qh][Ad] but once again he was up against a pocket pair, the pocket aces [Ah][As] of Kaksnel. Instead of a flip, gutshtallin was looking harshly at going from near chip leader to out in two hands. [Jd] [5s] [2h] [5h] [7h] no Sunday miracle came through and gutshtallin collected $21,379.50 in seventh place. Definitely not his first dance here, as gutshtallin won this tournament a few years ago for $86K.

Kaksnel and fabsoul lost in the tubes of the internet

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties you will wait to see the story of Kaksnel’s and fabsoul’s departure in sixth and fifth place respectively during the replay of the Sunday Warm-up final table which can be found running tomorrow in your tournament tab under “Special”. Kaksnel received $30,881.50 in sixth place as fabsoul grooved his way to a fifth place finish earning $40,383.50

Winning filthy

With the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K ilona_iuby looked down at pocket seven and the opportunity to shove those 3.4 million chips into the middle for some much needed blinds and did so. Folded around to KingOfFilth sitting in the big blind with a medium suited ace [8d][Ad] and deciding to make the call. Seven million in the middle and ilona_iuby looked for it on the turn [Qd] [6d] [Qs] [Js] despite the scary possible flush on the flop. But, it wasn’t the diamond or the ace coming in, it would be the [8s] hitting the river and shipping the pot to KingOfFilth as ilona_iuby would take solace in the massive $53,686.30 pay day for fourth place. Another final table member with former experience as ilona_luby collected $42K on the last trip here, also finishing in fourth place.

Not a petite call

It takes some fortitude to make calls like this late in the game with six-figure paydays just one player away. Watch BrandanZ solve the riddle of KingOfFilth below:

With the blinds at 200K/400K ante 40K BrandanZ min raised from the button as KingOfFilth folded and Petit in the big blind shoved for 8.8 million. After some thought, BrandanZ made the call with [Ac][Jh] and happy to see he was ahead of Petit’s [Kh][9d]. Was ahead and stay ahead after the [3c] [7s] [4c] [Td] [8c] board shipped the 18 million chip pot to BrandanZ and sent Petit off with a $78,391.50 memento in third place.

USA vs. USA

United States had six of the nine seats in the final table and two of them were still filled as heads-up play started after the ten hour mark of this tournament. BrandanZ carried a sizable 36 million to 11.4 million chip lead into heads-up play.

Cleaning up the filth

BrandanZ sporting a pink flamingo for an avatar would end up sporting some cash after this tournament. After 11 minutes of heads-up play BrandanZ stretched his lead to 40.2 million to KingOfFilth’s 7.2 million. Blinds sitting at 250K/500K ante 50K KingOfFilth found two push-worthy cards [Tc][Kh] as BrandanZ found two call-worthy cards [Ad][Ts] which dominated and were a heavy favorite to take down tonight’s huge first place prize. [8h] [Qs] [9d] on the flop added four jacks to the outs for KingOfFlith as he was looking to retrieve enough chips and overturn the huge lead held by BrandanZ. But, the [As] and [Qd] found their way safely to the virtual felt and KingOfFilth took home the runner-up cash ($110,698.30). While BrandanZ will be partying with a huge $149,069.59 score for winning this week’s Sunday Warm-up! Adding to chopping this tournament in August for $90K, BrandanZ seems to make it his personal ATM.

$750,000 Guarantee Sunday Warm-up results (03-27-11)
1. BrandanZ (United States) $149,069.59
2. KingOfFilth (United Kingdom) $110,698.30
3. Petit (United States) $78,391.50
4. ilona_iuby (Romania) $53,686.30
5. fabsoul (United Kingdom) $40,383.50
6. Kaksnel (Finland) $30,881.50
7. gutshtallin (United States) $21,379.50
8. swede554 (United States) $11,877.50
9. SavePluto9 (United States) $7,601.60

Tags: anh van nguyen | black | brandan | button | internet | irish | isildur1 | middle | money | sunday | team pokerstars pro | tournament | tournaments | turn | united-states

2.05pm: Break time
It’s a fifteen-minute break and we only have one player through to the next round and it’s Dario Minieri.* Hardly the biggest surprise now. — RD

* I’ve just realised he’s heads up and not through yet, but come on, why delay the inevitable?

2.04pm: Better to be lucky than good
Team PokerStars Pro Dario Mineri just said “I’ve never run so good, playing so bad” as he knocked out Matt Affleck. Affleck held pocket nines on a [j][9][2] flop to Mineri’s [10][2] but the Italian hit running cards to make a straight. He’s now heads-up versus Henrik Tollefsen and if he manages to win the table he will have knocked out every single player at his table. — MC

2.02pm: Two kings…..not
Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu is back up to just under starting stack after doubling-up through Al Levon Grimes. Grimes raised to 1,100 from the cut-off before Negreanu moved all-in for 11,725 from the button. Grimes dwelled over his decision before calling. “Two kings” said Negreanu.

“Uh-oh” said Grimes as he tabled [kd][qh] but Negreanu was chuckling as he had been
a little sparing with the truth as he tabled [3h][3h]. The board ran [2h][5s][4c][8s][6h] to make Negreanu a straight. — MC

1.52pm: Blom’s gone
Team PokerStars Pro Viktor Blom is out. He was down to 7,000 and managed to double-up through James Demspey but just a couple of hands later he ran kings straight into the aces of Cliff D. Josephy. Ouch. — MC

Viktor ‘Isildur1′ Blom

1.45pm: Turbo table; Dyer and Ladny already heads up
Greg Dyer and Eric Ladny are the first players to make it heads up and no sooner than they found themselves equally stacked did they stop to discuss a deal. I think 65/35 was mentioned but whether that number stuck I couldn’t be a 100% sure.

Either way, the dealer was left sitting glassy-eyed off to one side, given another 30 seconds I think she would have nodded off. — RD

1.40pm: Two-pair good
Cliff D. Josephy managed to eek out two streets of value versus James Dempsey. He raised to 900 from under-the-gun and Dempsey called from the small blind to see the [2c][2h][8c] flop. The Brit went into check-call mode with a Josephy 1,600 bet here and a 2,800 bet on the [3h] turn. The river came [tc] and both players checked. “Two-pair” said Josephy and tabled [jh][8h]. It was good as Dempsey mucked to drop to 20,000 whereas Josephy is up to 24,000. — MC

1.28pm: General info
Today’s $5,000 Bounty Shootout has been a sell-out with 36 tables packed full with 216 players. In case you don’t know how a shootout works (come one, it’s easy); One player will progress through from each table to the next round of six tables and those will go through to the final table.

Tomorrow will take place over two flights, one starting at 12 noon and the other at 7pm. Thanks TV people, you’ve ruined our day. — RD

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 200-400, ANTE 50

1.24pm: Spinning it up
Toby Lewis was down to 425 chips after flopped a straight-flush-draw missed versus an opponent’s top two-pair. Never one to be defeated he has now managed to turn that into 24,000 chips – just below starting stack. Not bad! — MC

1.20pm: Old master Minieri
An ‘old master’ is the term for a European painter of great renown and quality; when it comes to sit-and-gos Dario Minieri certainly falls into that category. There are two empty seats at his table and a suspiciously large stack of chips in front of the little Italian. Peter Gould and Chad Brown are the players missing, painted out of existence by Minieri.

Matt Affleck, Henrik Tollesfsen and Jack Salter are the remaining players facing the bad news. — RD

Not-so-old master Dario Minieri

1.17pm: Dyer day for Weisner
Melanie Weinser is out after her aces were cracked by Greg Dyer’s pocket eights. She three-bet Dyer who called to see the [8d][4d][2s] flop. All the chips went in and the New Yorker failed to overcome Dyer’s top set. — MC

1.13pm: Queso grilled
Jim Collopy is out after back shoving with pocket fives but running into Márton Czuczor’s jacks. Collopy started the hand with a raise to 700 from the hijack before the Hugarian three-bet to 2,050 from the small blind. Colloppy shoved for 14,600 and Czuczor snapped his hand off with his [js][jd]. Collopy tabled his [5h][5d] but failed to hit through the [9h][3s][9d][6c][8h] board. — MC

1.05pm: Kravchenko taking an early lead
Alex Kravchenko is off to a flier after stacking fellow Team PokerStars Pro Florian Langmann and seems to be playing an uncharacteristically loose game because of it. I haven’t seen him lose a pot yet. He does, however, have ElkY two seats to his right and we all know about him. An unknown quantity to most is Dean Lyall who is sandwiched between the two.

I first came across Lyall at the UKIPT Manchester final table, which he probably should have won unfortunately Lyall got absolutely smashed on RedBull vodkas to the extent that he could barely pick up his cards. He was the closest I’ve ever seen anyone coming to getting disqualified from a final table. Suffice to say, he’s a livewire and could be a thorn in the side of Kravchenko who he has position on. — RD

Big picturem big stack

12.55pm: Big Binger
Time for a bit of action from the older Binger brother, Michael. He raised to 700 from under-the-gun and was called by Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin and James Mackey in the blinds. The flop came down [jd][5h][7h] and Binger c-bet for 1,300 only to face a check-raise up to 3,500 from Ramdin. Mackey folded but Binger made the call. The [6c][6h] turn and river were checked down and Ramdin tabled [8c][8d] but lost out to Binger’s [kd][js]. — MC

12.45pm: Binger does the damage before Pezzin goes in for the kill
Justin Bonomo is the second player to fall today. His was crippled down to 1,500 after getting all his chips in with ace-king but running into Nick Binger’s pocket rockets. Then Team PokerStars Pro Pat Pezzin came in and took the rest and the $1,000 bounty chip. He really should go halves on that with Binger but I doubt he will. — MC

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 150-300, ANTE 25

12.35pm: Raymer on Moneymaker
Nick Binger opened the pot under-the-gun for 500 and was called in two spots, first by Sean Lefort in the cut-off and then Greg Raymer in the big blind. Raymer and Binger checked and Lefort bet 1,025. Raymer mucked and Binger called.

Binger check-called 1,425 on the [ts] turn before both players checked the [6h] river. Lefort showed [ah][jh] and Binger [th][jc] for top two.

After mucking Raymer had started talking to Justin Bonomo about Chris Moneymaker’s second place chip stack in the final 22 of the main event and the fact that the PCA final table is going to shown live with hole cards and all. “It’s one of those things,” pondered Raymer, “that if it’s not me, you should want it to be Chris.”

Moneymaker’s WSOP win was attributed as a key factor in the explosion of online poker, could he be there for another major moment of poker history? — RD

Greg Raymer: champ on champ

12.25pm: Langmann plays hangman
Team PokerStars Pro Florian Langmann is the first player out today after falling to fellow Team Pro Alex Kravchenko. There was a cut-off raise to 525 that Kravchenko called from the button before Langmann three-bet to 2,000 from the small blind. The original raiser called but Kravchenko was having none of it and four-bet to 5,200. Langmann went all-in and Kravchenko called.

Langmann tabled [ad][kd] to the Russian’s pocket nines and the board ran [t][t][9][k][q]. Langmann hit his king but it was no match for Kravchenko’s flopped full-house. — MC

12.05pm: Cards are in the air
Play is underway in the Bounty Shootout. Every player starts with 25,000 chips and a bounty chip. If a player knocks another out they claim the chip and can exchange it for a cool $1,000.

12pm: Start delayed
There has been a lot of last minute juggling around with the field as some players have unregistered due to illness, sunstroke, still in other events or the like. Those seats are being filled in with suitable alternates as we write. We’ll have a full player list after play begins. For now, here is a list of players we can spot from our vantage point:

Team Poker Stars Pro Jude Ainsworth
Team Poker Stars Pro Florian Langmann
Team PokerStars Pro Anh Van Nguyen
Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akari
Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier
Toby Lewis
Kevin MacPhee
Daniel Alaei
Chino Rheem
Cater Phillips
Greg Dyer
Allen Kessler
Jeff Madsen
Ricky Forenbach
Nick Binger

11.30am: Bounty shootout revving up
The $5,000 bounty shootout is getting ready to go. There’s a 216 player cap across 36 tables. We’ll play three rounds across three days. Full details to come.

Oh think twice, it’s just another day in paradise

PokerStars Blog reporting team in the Bahamas (in order of freshness): Marc Convey (mountain daisy) and Rick Dacey (old fridge).

Tags: anh van nguyen | bahamas | cards | dario-minieri | dealer | european | events | kravchenko | poker-stars | pokerstars | raymer | russian | victor-ramdin

2.05pm: That’s the break
Players are taking the first break of the day. — SB

2.04pm: Hatless Hruby left exposed
“I don’t think you know how many hands we’ve played together,” Team PokerStars Pro Martin Hruby was told by JC Alvarado. Hruby, who normally tucks himself beneath a square hat, had led 5,250 into the river of a [2d][4h][jh][7h][jc] board leaving Alvarado, resplendent in a salmon pink hoodie, to turbo-thump his foot up and down faster than the blinking eye.

There was around 10,000 already in the pot before Hruby’s bet and Alvarado finally opted to make the call with [jd][8d] for top trips, weak kicker against Hruby’s [ad][qs]. The Czech is down to around 15,000.

So you play play Martin a lot online? “Yeah,” Alvarado smiled, “a little bit.” While being a profile pro has plenty of advantages the fact that other players can relate your online play back to you is certainly one of the disadvantages, which is something that Viktor Blom will have to get his head around. — RD

‘No hat Hruby’ never caught on as a nickname

2.03pm: Conrad coolered by Duthie
Chris Conrad finished off 2010 by reaching Supernova status on PokerStars. This offers players many privileges but doesn’t stop them being coolered by a Team PokerStars Pro. John Duthie just eliminated him after a set-over-set scenario. Duthie up to 65,000 as a result. — MC

Who could pass a set to John Duthie?

2pm: Tuning in to Arab Detroit
“You the champion, right?” This is Freddy Deeb, speaking to the player on his left, one Jonathan Duhamel. “You still believe it? Or do you wake up not believing it?”

“When was that?” asked Vivek Rajkumar, apparently the only poker player in the world not to know the World Series Main event is won in November.

“November,” said Duhamel.

Deeb is in chatty mood, and thumbs his iPod looking for a radio station, settling for “Arab Detroit” (we’re expecting a bumper sticker, Arab Detroit) as Jason Mercier limped pre-flop before Sander Jensen made it 550.

On Jensen’s left was Rajkumar, a Super High Roller until he finished in tenth place on Day 2, who raised to 2,100. Mercier passed by Jansen called for a [8s][6h][7s] flop.
Jansen checked to Rajkumar who bet another 2,250, which Jansen called for a [4d] turn card. This time Jansen bet 3,750 and Rajkumar called for a [5d] river. A check from Jansen and Rajkumar moved all-in for about 16,000. Jansen called but mucked when Rajkumar showed [9d][8c]. — SB

In case you didn’t know this is what World Champion Jonathan Duhamel looks like

1.59pm: It’s Isildur2
I don’t know, you wait ages for an Isildur to come along and then two arrive at the same time. Yesterday we were introduced to Viktor Blom, the infamous Team PokerStars Pro otherwise known as Isildur1, and today I had to do a double take as what looked like Isildur2 had turned up.

However, it transpires this is just Blom’s mate, who has exactly the same hairstyle and looks the spitting image of the swing king. He’s railing young Mr Blom, who is going along nicely on 34,000.

On a [4c][10d][4h][9c] board, Blom bet 2,450 and got a call. Then on the [ad] river Blom bet another 6,400 and his hand seemed to be shaking slightly. Now he covered his face with his jacket. The call came, and Isildur1 turned over [ac][ah] for the rivered full house.

That’s how he rolls, folks. — SY

1.57pm: Politeness never hurt anyone
Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie and I just exchanged a very British shake of hands and wished each other Happy New Year. Marcel Luske then got in on the act and the hand shakes were repeated. This is what poker should be about; none of that fearful aggression and duplicity. — SY

They’ll be donning suits and top hats for dinner

1.55pm: No locks Naujoks
What’s this? Team PokerStars Pro Sandra Naujoks has had a dramatic new hairstyle and looks a million dollars. Which, incidentally, is less that she won when she took down EPT Dortmund a few years back.

Gone is the long, fair-haired look, and in return a darker shade and bob. She’s as aggressive as ever, just taking a pot by re-raising all-in, not for the first time today. “Every time?” said her victim, shaking his head. — SY

Sandra Naujoks sporting a new look for 2011

1.50pm: Sexy time
This may be the table of death, but those sitting around it are having a ball. There seems to be a series of side bets going on, with Sorel Mizzi the ring master, counting up the monies owed on his Blackberry scoreboard.

Heavily involved is Will Falia, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Liv Boeree and her fellow Team PokerStars Pro ElkY, although Carter Phillips seems to be keeping a little quiet. I’d love to tell you what the last bet was about, but this is a family blog and, er, let’s just say the ‘action’ and ‘position’ should be left to the poker table, not to the subject of side betting. — SY

Antonio Esfandiari illustrating the power of position to Sorel Mizzi

1.45pm: Jenifer raids Bedell’s till
Jenifer Tilly is up to 70,000 chips after busting Tom Bedell. The two saw a [8d][tc][7s] flop before the chips went flying. We picked up the action with Bedell facing a Tilly raise to 11,000 after he had raised to 4,200. His answer was to move all-in for 30,625. Tilly dwelled but made the call with [8s][8c] for middle set and it was good as Bedell had [7c][8h] for two pair. The [kc][ah] turn and river changed not a thing and Bedell was gracious before leaving. — MC

1:33pm: PCA health warning
Regarding our earlier investigation into the PCA massage industry, as a public service message to anyone receiving a massage at the 2011 PCA, we’d like to offer that we have recently seen more of Daniel Negreanu than we intended to today. His massage therapist is a dedicated artisan, indeed. We further might advise you ask any therapist who might approach you if she has recently worked on Kid Poker. If she answers yes, you might not know where those hands have been. But…we do. — BW

1.29pm: Luske searching for his Lost City of Gold
Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske had raised to 400 pre-flop, picked up one caller before checking down an [qs][js][7s][ad][2c] board. At showdown Luske was forced to show first. His paired jack winning the pot.

Luske, however, was not happy: “They keep changing it. It’s ridiculous. On the internet it’s clear. The rules are always the same,” he said. Creating a set of standardised rules is Luske’s Lost City of Gold. “I assume he’s got to show first,” said Luske, remonstrating with the dealer.

At this point, now looking at the table with Kevin MacPhee and Chris Moneymaker next door, I was collared to grab a floor person. I’m not entirely sure why the dealer couldn’t call ‘floor’ himself. It’s probably a union thing, or an old Bahamian charter. With said floor person summarily brought over Luske continued to discuss the issue which resulted in an announcement just a few minutes later reminding everyone that it is the player that made the last aggressive act that must show in checked down pots (as is usual at European Poker Tour events). This initiated a small chorus of American accented boos. — RD

Smile, Marcel!

1:27pm: To see or not to see
Things you expect to see at a major PokerStars event: Salvatore Bonavena in a pink sweater, Greg Raymer explaining a ruling to someone, Jim Collopy grinning, and some guy you’ve never seen before, wearing a weird hat.

Things you don’t expect to see, but will today, at a major PokerStars event: Isuldur1 in 3-D, a triple Roland Garros winner (Gustavo Kuerten) and a clean shaven Tim Vance. –SB

1:20pm: Saul read
Kevin Saul has mostly fond memories of the PCA. He came 8th here in 2009 for $234,000 but was chip leader at one point so felt he should’ve placed higher. He’s off to a good start here today in his attempt to do better. He was already above his starting stack when he three-bet to 1,300 from the cut-off. There had been a raise to 400 from Scott Zakheim in mid-position and a flat call before Saul’s raise.

Zakheim was the only caller to the [jh][ah][9d] flop where he checked. Saul thought before continuing for 4,250 and he took the pot as Zakheim quickly mucked. Saul up to the 40,000 mark already. — MC

1.09pm: Super High Roller
Daniel Negreanu yesterday finished up as runner-up in the PCA $100,000 Super High Roller for $1 million and he’s currently investing a good chunk of that in the most enthusiastic massage outside of Bangkok. The curly blonde-haired masseuse has centred herself low in a low wide kung-fu stance and is attacking Negreanu’s back and bum, a little too low to comfortably watch, with an energetic vigour that must come from the knowledge that he binked a million yesterday. She deserves a good tip. — RD

No wonder Daniel is smiling

1.04pm: Bankroll management
Atlantis is a fancy joint and drink prices can sometimes sting a little, so it’s hard to fault anyone for being careful about what they order. Still, this is sort of funny. A player sat looking around for his cocktail server who had disappeared into the ether. “I ordered one about 20 minutes ago. I want to order another one, but I’m afraid they’ll both come and it will be like $20.”

Who said it?

Eric Baldwin, the man who just two months ago won the NAPT LA Bounty Shootout for more than $150,000. –BW

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 75-150

1.01pm: Spoilsports
The latest from the table of Information Technology hell is that the mood has softened a little, although confusion as to how such an awesome line-up could be randomly assigned a table together remains.

Between giggles Boeree continued to ask the floor staff for clarification, the response being that while players may have bought in months ago the draw is only activated once the player arrives to claim their ticket. Do that late and this happens.

“Bring us Ivey,” said Praz Bansi to the floor staff. “We have a seat free.”

It will be the first table to break. Funny though that this most enticing table draws is considered a bad thing. How about we call this table one and start dealing. — SB

12.59pm: Language please
The issue of English only at the table was brought up by one player, who didn’t appreciate that two Russian players were, well speaking Russian.

The floor man was called to remind the two gentlemen that under no circumstances were they to speak Russian when there were cards in play. One of them replied that there weren’t cards in play when they were talking, a point supported by an American (he could have been Swiss) in seat five. This was fine. But the player who raised the objection still wasn’t happy and wanted Russian banned for good.

“The problem, we don’t speak good English,” said the first Russian, an olive branch to cross this east-west divide.

“Your English sounds fine,” said the objector.

“But we’re friends,” said the other Russian, in the spirit of glasnost.

“Well that’s even worse,” said the objector. It’s a bad table to be Russian or have Russian friends. — SB

12.57pm: The internet is broken
There must be something wrong with my internet – I’ve just seen Isildur1 fold THREE hands in a row. And when he did come in for an opening raise on the fourth hand, from under the gun, he got not one but three callers. One of them bet out on the [2h][10h][5c] flop to take the pot from under Viktor Blom’s nose.

This is not what is meant to happen. Somone call I.T. now. — SY

Imposter?

12.55pm: More Team Pro match-ups
Jason Mercier shares a tables with new WSOP champ Jonathon Duhamel and Greg DeBora; Vicky Coren and Ivan Demidov are neighbours; while Maria Mayrink and Max Lykov share the same felt. – SY

Max Lykov

12.52pm: Man who batters fish is here
Our most recent PokerStars EPT champion is playing today. Roberto Romanello, who helps to run the family fish and chip shop business in Wales, won €640,000 for his efforts in Prague last month. He hasn’t started quite so well here and is down to 16,000. — SY

12.51pm: The undisputed table of death
Hands down, no argument, this is the table of death and Liv Boeree is not happy about it.

“This is ridiculous,” she said to a gathering deck of floor staff. Unbelievable and unacceptable were soon added to Team PokerStars Pro’s description of the seat draw that had led to late arrivals (not late registrations, I hasten to add) being grouped on the accurately described ‘ridiculous’ table. Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Sorel Mizzi were already sat in a line from seat eight to seat two when the EPT winner arrived.

Incredulous Liv (which would be a pretty good name for a band)

The situation, before Boeree’s descent into the chaos, had been described by Mizzi in less polite terms. If ElkY seemed to share the sentiment he certainly wasn’t showing it. I think he just likes to play. Then a second EPT winner arrived in the form of Carter Phillips (Barcelona, Season Six) who looked around at the table. He really didn’t seem to want his seat: “This is like the $100,000,” he muttered, a little amazed at the line-up. There were two other American players who were obviously known players to Mizzi.

While Boeree, now in her seat a couple to the left of the Canadian, was still questioning the floor staff why this had happened (Mizzi, for instance, had qualified for the event some time ago) and what was going to be done, WSOP bracelet winner and fellow Brit Praz Bansi arrived. And there’s still a couple of seats left vacant. Boeree was assured that, as things stood, their table would be the first to break. Ridiculous indeed. — RD

Bring us Ivey!

12:47pm: The return of Darren Keyes
Darren Keyes gets around. He’s been playing in PokerStars events for a very long time. Last year’s PCA, however, was a shining moment for his ROI. He won his 2010 PCA seat for 75 Frequent Player Points, then placed 10th for a $150,000 win. He’s back here today looking to bank some more PCA cash, if not improve on last year’s silly-good ROI. –BW

12:43pm: Musical chairs
Don’t get us wrong. We’re not going to complain about seeing Jen Tilly and Evelyn Ng at the same table. Still, we’d like it if they sat in the right seats. On the first pass by their table (I tried not to stare), Ng was in the eight-seat and Tilly was in the nine-seat. After a few hands went by, they switched chairs. A full investigation will begin after we find a member of Team Blog who is comfortable talking to women. –BW

Before they switched seats

12:42pm: And the award for most ridiculous…
We’ve seen a lot of silly face covers in our years covering poker. Today’s award for Most Ridiculous Tell-Hider: the guy wearing turquoise and lime green ski goggles. Good luck, sir. –BW

12:40pm: The other PokerStars November Niner
We’ve already mentioned the arrival of Jonathan Duhamel, the 2010 WSOP champion and proud PokerStars flag-waver. While his accomplishment outshines all in the world, we can’t forget the other PokerStars player who sat at that WSOP final table, Jason Senti. He’s here today as well and looking to make good on the $1.35 million he made in November. –BW

12.45pm: Ace kills action
Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker just won a pot with pocket kings but was left with the taste that he could’ve won a lot more off his opponent, Marcel Schreiner. I’m not quite sure how the betting went but Moneymaker had 2,200 chips in front of him in the BB and was facing a raise to 4,750 from his German opponent. Moneymaker called to see the [ac][5c][4s] flop where both players checked. The turn came [9s] and a 6,000 bet from Moneymaker took the pot down. He than flipped over [ks][kd] and said “The ace always comes”. — MC

Moneymaker, king(s) for a level

12.35pm: Affleck building foundations
Matt Affleck is off to a good start after making a full house and getting paid by Garrett L Smith. The river was out leaving a [2d][th][kc][jh][jd] board and Affleck faced a 1,475 bet that he raised to 5,500. Smith called but soon mucked seeing Affleck’s [th][js]. Affleck on 36,000 chips right now. — MC

12.28pm: Places please
Just because you might have won a seat to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure on PokerStars, it doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to find it.

Jason Mercier and Jonathan Duhamel share a table today, not the kindest of seat draws for anyone arriving to fill the vacant five seat. So maybe the embarrassment that comes with sitting down to play the wrong stack isn’t quite as bad as you first imagine. Far better to make an idiot of yourself this way than in some heroic hand later.

As Rafal Michalowski opened for 225 and Mercier raised to 750, one player arrived doing just this, and was filling out a waiver form before the dealer could tell him he was in completely the wrong place. He apologised, got up and left as Jonathan Duhamel re-raised to 2,250 in the small blind. Close call. Michalowski and Mercier passed.

On the next hand, and a board showing [qd][7c][9d][4d], Mercier bet 875 into a pot of about the same. As a Romanian player got ready to call English player Priyan De Mel sat down in the five seat, only to be told he was in completely the wrong seat, and should leave. The Romanian called for a [jh] then called Mercier’s bet of 2,100, mucking as Mercier showed the [jc][qc]. Close call. — SB

Mercier and Duhamel meet across the felt

12.22pm: Will they (and I mean I) never learn?
“Hey man, isn’t there someway I can log into my account to prove who I am?” asked a young American in a green scheme t-shirt and shorts combo. “I’m in the reef, it will take, like, an hour to get my ID.” Indeed it will you ill-prepared nincompoop. That is why you should have brought it with you in the first place. Come on, people, this is fairly basic stuff.

I, of course, am being high and mighty about this as I left my press credentials in my room on Day 1 of the $100,000 Super High Roller and had to angrily trudge back to my room grimly muttering under my breath like a post-watershed Mutley to collect them. One rule for everyone, that’s the egalitarian way of the poker felt. — RD

12.20pm: Fancy seeing you here
As we may have mentioned already, today is huge. Well over 1,000 players are packed into the tournament room filling more than 100 tables. Coincidence, then, that two friends and members of Team PokerStars Pro Canada are sharing the same table. In seat one is Pat Pezzin, and a few seats along sits Anh Van Nguyen.

“A room this size and I have to sit and look at him all day,” Pezzin said.
“It’s worse for me,” Van Nguyen added. “I have to look at him.” — SY

12.15pm: Massage begins
One hand into the tournament and Daniel Negreanu, fresh from topping the all-time tournament money list, is getting his first massage. “That’s weird,” he joked as his masseuse shook his hand before beginning work on his back.

Also on this table, so one best avoided, is Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano. — SY

12:10pm: The biggest story of Day 1B that didn’t actually happen
“I already doubled up and lost it all back,” said Greg Raymer as we made our first pass across the tournament floor. “First two hands!”

No, it didn’t actually happen. But if it actually had, it would’ve been aces that held up, and then aces cracked. But again…no, not really. Raymer is still on his starting stack of 30,000. –BW

Greg Raymer back in the land of reality

12pm: Shuffled up and dealt
Day 1B has begun following the obligatory pre-game spiel from the tournament director (guest starring George Markantonis, CEO of Atlantis). First bad beat accompanied by hair pulling and gnashing of teeth to occur within fifteen minutes. — RD

Shuffle up and deal

11:27am: Second verse, same as the first
And here we are once again. We have our bag of Atomic Fireballs, our Jamba Juice (well, almost all of it…Villegas messed up the order…again), and our limber fingers. Within the next half an hour, this ballroom will fill with the balance of the PCA Day 1 field. Day 1A finished with 272 of the initial 647 starters. Team PokerStars Pro Pieter de Korver finished atop the field.

We have no idea how many players will walk in today, but we expect it to be a lot more than yesterday. Among them: Jonahan Duhamel, Viktor Blom, Daniel Negreanu, Chris moneymaker, ElkY and many, many more.

Play is scheduled to kick off at noon. Join us here for all the live action. We’re not going anywhere until after midnight (when we won’t, under any circumstances, let it all hang out). –BW

PokerStars Blog PCA main event reporting team (in order of darkness of preferred drink): Rick Dacey (Guinness), Photographer Joe Giron (Crown and diet Coke), Brad Willis (single malt scotch neat), Marc Convey (blended scotch), Simon Young (Adnams real ale), Stephen Bartley (vodka tonic), Alex Villegas (whatever somebody else is buying)

Tags: british | dealer | European Poker Tour | german | language | mood | river | russian | sports | team pokerstars pro | victim | world-series

If you haven’t made your monthly nut by now, time may be running out. That’s why yesterday was such a huge day on PokerStars. People came out of the woodwork to play the Sunday majors, and we saw some performances that people will be talking about for a while.

Team PokerStars Pros Anh Van Nguyen and George Danzer both made final tables (Nguyen won one of the two he made). Fellow Team Pro Pat Pezzin made three final tables. All of that was impressive, but not nearly so much as Jude Ainsworth’s third place finish in the Sunday Million. The British Team Pro won nearly $200,000 for his finish. Meanwhile, Wasaberga went on to take the win. You can read all about it in Wasaberga wins 11/28 Sunday Million for a $211,180.98 score.

11-18-10 Sunday Million final table.

In other news, the end-of-the-month majors were kicking off in a big way. Here are some of the bigger stories from this weekend:

Battle of the Planets: making it personal, personal takes entire $12K prize in freeroll win

Sunday Warm-Up 11/28: INormaJean, you Warm-Up winner

Turbo Takedown: coasting to the win, shiptosails takes down $60K plus the Audi TT

For a complete look at all the big winners from this weekend, see the 11-28-10 PokerStars Sunday tournaments results.

Now, onto December.

Tags: Battle of the Planets | british | plus-the-audi | poker | stars-sunday | sunday-million | weekend | woodwork

The NAPT LA has just concluded and I must say that it was the best result I’ve had for Season 1 even though its the only event I’ve cashed.

I love all of the NAPT stops, its such a great tournament. I mean, where else are you gonna get at least 700 players for Main Events per stop? PCA had over 1,500 entries, Venetian almost 900, and Mohegan Sun had 716.

It’s such an awesome and well-run tournament that even though no one expected the NAPT LA to be televised, it still ended up with 701 entries. All of the events were held at The Bicycle Casino except for the final table which was filmed at the Crystal Casino in Compton, CA. I was told that the final table will be aired on ESPN 2 sometime in December.

Day 1 started out pretty well for me. My initial 30,000 stack dropped down to 23k until I picked up AA which allowed me to double up. Sitting on a 46k stack when the blinds were only 200/400, I felt very optimistic. I won a couple of coin flips for day 1 and ended the day with 64k .The seating assignment for day 2 was horrible for me. My table was full of internet heavy weights–seven out of eight players I played with regularly on Pokerstars MTTs. My friends, when you’re the oldest guy at the table, you are gonna have a problem. I was playing my normal game, nothing fancy or dandy until the key pot came up. I picked up [8h][9h] UTG, raised a standard 2.5 times the blinds, got called from Chris “Big Huni” Hunichen and Adam Juglen. Flop came 867 with [6h]. I fired 1/2 of the pot, Chris folded, and Adam called. Turned was gin for me…the [th!] I checked, Adam fired, I made a huge raise for 3/4 of my stack and Adam put me all-in. I obviously called.

He turns over [tc][7c]1 for two pair, and all I had to do was dodge a six-outer for this humongous pot, and so I did. I went on to win all my flips for the rest of the day and ended day 2 with a staggering 614k in chips which was good for 3rd in chips heading into day 3.

Going into day 3, I was very confident with my chip stack. I played lots of small pots in the first few levels and boosted my stack to over a million. Then I decided to take on the 2nd big stack in the room and went 0 for 4 with him. Dropped all the way to 220k when blinds were at 10k-20k, until I picked up QQ and moved in, got a call from Joe Tehan in the big blind with AQ.. Somehow I managed to dodge an ace and doubled up. Then I doubled up again before the night ended. Finished day 3 with 834k which was good for 8th in chips out of 24 players remaining.

Day 4 was all about patience and solid poker which resulted in me making the final table. The feeling of making the final table and playing for $725k on national television is just indescribable. Tthe adrenaline that went through my mind was mind-blowing. My last live final table was back in 2007, so its been a long time coming, and, boy, was I hungry.

Although I was second-lowest with eight left, I felt very confident heading into the final table. It’s amazing how confidence plays a big role in poker, I could have easily had a chance to win it if my AQ had held against Ray Henson’s AJ and Joe’s K5. Unfortunately, I busted out 4th with $195,000 for my finish. In the end, I’m very happy and grateful with the way I played and for all of those Benjamins!

Tags: adrenaline | anh van nguyen | bicycle | blinds | busted-out-4th | crystal | fancy-or-dandy | final | mind | napt | night | pokerstars | stack | venetian