There’s a famous New Yorker cartoon, featuring two men, clearly residents of Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, which has its de facto northern boundary at 14th Street. One says, “I haven’t been north of 14th Street in 20 years.” The other thinks for a moment, then replies, “I’ve never been north of 14th Street.”

Sometimes the poker world, and its heroes, can be like that. Particularly for the youngsters among us, it’s easy to get completely wrapped up in this game and its milieu. Especially if you’re one of those chasing SuperNova or SuperNova Elite status, and/or you follow the various online forums, track the SCOOP results, and so on – suddenly it seems like there’s not much time left for anything else.

Then there’s Barry Greenstein. I’ve known Barry since the late 80′s, when we played in the same cardroom (Garden City in San Jose, California). That’s not to say we were playing at the same table; Barry was playing in the biggest games and I was in some of the smallest. But the point is that 25 years ago, Barry was plying his trade, and that’s pretty much how he’s supported himself and his family since.

But along the way, even while becoming a world-class cash games player and major tournament winner, Barry has studied and learned the world around him.

This was brought into sharp relief yesterday when Barry was kind enough to spend a couple of hours chatting with his fans in the SCOOP Fan Club¹. When the questions were typical (“Do you feel good about making play X on televised hand Y?”), Barry’s answers were more or less what you’d expect from a serious professional player. But I knew he had a broader range and threw some non-standard queries at him. For instance, “Discuss the strategic importance of U.S. President Obama publicly supporting same-sex marriage in an interview yesterday.” Barry’s replied that it would force Obama’s likely opponent in November, Mitt Romney, to face up to the question of “equality for all Americans” during the campaign. Clearly he was aware of that interview and had thought about its implications.

Then another member of the club asked Barry about his mathematics background. Barry said something about “(W)hile I was working on my PhD in mathematics…” That surprised me; while I knew he was a serious computer scientist and programmer, I didn’t know he had that advanced background in math. Hearing that, I asked Barry for his Erdös number (a measure of a mathematician’s publication-fu). Somewhat to my surprise, he said, “Well, I thought it was going to be 2 (an impressively low number), but I didn’t get author credit on (a paper) I did some computer work on, so I guess it’s infinite.” This impressed both me and the math-geek who’d asked Barry the original question.

Other questions elicited uncharacteristic (but wonted for Barry) replies that showed his forward-looking nature. “What was your favourite poker moment?” “I don’t know – it hasn’t happened yet.” This from a guy who has WSOP bracelets, WPT titles, and has been inducted into the poker Hall of Fame.

But lest you think that this has distracted him from his day/night job, you should have seen the discussion about his session lengths. “I generally average 16-hour sessions… Given my age, I’m trying not to go over 20-hour sessions.” Barry takes his job very seriously, and yet somehow finds time to inspect both the world around him and himself.

Perhaps we got a glimpse of how he does that on a recent EPT broadcast. He said he was reading a book on (I believe it was) “etiology”. When broadcasters James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton sounded confused, he explained that one of his kids was taking a philosophy class and Barry had a standing offer to read any text book that his kids had to use in school. Thus did professional poker player Barry Greenstein find himself wading through a philosophy text.

This method of supporting your kids has the excellent side effect of occasionally throwing a new and different subject in your face. While that may not hold specifically for dry philosophy tomes, I suspect that in general, PokerStars Team Pro Barry Greenstein relishes the opportunity to stretch his brain and learn a new thing or two. That’s how one keeps his Renaissance Man chops up to date.

¹ The SCOOP Fan Club is in Home Games club #634789, invitation code “scoopfan”. It’s open to everybody and we’ve already visitors such as Talonchick, Nanonoko, and David Williams. There’s plenty of room for new members so come on in.

Tags: 2011 | barry-greenstein | entertainment | italian poker tour | latin-america | news | planets | portugal poker series | russian poker series | tournaments | wcoop

Many of you know that in times gone by, I spent most of my Sunday evenings (“early Monday mornings”, actually) sitting on the rail of the Sunday Million tournament final table, managing deals, chatting with the players, and making inane comments when somebody busted out.

The people who run the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) have been kind enough to offer me a seat on the rail at some SCOOP final tables; I jumped at the chance.

But we thought that we should also take advantage of the new technologies out there. So, we’ve created a PokerStars Home Games club called “SCOOP 2012 Fan Club”. Everybody can join. Just go to the Home Games tab in the PokerStars software lobby, click on “Join a club”, put in the club ID (#634789) and the invitation code (“scoop2012″). We’ll accept your application as soon as we see it.

Once you’re a member, click on the club wall and join the conversation. I’m going to be hosting the following final tables:

Whenever I’m at a final table, I’ll be chatting on the wall and answering questions. We’ve also got a ton of Team Online and Team Pro people hosting SCOOP final tables; I’m sure many of them will be doing the same; we hope you’ll join us.

These tournament series are a great way to bring the PokerStars community together; please join us in the Home Games club where we can hang out, cheer on our favourite players, and watch two weeks of great poker action.

You can also join us on Twitter. Just use the #scoopfan hashtag to join the conversation.

Tags: Asia Pacific Poker Tour | australia | delicious | harrah's | journal | latin-america | poker | portugal poker series | SCOOP | tcoop

Eight players remain in the EPT Berlin main event with the title and a first prize of €825,000 at stake when the final table gets under way today a 12 noon local time.

But while the action begins in the Hyatt Hotel in central Berlin at that time, the live broadcast, which you can watch on EPT Live, starts at 1pm, the full works, complete with hole cards and the expert commentary you have come to expect from EPT events such as this.

Berlin

Chip leader coming into the day is Davidi Kitai, from Belgium, whose profile, along with those of the other finalists, are below:

Seat 1: César “CesarSPA” García, 22, Las Palmas, Canary Islands – PokerStars player – 1,485,000
Law student García is currently ranked the number one online tournament player in Spain. He was runner-up in the Sunday Million in August 2009 for €208,845 (his biggest score) and has also finished fourth in a $1k SCOOP re-buy event, fourth in the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up and won a $200 re-buy.

García first took up poker after watching the EPT on TV. He and fellow students started playing home games in their university dormitory and he played his first live tournament at university in 2008, coming second. The following year, he played the same tournament again and won it for €6,000. This is his sixth EPT but his best live result to date.

Seat 2: Pratyush Buddiga, 22, Colorado Springs, USA – 1,280,000 chips
Buddiga is fast making a name for himself in poker after already becoming a star in the Spelling Bee world. He won the prestigious Scripps National Spelling Bee contest in 2002, two years before his younger brother took down the same title.

This is his first EPT final, less than two years after taking up the game. He turned pro a year after graduating from Duke University where he studied Economics. He plays MTTs online and he’s benefited from the coaching he receives from EPT winner Mike McDonald, who’s also been railing him here this week. This is his biggest live result to date although he racked up four WSOP cashes in 2011 in his first visit to the Series.

Seat 3: Mario Puccini, 23, Hamburg, Germany – PokerStars qualifier – 2,065,000
Economics student Puccini has been playing poker since 2007. He’s well known in the German poker community for winning nearly a hundred tournaments on PokerStars in the last four years, including the Super Tuesday in 2009 for over $60,000.

This is his fourth EPT main event cash; his best result so far was eighth place at EPT Loutraki in November for €27,000. He also finished 32nd at EPT6 San Remo for €26,000. He’s also had three final tables in EPT side events – his best being third place in the EPT5 Dortmund €2k event for €42,000.

Seat 4: André Morath, 40, Cologne, Germany – PokerStars qualifier – 1,940,000
Morath has been playing poker since 2007 and initially started playing MTTs until he decided he was too old for multi-tabling and started focusing instead on playing online satellites to qualify for live events like the EPT. His best live results to date are seventh place in the €4,000 European Championship in Baden in 2009, for €25,000, and 84th at EPT Berlin last season for €10,000.

Morath thinks of himself as a recreational player; his main job is as a field sales manager. He qualified in his third satellite for EPT Berlin, has already won his trip to Monte Carlo and also booked his flight to Las Vegas.

Seat 5: Andrew Chen, 24, Ontario, Canada- 3,600,000
PokerStars player Chen is a well-known Canadian online pro and an EPT regular since Season 5. He has made numerous live final tables including the LAPT San Jose in 2008, third at EPT Prague in Season 6 and runner-up in a $1,500 WSOP side event in 2009. Chen came fifth in the Season 6 EPT Grand Final and the following January snagged his first major title, winning the $5k Bounty Shoot-out at the PCA for $263,100. At this year’s PCA, he was runner-up in the PCA 6-Max High Roller for $191,984. His live tournament winnings now total more than $2 million.

Seat 6: Davidi Kitai, Brussels, Belgium – 5,695,000
Davidi Kitai is already top of the Belgium All-Time Money list, having accrued nearly $1.8 million in live tournament winnings, nearly half of that on the EPT. Davidi Kitai is known as a fearsome player and is the only Belgian who has won both a WSOP bracelet ($2,000 PLO) and WPT title.

This is Kitai’s second EPT final – he came third at EPT Barcelona in Season 5 for €455,000 – his best live result to date. According to his professional profile, Kitai has all the qualities of a good tournament player: “cool, confidence and a touch of madness”. As well as tournaments, Kitai is also an online cash game specialist, mainly PLO.

Kitai perfected his poker skills during a trip to Los Angeles in 2003. He had gone to the States to learn English, but it was Texas Hold’em that he mastered. Kitai goes into tomorrow’s final as chip leader giving a good chance of joining poker’s elusive elite “Triple Crown” club.

Seat 7: Bahadir Kilickeser, 33, Bremen, Germany – 4,640,000
Kilickeser, who works in wholesale and export trades, won his seat to Berlin in a €550 live satellite at the Spielbank casino on Monday. He took up poker five years ago in the Weser Poker Lounge in his home city of Bremen. The Lounge now plans a big EPT final table party tomorrow in his honour – with a giant screen showing the EPTLive webcast.

This is his Kilickeser’s first ever EPT and by far his biggest result. Kilickeser, who is married, is also a successful amateur football player and now plays now for FC Union 60 Bremen in the sixth highest league in Germany.

Seat 8: Marc Wright, 25, Liskeard, Cornwall, UK – 1,540,000
Wright, 25, has been a professional player for more than four years after quitting his job as a Retail Manager for the Co-op supermarket after nine months to concentrate on the game. Formerly from London, he now lives in Liskeard, Cornwall, with his girlfriend and step-daughter. Earlier this month, he went deep in the Irish Poker Open, being chip leader with 15 players remaining but ultimately cashing out in 12th place.

On the urging of his girlfriend, he travelled to Berlin this week to play his first EPT event, deciding even before he took his seat that he would begin to play more live events from now on. His result tomorrow will be the biggest live cash of his career.

Tags: berlin | economics | estrellas poker tour | European Poker Tour | italian poker tour | latin-america | pokerstars | rio | TOC | wpt

When you live in Cornwall, England, a county of rugged coastlines, surfing types and Londoners with second homes, it can be hard to find a poker game. In fact, if you live there, like chip leader Marc Wright does, you’re left with the only game in town, at the casino in Plymouth.

“The game (at the Casino) runs every night,” said Wright. “At the weekends it runs pretty big and its’ a good game. But there’s not a ton of action.”

Beyond the walls of the local casino, or in the home games that take place (often exceeding the casino in size), your next best option is the EPT, which Wright decided to play after a deep run in the Irish Poker Open last week, selling a percentage for his first experience on the tour. Considering this is his first EPT, Wright seems to be adapting well, taking the lead earlier today.

“I’ve had pretty good table draws,” said Wright. “I got in a couple of nice spots. Everything’s gone right. Every value bet I’ve made has been called. I’ve called a couple of people as well. I ran a really big bluff second hand of the day which got through. So I feel pretty comfortable.”

Marc Wright

Wright comes across as a thoughtful and humble player, putting his success this week down to good fortune rather than what is an obvious degree of talent.

“I lost a big pot yesterday against JP Kelly, queens into kings which at the time was huge. I’d been really active so it was a bit of a cooler. I felt like things were just going to go wrong from there. I took a 20 minute break and came back and everything went okay after that.”

Cornwall, in the extreme south west of England, is not traditionally a hotbed of poker, suited more to affluent vacationers looking for some sea, sun and rugged countryside, to do the kind of adrenaline activities that require a certificate from the coast guard. It is, however, the perfect place to relax.

“I live there with my girlfriend and step daughter,” said Wright. “It’s a nice way of life.”

But while his surroundings may be one of comfort, Wright, who has been playing for a living for more than four years (“two years before that I was a big loser!) is looking to redirect his game onto a more serious course, perhaps trying to overcome demons that can make someone unsure of their talents reticent to jump in head first.

“I’ve been pretty lazy but I’m trying to get back into it again now,” said Wright, speaking frankly. “When you play poker for a living its super easy to get lazy; it’s my own fault but I’m going to start playing all EPTs and playing online tournaments properly. I’ve worked really hard on my game in the last couple of years. I haven’t had any live results but I haven’t played any live.”

That changed at the Irish Open a little more than a week ago. A deep run reminded him that he could perform well against the best. Or at least his girlfriend realised it.

“I felt like I just crushed it; every table,” said Wright. “Then I lost four hands in one orbit and it just obliterated me. I was like ‘I’m never going to play poker again,’ But my girlfriend suggested I play this.

“I’ve found the field pretty good. Maybe I’ve just been lucky with table draws but everything’s gone well so far. I haven’t felt under pressure. I hope it continues.”

All signs suggest that it is.

Tags: entertainment | european | facebook | france | jp kelly | micromillions | planets | rio | season 8

When Roy Bhasin began playing games with his family as a child, he never could have envisioned it would lead to where he is today. The Sydney, Australia, native recently became the newest member of Team PokerStars Online, an honor he considered a “pipe dream” when he first began playing full-time years ago.

Bhasin was among several poker players from the Oceania region seeking a spot on the coveted Team Online and, despite flying under the media radar for most of his poker career, he was selected to represent the Red Spade on the site and at tournaments around the globe.

We caught up with Bhasin to learn about how he got his start in poker, how his deal with PokerStars came about, and more.

Take us back to your childhood. What games did you play with your family growing up? Did that help heighten your interest in strategy games?

A game that I played a lot with my family — which is still played extensively in my family — is an Indian variation of rummy. Basically it’s like other forms of rummy except we played with 21 cards and there are some other house rules added in. No family trip these days is complete without at least a few rounds of rummy.

Another game I used to play with the family from a young age was bingo — when I was as young as four or five I would round the family up, hand out score sheets, collect money, and organize the game. So basically I loved gambling from a very early age.

Aside from that there were the regular games: Monopoly, Scrabble, and Pictionary. I also took a keen interest in video games from a very young age — basically as soon as I could hold a controller — and spent many hours in front of the TV or computer screen. Some of my favorites were Final Fantasy VII, Warcraft 3, Diablo, Runescape and most recently Starcraft 2. There were a plethora of other games scattered throughout my childhood. I was also a big fan of the Magic the Gathering card games which I think several other pro poker players were before finding poker.

I think all of the above games help heighten my interest in strategy games so that when it came to being introduced to poker it was a perfect fit.

How did you stumble upon poker?

I had been introduced to five-card draw as a child and knew the basic concepts behind poker but it wasn’t until a fateful night at a friend’s house that I found the current variations of the game. There were a few of us at a friend’s place for a Halo night and when we broke to have some pizza for dinner we were flipping through the TV channels. I think it was the WPT that was on and my friend Glen who knew the rules explained them to the rest of us. I was instantly hooked and spent almost every waking hour over the next few months reading, watching and playing to improve my game.

You spend a lot of your time playing pot-limit Omaha ring games on PokerStars. Is that your favorite variation of poker or do you play it because it’s your best game?

Both. It’s probably my best game because it’s my favorite and I have spent so much time playing and studying it. I love all forms of poker, especially some of the more lesser played variants like 2-7 Triple Draw or Badugi but I don’t often play them outside of home games with friends or low stakes while in Vegas, again with friends.

Are there any players and/or friends who have helped you become the poker player you are today?

Definitely — too many to name all of them. One of the first poker forums that I was a part of was the old Bet-The-Pot forum and I owe a lot of my poker upbringing and skills to the posters from there. I’m still good friends with many of them. Other than that there were my school friends who I played with every week, other friends I’ve met online and from live tournaments around the world. It’s great being able to talk poker with friends who are at a similar level to you as you can help each other learn and improve and this is definitely what I have done with a lot of my friends.

How did the sponsorship with PokerStars come about?

Every now and then Stars has announced that it is looking to add more people to the Team Online roster. I applied the first time around but back then I wasn’t as active within the community as I am now. I recognized that they were looking for people with blogs so I decided to start one, partly with the goal of getting on to the team but also for personal reasons. I started to love posting and blogging and eventually my blog garnered a decent sized following. Last year I was contact by Stars that they had me in their sights to sign as a new team online member and from there it took a few months for them to narrow down their decision and for all the details to be worked out but it’s been an amazing ride.

Was being a sponsored poker pro something you envisioned when you first started playing full-time? How does it feel to be a part of such a prestigious team?

It was more of a pipe dream than anything I realistically hoped to achieve when I first started playing full time. As time went on though I started aligning my goals closer and closer with that of being a sponsored pro and then of being one with Stars, which has always been my favorite site, even before I was a pro.

It feels amazing to be a part of the team. I think Stars is the best poker company in the world and in an industry fraught with scandals and unfortunate scenarios it is refreshing to see and know there is a company with their ethics and conduct at as high a level as Stars is.

What were some of your poker goals going into 2012? Do you plan on making Supernova Elite for the third straight year?

My main goal was to achieve Supernova Elite and I still plan on doing it. I would like to try again to break into the highest stake games around — $25/50 and higher — but I have tried a couple of times in the past with mixed results. The variance at those stakes is quite insane and I am very happy grinding it out at the mid-stake levels. I just want to continue to play well, study my game and stay ahead of the curve.

Have any of those goals changed now that you’ll be wearing the Red Spade?

I wouldn’t say any of them have changed, no. Some goals have been added though — ever since becoming a member of team online I have felt a strong desire to do my position proud and spread the word of poker and PLO throughout the Australia and New Zealand region as well as the rest of the world, online and off. Hopefully I can work with Stars, my blog, Twitter, forums and other avenues of communication to achieve this goal. Aside from being my job I think poker is a fascinating game and that it always will be — almost everyone I know that has been introduced to it and played for a short while have fallen in love with it.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time away from poker?

I love traveling, cooking, eating and playing video games. My girlfriend also likes the former three so we often travel together or explore new restaurants, cuisines, and wineries in our down time. I love golf but have had a bad back for a few years now so haven’t been able to play — one of my goals is to get that sorted out and get back to golfing every week.

Tags: australia | belgian poker series | eureka poker tour | latin-america | news | portugal | portugal poker series | sunday-million | Super Tuesday | UKIPT | video-games

The Super Tuesday, the weekly $1,050 no-limit hold’em tournament that has routinely drawn huge fields over recent weeks, brought out another big group this week with 462 players joining in. That meant a prize pool of $462,000, easily besting the event’s $300K guarantee. The top 54 would divide the cash, with $88,657.80 of it due the winner barring any late night deals.

There were a few Team PokerStars members among the field this week, including Team Pro Pius Heinz, Shane “shaniac” Schleger of Team Online, and Team Pro Ana Marquez, although none could do better than Marquez’ 146th-place finish.

As they crossed the five-hour mark the field had shrunk to less than 60 as the money bubble approached. By then Jerrage06 was the lone player in six figures, sitting atop the counts with better than 113,000, with Tarjei82, MORTIIIIIIII, and turataika all hovering between 90k and 100k.

Soon it was scott96dl becoming the unfortunate 55th-place finisher and last eliminated before the cash.

Players continued to fall over the next hour and 45 minutes, among them AceSpades11 (52nd, $2,310), Ansgar2000 (49th, $2,310), C. Darwin2 (43rd, $2,541), danloulou (38th, $2,541), aleks1917 (35th, $2,772), turataika (33rd, $2,772), Zackattak13 (29th, $2,772), simon1471 (26th, $3,234), julianherold (23rd, $3,234), StatusUp (20th, $3,234), and 00psiedaisy (19th, $3,234).

They were approaching the seven-hour mark and 18 remained, at which point Halfrek had moved in front with better than 273,000, arnon shraga was next with just over 247,000, and robinho third with almost 217,000.

It would take another hour-and-a-half for nine more to fall, over which stretch Halfrek saw his stack shrink while robinho grabbed the top spot, pushing up over the 500,000-chip mark.

During that stretch alexandrapau (18th), tigbitties56 (17th), and Akademnuk (16th) all earned $4,158; REIPOKERXX (15th), Riz Tarde (14th), and Halfrek (13th) each took away $5,082; and Tarjei82 (12th), zoraleonas (11th), and Jerrage06 (10th) each saw $6,006 added to their PokerStars accounts.

After Jerrage06 was knocked out on one five-handed table in 10th, the remaining players waited for the hand to complete on the other where bearsfan75 had opened with a min-raise to 11,200 from the button, then MORTIIIIIIII reraised to 20,275 from the small blind, forcing a fold from robinho in the BB. bearsfan75 then shoved with the 163,354 he had left and MORTIIIIIIII quickly called.

bears75 showed [As][Kc], better than MORTIIIIIIII’s [Ah][Jh]. But when the board came [Qh][Th][9d][3h][6c], MORTIIIIIIII had made a flush and bears75 was out in ninth.

The final table — with one seat already empty — was underway.

Seat 1: mypokerf — 272,872
Seat 2: MaxFury20 — 31,926
Seat 3: empty
Seat 4: ns600 — 184,148
Seat 5: arnon shraga — 324,675
Seat 6: MORTIIIIIIII — 416,002
Seat 7: mmmaikk — 130,738
Seat 8: robinho — 601,410
Seat 9: gottama — 348,229

It would take a little over two orbits for the first elimination of the final table to come. After arnon shraga opened with a min-raise to 12,800 from UTG, it folded around to the table’s short stack MaxFury20 in the small blind who shoved for 42,352. ns600 stepped aside, and arnon shraga called, tabling [Ac][3h] to MaxFury20′s [Ah][Qc].

The flop came [3s][Th][8h], pairing arnon shraga’s kicker and leaving MaxFury20 seeking a queen. The turn was the [8c] and river the [5d], and MaxFury20 was out in eighth.

Meanwhile, gottama had seen his stack slide under 200,000, then he would lose most of that after three-bet shoving over a robinho raise with [9c][8c] only to run into ns600′s [Ac][As]. The board brought no help for gottama and he was down to less than 3,000 — not even a small blind.

gottama was all in on the next hand against both arnon shraga and mmmaikk. The remaining two checked the [8s][Ac][8h] flop, then when the turn brought the [5h] arnon shraga bet 16,371, a little less than half the pot, and mmmaikk called.

The river was the [3h], and this time arnon shraga bet 31,105. mmmaikk raised to 70,400, and arnon shraga gave up. mmmaikk showed [Ah][Kh] for the nut flush, and gottama flashed his [6h][2c] before leaving in seventh.

The final six then had the tourney paused to discuss a possible deal, although after some discussion no agreement could be reached and play soon resumed.

They played on for another 20 minutes, then came a hand in which MORTIIIIIIII opened for the minimum to 16,000 from early position, then mmmaikk reraised all in for 212,533 from a seat over. It folded back to MORTIIIIIIII who called with the 156,037 he had left.

MORTIIIIIIII had [Ts][Tc] while mmmaikk showed [Ac][Kh], and after the community cards came [As][5d][9c][6h][Qs], mmmaikk had the better pair and MORTIIIIIIII was out in sixth.

The tourney was paused once more with the final five now talking about a possible deal. At that point robinho still lead with almost 590,000, mypokerf was second with a little over 511,000, arnon shrago third with about 492,000, mmmaikk fourth with almost 393,000, and ns600 last with about 324,000.

ICM numbers — saving $6,000 to play for — were produced and after a little tweaking the five agreed to terms.

After play resumed, robinho slid back to short-stacked status while mypokerf and ns600 pushed to the top of the counts. The blinds had moved to 4,500/9,000 when ns600 raised to 27,000 from the cutoff, then arnon shraga called from the button. It folded to robinho in the big blind who shoved for 242,833. ns600 folded, but arnon shraga made the call.

robinho: [Ks][Qc]
arnon shraga: [9d][9h]

The board ran out [Ac][Ts][6s][8d][6h], meaning robinho hadn’t improved and was out in fifth.

Shortly after it was ns600 opening for 28,000 from UTG and arnon shraga calling from next position. Then mmmaikk pushed all in for 275,192 from the small blind. It folded all of the way back to arnon shraga who called, showing [Jd][Td] to mmmaikk’s [7c][7s]. All was fine for mmmaikk through the turn as the board had come [5d][4c][5s][8d], but the river brought the [Js] to pair arnon shraga and send mmmaikk railward in fourth.

With three left arnon shraga had the big lead with more than 1.3 million while both ns600 and mypokerf hovered just under 500,000. They crossed the ten-hour break, then the dynamic shifted after mypokerf won a preflop all-in with [Qd][Qs] against arnon shraga’s [As][7s] to claim the chip lead.

Then, with the blinds 5,000/10,000, ns600 opened for 20,000 from the button and arnon shraga made it 60,000 from the small blind. mypokerf folded, then ns600 pushed all in for 385,527 and arnon shraga called.

ns600 had [Ad][Jh] and arnon shraga [Th][Ts]. The flop brought a jack, but a ten as well, coming [Jd][2s][Tc] to put arnon shraga way ahead. The turn was the [2d], giving arnon shraga a full house. ns600 was looking for a saving jack on the river, but the fifth community card was an unhelpful [Ac] and ns600 was out in third.

Heads-up play began with arnon shraga in the lead with 1,276,167 to mypokerf’s 1,033,833. The pair would play about 20 hands after which mypokerf had pulled even, then over then next few edged out ahead of arnon shraga, building up to more than 1.38 million to arnon shraga’s 926,897. Then the final hand took place.

The blinds were 6,000/12,000. mypokerf opened to 24,000 from the small blind/button, arnon shraga reraised to 72,000, and mypokerf called. The flop came [7h][Ks][As], and arnon shraga bet 66,150. mypokerf called. The turn was the [Ts], and both players checked.

The river brought the [3c] and an all-in shove from arnon shraga which mypokerf quickly called. arnon shraga was bluffing as he tabled [8c][5d], meaning mypokerf’s [Kd][Th] for two pair was more than enough to win.

Congratulations to mypokerf for topping a tough field of 462 to claim this week’s Super Tuesday and more than $60K! And kudos as well to robinho and arnon shraga who both managed $50K-plus scores thanks to the five-way chop.

Super Tuesday results for 4/10/12 (*reflects five-way deal):
1st: mypokerf ($60,039.61)*
2nd: arnon shraga ($53,371.28)*
3rd: ns600 ($46,396.90)*
4th: mmmaikk ($49,521.57)*
5th: robinho ($56,505.44)*
6th: MORTIIIIIIII ($19,635)
7th: gottama ($15,015)
8th: MaxFury20 ($10,395)
9th: bearsfan775 ($7,669.20)

Hear the story of Team Pro Victoria Coren buying a UKIPT Nottingham entry for a player turning in stellar showings in a couple of her PokerStars Home Games recently? Check it out.

Tags: Battle of the Planets | cash | events | italian | rio | SCOOP | TOC | world cup of poker

Welcome to the final day of the European Poker Tour main event in Campione, Italy, where the last eight players, from a field of 570, will face off for one last time to win the title, the trophy, the Shamballa bracelet and €640,000.

Play starts at 2pm, with every hand broadcast on EPT Live Lite, accompanied as ever by the percussion of our live coverage and features throughout the day.

Campione

As we wait for the players to arrive, take a look through the following background information about each of the finalists.

Seat 1: Olivier Busquet, 30, Westchester County, USA – 3,011,000
Widely regarded as one of the best heads-up sit-n-go players in the world, Olivier Busquet has made a highly successful move to live poker and has already earned over $2.5 million. He first started playing poker in home games while working for a Wall Street trading firm. “When I first took up poker, it was with the idea that there was essentially a lot of skill set overlap between what a Wall Street trader and a poker professional were doing. Eventually, I had built up to a few thousand dollars and jumped into $5-$10. In the span of a month, I had earned about $100,000 and moved into the $25-$50 games,” said Busquet.

Seat 2: Koen De Visscher, 26, Wilsele, Belgium – 1,856,000
De Visscher is fast becoming a face on the EPT having bubbled his first EPT ever played, EPT Barcelona in Season 7, before cashing in 3rd place at EPT Snowfest just a few months later for €147,000. Three further cashes have followed. The online pro has taken down a PokerStars SCOOP $1,000 NL event last year for $92,417. He lives with his girlfriend in Wilsele near Leuven.

Seat 3: Mario Nagel, 29, Gelsenkirchen, Germany, PokerStars player – 1,210,000
Campione must bring back pretty good memories for German PokerStars player Mario Nagel because it’s here that he made his first live cash with a 27th finish at the Italian Poker Tour last June for $5,126. Online he’s done better having won a $265 SCOOP event for $81,536. Economic student Nagelis being supported in Campione by his good friends Ole Schemoin, Tobias Hagedorn and EPT Prague champion Martin Finger.

Seat 4: Stefano “stefax27″ Puccili, 40, Rome, Italy – 1,450,000
Puccilli has been playing poker for eight years with excellent results; he won IPT San Remo in June 2009 for €120,000. Puccilli was voted both IPT Player of the Year in 2010 as well as claiming the PokerStars Qualifier of the Year title. Puccilli is the only remaining Italian player left in the tournament and hopes for a second EPT title for Itlaian poker rests squarely on his shoulders.

Seat 5: Jannick Wrang, 31, Copenhagen, Denmark – PokerStars qualifier 2,882,000
Danish grinder Jannick Wrang recently finished ninth on the PokerStars MicroMillions leader board so you might be forgiven that he’s a low stakes player come good. That could not be further from the truth. Wrang, a regular $25-$50 Pot-Limit Omaha player, had lost $150,000 in a brutal two days of cash games and challenged himself to focus on the micro-stakes series. That ninth place gifted him a $1,050 SCOOP ticket, which he’ll no doubt use to good effect as he pushes through the $1,000,000 mark in online tournament winnings at PokerStars. The Dane has been playing the EPT since Season 3 and this will be his fourth main event cash. A 16th place finish at EPT London (£25,000) was his deepest result before Campione.

Seat 6: Fabrice “FabSoul” Soulier, 42, Avignon, France – 3,480,000
Soulier is ranked fourth in France’s all time money list with more than $3,600,000 in live winnings, the high point of his career winning the 2011 WSOP $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship. Soulier, who was originally a film and TV director, has appeared on numerous TV poker shows and was the main character featured in the 2006 PokerStars-sponsored documentary “That’s Poker.” Soulier is co-founder of the “Madeinpoker” online poker community.

Seat 7: Balazs “birs320″ Botond, 27, from Budapest, Hungary – PokerStars player 2,080,000
Technology graduate Balazs “birs320″ Botond has been playing EPTs since Season 6 and finished 13th at EPT Vienna last season for €26,000. He has made more than $200,000 in live tournament winnings and more than $1,300,000 online. He took up poker three years ago and turned pro just six months later, eventually ditching his job in a Budapest department store. He is being supported here in Campione by his girlfriend Zsofi.

Seat 8: Robin Ylitalo, 25, Gothenberg, Sweden – 1,153,000
Ylitalo has been playing poker professionally for four years with his main grind being high-stakes online MTTs. It’s been a successful endeavour: his biggest cash being close to $100,000 in a $600 buy-in event at the beginning of the year. He’s been playing EPTs for a couple of seasons with his best result being 13th at Berlin last season for €28,000. Should Ylitalo win he’ll be the eighth Swede to claim an EPT title.

Tags: archives | Baltic Poker Festival | copenhagen | day 5 | eureka poker tour | facebook | festival | harrah's | online-poker

Nicolas Chouity. Think of that name. What does it mean to you? Does it leap out as a premier league player, one who has taken down one of the biggest tournaments around and has the online results to back it up? Do you put Chouity’s name alongside EPT winners such as Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Kevin MacPhee? Unless you’re an avid blog reader and follower of online results then it’s likely that the answers may be: not much, no and no. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that is just an unfortunate case of poor PR. It is time to think again.

When Chouity won the EPT Grand Final in April 2010, getting his photo taken with a huge €1,700,000 pay check and an excitedly waved Lebanese flag, few players knew him. Chouity had made two previous EPT cashes; 50th at the previous year’s Grand Final (€31,000) and 124th at Berlin (€8,000). Would he big a one-hit wonder? It seemed distinctly possible. While Chouity dominated his final table, battering his laddering opponents with a dominating chip lead, the opposition was not the toughest the EPT had ever thrown up. But you can only beat what’s put in front of you and he did that convincingly.

Since then Chouity has put in some fine performance, including 4th in the €10,000 High Roller turbo at last year’s Grand Final for €43,000 and 6th in a $1,500 WSOP event for $115,477 (Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari went on to win that one), but has the broader recognition come with it? We’d have to say no.

“Honestly it’s nothing to win one tournament,” Chouity told us at the break, “you have to win twice just to prove yourself more to people. Many think that winning once is luck. Although I have many successes online and live I’m really hungry to win something big. Maybe an EPT. Nobody knows me because I have a different name but the online world does know me,” said Chouity evenly.

“Maybe it’s because I live in a different part of the world in the Middle East and Lebanon. It’s tough for people to know that there’s a good player there,” he added.

It’s true. It is easier to focus on the poker fraternities, the sponsored pros and their enclaves which travel the circuit and pop up in televised poker events. Notoriety does not dictate skill level or success, nor does the lack of it. Chouity started the day as chip leader with 165,900 and has since run that up to 240,000 in a player style that can described as relaxed. Chouity only seems to half follow the action, frequently gazing into the distance or over to another table, rather than adopting the stare-at-something-until-it-burns intensity of Benny Spindler. Chouity mucks his cards with a mite of contempt, particularly when he didn’t find a hand on the button, which is frustrating in anyone’s world, but other than that he looks like pressure is something that doesn’t exist in his reality.

“I think that my table is not that bad. There’s Rupert (Elder) to my left who is the only decent player that I know. The others are Italian and a couple of random players. I think that I had a good draw today. Rupert is short but he’s just picked up a couple of pots now but still he has about 50k and is dangerous,” said Chouity, proving that he is more than following the action, despite his laconic method of play.

Since then Elder, a couple of seats to Chouity’s left, has chipped up further to around 120,000 but it’s unlikely Chouity will show any concern, outwardly at least. He is not a one tournament wonder. You need only look towards his online results to see that.

Playing under the username niccc on PokerStars, Chouity has won close to $2,000,000 in online tournaments with his largest online score coming when he claimed a WCOOP title with a $150,947 victory in a $2,100 PLO event. That was his second six-figure pay day online. These kind of results are not easy to come by.

Chouity is one of two Lebanese EPT winners and perhaps his predecessor, the infrequently seen Joseph Mouawad, informed some of the ambivalence towards Chouity but it seems that Lebanon is another country cranking up the poker scale.

“There was no poker four or five years ago but now there is in the casino. There’s tournaments and cash games also as well as home games. Many people game in Lebanon and poker is going up every year. Because other types of poker have been played that’s what they’re used to so (many players) don’t have the basics of Hold’em. There are some good players but the majority are still learning,” explained Chouity

So it’s probably a good place to go on a working holiday then?

“Yes, the best place to be.”

Underestimate Chouity at your peril.

Tournament snapshot
Level 11: blinds 600-1,200, ante 100
Players: 239 of 570
Average stack: 71,500
Click here for live coverage and more features.

Tags: action | delicious | elky | european | middle-east | planets | pokerstars | russian | team pokerstars pro | the circuit | UKIPT

Richard “Tzen1″ Veenman isn’t like your typical member of Team PokerStars Online. Veenman, who signed on to represent PokerStars last January, splits a part-time IT job in the Netherlands with his chase toward Supernova Elite on PokerStars every year. And, unlike most online poker pros who specialize in no-limit hold’em games, Veenman spends the majority of his time on the virtual felts min-raising opponents at fixed limit hold’em cash games.

Veenman is very active on Twitter and chronicles his poker endeavors in his blog at Tzen1.com. We recently caught up with Richard to discuss why limit hold’em is his game of choice, how his life has changed since joining PokerStars, and more.

Like many top poker players, you began your competitive gaming career playing Magic: The Gathering. Tell us about how you made the transition from Magic to poker.

I haven’t made the direct transition from Magic to poker like many other former Magic players did. When I used to play Magic I was very competitive in it but I was still young and the poker scene as we now know it wasn’t there yet. I was 12 when I started playing Magic and did pretty well but I stopped playing in 2000 when I was 18. I did move into other games but my main focus was pursuing my career in IT. I did already play poker back then but they were fairly small home games. I tried it online back in 2001 but there wasn’t a real drive to get better at it since there wasn’t a lot of information about the game and also not many people were playing it back then.

There has never been very long stretches of time in which I wasn’t trying to be competitive in a game. When World of Warcraft launched I started my own guild with a lot of good friends and played that on a competitive level for almost three years. When the poker boom began in the Netherlands around 2005 or 2006, it was a logical next step for me as I already knew the game so I was way ahead of most other people who only just knew the game from TV. The thing I took from Magic was probably the strategic element which both games have. The thing I took from World of Warcraft was the fact you get better the fastest by reading and sharing information through forums and other communities. At first I was still only playing live but as soon as I created an account on PokerStars I moved most of my play to online and that was basically the start of my poker career.

You spend most of your time playing fixed limit hold’em games on PokerStars. Is that your favorite variation of poker or do you play it solely because it’s your best game?

It is my best game for sure and when it comes to cash games I prefer it over any other game. I do like to play some razz or deuce-to-seven triple draw as well but I play those games mainly for fun. I’ve thought about switching to other games many times before but I just really like the fast pace and multi streets action in FLHE. If you are grinding for 12 hours on 16 tables and you don’t like the game you are playing I think it’s really hard to stay motivated just for the money. I think that’s why in the end I also always stayed with FLHE.

I do still like to play tournaments as well and no-limit tournaments are way more fun than fixed limit. There is no better feeling then winning a tournament so for sure I will keep playing tournaments, especially during the PokerStars SCOOP and WCOOP. Unfortunately, because was on holiday, I couldn’t play any of the TCOOP tournaments.

Are there any players and/or friends that have helped you become the poker player you are today?

The thing I have with games is that I don’t only want to play a game by myself. I always want to play it with my closest friends. That’s what I did when I was playing Magic and World of Warcraft, but the same also counts for poker. I picked up poker together with my friends and at the beginning just talking about the game got me motivated and enthusiastic to learn more about it. Nowadays, most of those friends only play the game occasionally for fun but one of my best buddies is still playing. Being able to talk about poker with one of your best friends is really the easiest way to keep eager to learn and stay motivated to play. I still talk with him almost every day and in the year I made Supernova Elite he kept calling me when I was slacking to make sure I didn’t fall behind pace too much. We’ve also been going to Vegas every year since 2004 and probably without him I would have never gotten this far in poker. We’ve been to the PCA together this year as well and we will go to the WSOP later this year.

You’ve been a member of Team PokerStars Online for a year now. How has that experience been for you? Any memorable or exciting experiences?

Being a member of Team PokerStars: Online has been an awesome experience. Being able to represent a company which is No. 1 in the market and is known by almost anybody just always gives me goose bumps when I talk about it with other people. I think it’s still a dream of many poker players and I’m very happy that I’ve been given the chance to promote PokerStars via my blog and Twitter. It was a turbulent year for poker but in general I only had positive experiences as member of PokerStars Team Online.

At the PCA we had a Team Online get together and I finally got to meet all the other Team Online members which was really great. PokerStars had also organized a Team Online scavenger hunt, where people had to find 15 Team Online Members to earn a ticket for a six-max sat-and-go which could win you a $10,000 Tournament Ticket. When we got out of the meeting room where we had this get together there was this young kid who saw all the Team Online members standing in the same spot. He looked at us, looked at the card he was holding with all our pictures, looked at us again and you could see the twinkles in his eyes. Unfortunately we had to tell him that the scavenger hunt would start two days later. That was a really memorable experience and I’ve had many more at the PCA and during last year.

How did the working relationship with PokerStars come about?

I’ve always been an active blogger and in 2010 PokerStars was looking for people who could represent their online team. In 2010 I also made a run for Supernova Elite in a game which not a lot of people still play these days, fixed limit hold’em. I think putting those three things together was exactly the thing PokerStars was looking for. There were of course already many PokerStars Pros who represent the site but a lot of these people are live players who only play online occasionally. PokerStars, however, is an online poker site so it just makes a lot of sense to also attract Pros who are really an example of the core of what PokerStars is all about: grinding online. PokerStars liked me for what I did and I liked them for what they stand for so when I was asked if I would like to sign for PokerStars we got to an agreement pretty quick.

What were some of your poker goals going into 2012?

My main goal for this year is to make money. It’s really as simple as that since in the end that is still the most important thing. My normal grind will still be fixed limit cash games and lately I’ve been cutting down the amount of tables I’m playing in order to play a little higher again. I would be happy if I could finish this year as a winner at the low or mid-stakes again but I’m also planning to have some fun along the ride. Playing the SCOOP and WCOOP and going to the WSOP again this year to play some tournaments are definitely the things in which I have the most fun in poker. I also want to try a little harder in qualifying for EPT’s, something I haven’t really done the last couple of years so I’m curious how well that will go.

You work part-time job as an IT-architect for a financial company. How do you manage to balance time between work and poker?

Basically it is the fact I have a job on the side that really creates balance. When I told my boss that I wanted to work part-time he wasn’t really happy about it. My hope was that when I proved myself I could make enough money in poker, I would switch to poker full-time. However, since the moment I did both things part-time, I have loved it and I’m not really planning on changing it anytime soon. I think in the end any five-day job becomes a grind, it doesn’t really matter how much you like it or how much money it makes you. I was lucky enough that I could keep a good position at work while working part-time, but since I’ve been doing it part-time I’m loving it more than ever before. I’ve never tried poker as a full-time job but I think if I would play poker for five days a week, in the end it becomes a boring grind as well and the bad swings in poker could also probably affect your mood a lot. It’s the fact I have both jobs that keep me in balance.

To balance the time between these two I plan ahead a lot in a big excel sheet. I keep track on how well I actually meet my own planning and making it visible to yourself is really the most important thing to be able to keep balancing things. The obligations I have at my job should be as important as the obligations I have to myself when it comes to playing poker. Most of the time I pretty good in meeting my own planning, however there are times when you chose to do other things. That however is one of the best things about poker compared to a job, you have more freedom so there is no problem if you sometimes take that freedom and enjoy life.

What do you enjoy doing in your free time away from work and poker?

Since September I’ve been really into tennis. It’s something I loved doing as a kid but since I was 16 I haven’t been able to play because of two hernias. Strange enough, I think I’ve never been so fit in my life and I tried to play tennis again in September and for the first time I didn’t had any pains in my lower back. The reason I’m this fit is because I picked up cycling a couple of years ago and that’s something I still do as well. I’ve already planned some big cycle tours again with my friends for this year and although my country is really flat, I love doing it.

To relax I watch a lot of TV series. I also watch movies of course and I still like to go out on the weekend with my friends. I’m also a big fan of watching sports on television, especially big events like the Olympics, soccer championships and the Tour de France. Since we have all three of them this year, 2012 is going to be a great year!

A little bird told us that you like to dance. Is that true?

Yeah, I guess that’s true. I was never really a dancer when I was young but I did always go to clubs and just bounced a little on the beat. I’m a big fan of dance music and in the Netherlands we have really huge outdoor dance festivals in the summer which I always go to. In Vegas I also like to go to the clubs and listen to R&B and hip-hop and I’m not sure how I managed to suddenly dance to the music. I really love music and when I hear a beat I want to move and when I’ve had a couple of drinks I’m not really shy to get onto the dance floor. I also learned how to “shuffle” and since that’s probably something typical Dutch not a lot of people see that abroad, so I always get a lot of funny faces when I “shuffle” on the dance floor. I just love going out and have fun and music just always gets me going.

Tags: archives | australia | ept | lapt | napt | planets | tournaments | twitter | world-series

The final round robin heads up matches are over and it’s the Netherlands out ahead with just one set of high pressure seeded heads up matches to play. Bar a miraculous turn of events, which is always possible in the World Cup, it will be one of three countries lifting the trophy; the Netherlands (241), Peru (237) or Japan (222).

Germany (219) and Tajikistan (215) stand outside chances of winning but would need to dominate all five of their heads up matches to do so, and hope their rivals fail. Tajikistan have already had one sweep scored and one conceded so it’s distinctly possible that takes place.

Win 0 HU: 0 points
Win 1 HU: 5 points
Win 2 HU: 10 points
Win 3 HU: 25 points
Win 4 HU: 30 points
Win 5 HU: 50 points

The leader board as it stands
1. Netherlands, 241 points
2. Peru, 237 points
3. Japan, 222 points
4. Germany, 219 points
5. Tajikistan, 215 points
6. Costa Rica, 189 points
7. France, 187 points
8. Rest of the World, 174 points

It’s been a wild ride for Team Tajikistan as it’s been the first time all five have played live beyond home games and they’ve acquitted themselves well. We caught up with their captain Angel Davidov during round six.

“The event means a great deal for all of us and Tajikistan. Like in any other post-Soviet country card games are considered gambling but we’re trying to prove that it’s a sport. For a country with only 50 poker players it was a big victory just to get here ahead of countries like Ukraine and Russia,” said Davidov, a hulking tower of a man.

“When we walked in here yesterday we said, ‘We are not going to finish in ninth place, we’re shouldn’t be the first to leave if we want to achieve our goal of promoting poker. Our goal today was to finish in the top four… but first or second would be great for us and Tajikistan. Ten people have asked me where it is. It was in Europe according to some, others thought Latin America!” said Davidov.

One round left to play.

The payouts
1st. $90,000 ($22,500 per person)
2nd. $65,000 ($16,250 per person)
3rd. $45,000 ($11,250 per person)
4th. $30,000 ($7,500 per person)
5th. $20,000 ($5,000 per person)
6th. $15,000 ($3,750 per person)
7th. $10,000 ($2,500 per person)
8th. $7,500 ($1,875 per person)
9th: Italy, $5,000 ($1,250 per person)

Tags: 10th anniversary | Battle of the Planets | europe | italian poker tour | planets | pokerstars macau | portugal poker series | twitter | UKIPT | World Series of Poker