Poker News May 27th, 2008

Poker group goes all in with $1-M tourney in RP

MANILA, Philippines—If morality were a poker game, then organizers of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) have just gone “all in” with their chips, whipping up a cash-rich tournament with a total pot of $1 million.
The tournament, which kicks off Tuesday at the Dusit Hotel in Makati City, offers a top prize of $280,000 with a buy-in of $2,500. And while organizers do admit that the tournament is still a form of gambling, they are scrambling to position poker into a particular niche in the sporting world.

“Obviously, poker is made up of 70 percent chance, 30 percent skill,” said Christopher Parker, the director of the Asian Poker Tour (APT).

“But as far as the APT is concerned, we’d like to channel it through sports [and that means] focusing on the 30-percent skill rather than on the gambling aspect, the roll of the dice.”

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Bodog Announce Miniature World Series of Poker

Bodog have announced a cheaper option for those not jetting off to Vegas next month for the World Series of Poker – a series of online tournaments replicating the 25 Hold‘em events of the festival for a fraction of the price.

At the culmination of the series’ 25 tournaments, a final tournament will be hosted on July 10 awarding three seats to the 2009 WSOP Main Event. This makes Bodog the first site to offer seats to next year’s tournament.

The event will run from May 30, starting off on the same day as the $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Hold‘em event with a $100+$9 PLHE tournament.

‘We’re happy to offer those not able to attend in person an affordable and exciting online alternative,’ says Alwyn Morris, Morris Mohawk Gaming Group CEO.

Buy-ins ranging from $10 to $100 means that the festival – dubbed the ‘Mini-SOP’ – is excellent value for all players. It would cost nearly $100,000 to enter all the Hold‘em events of the WSOP but for only $821 a player could enter all of Bodog’s events.

The site will run a Tournament Leader Board which will determine who is awarded the seats to the 2009 Main Event.

Poker Book Review: Barry Tanenbaum’s ‘Advanced Limit Hold ‘em Strategy’

Professional cash game player Barry Tanenbaum’s Advanced Limit Hold ‘em Strategy: Techniques for Beating Tough Games marks an important contribution not just to that category of texts devoted to limit hold ‘em, but to the greater overall knowledge of poker strategy and theory. While of particular benefit to middle- and high-stakes LHE players, the book has a lot to offer to players of other games, too. With its many helpful lessons and careful, clear presentation of difficult concepts, Advanced Limit Hold ‘em Strategy deserves a place alongside other must-have books for the serious poker player.

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David Singer Wins Richest Online Heads-Up Poker Tournament

The online poker world was buzzing after Full Tilt Poker, a leading industry giant, announced their inaugural $25,000 buy-in heads-up championship – the most expensive online poker tournament ever.

The field consisted of pros and high-stakes players; sixty-four highly skilled players including 22 Full Tilt-sponsored professionals and Team Full Tilt members. David Singer, environmental lawyer turned pro poker player, took down the top prize by beating several players in successive heads-up matches.

Other notable finishers included CardRunners.com instructor Brian ‘Stinger’ Hastings who came 3rd and American poker professional Andy Bloch who came 4th. Both won $168,000 for their high finishes.

In addition, Full Tilt offered sweat tournaments whereby ordinary players could enter a rather more modest $5.50 heads-up tournament running in tandem with the $25k event. These acted as places to wager on the outcome of the main event – the winner scooping a share of a $5,000 added jackpot.

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy Signs On To Become an Ultimatebet Pro

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy has inked a deal with Ultimatebet.com to become an “UltimateBet Pro”, joining the likes of Shawn Rice, Scott Ian, Gary “Debo34″ DeBernardi and Mark “P0ker H0″ Kroon.

“JohnnyBax” is an online poker legend, making the transition from being a stockbroker to dominating the virtual felt in mid-2004. He is a highly respected member of the online poker community - for Ultimatebet, the signing is a no-brainer. Everyone these days seems to be signing with Full Tilt Poker, so for Ultimatebet to land “JohnnyBax” is a major coup. They are obviously hoping that his presence will help to win back some of the online poker community, who turned their backs on the company after the Absolute Poker scandal (Ultimatebet and Absolute Poker are owned by the same company, Tokwiro Enterprises). There are many in the community who will certainly be surprised (and angered, I’m sure) that Josephy has signed a deal with Ultimatebet.

Josephy is one of a handful of players in the world who can claim to have over one million dollars in online tournament cashes and one million dollars in live tournament cashes. “JohnnyBax” has over $1.3 million dollars in total “live” cashes, with his biggest score coming at the 2006 Ultimatebet Aruba Poker Classic, where he collected over $440k for his second place finish. He is also a WSOP bracelet holder, having taken down the $1500 Seven Card Stud event in 2005 for $192k.

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MANSIONPOKER.com Extends WSOP Mania!

MANSIONPOKER has announced the addition of WSOP Mania poker tournaments which provide members with further chances to win a coveted seat into the MANSION WSOP Mania Super Satellite tournament - worth $320 each.

The latest scheduled tournaments at MANSIONPOKER.com to award guaranteed tickets into the MANSION WSOP Mania Super Satellite include the $1 + $0.10 Turbo Feeder tournaments held daily at 18:30 and 21:30 BST, and the $10 + $1 Mansion WSOP Mania Daily Final; both of which award 3 Super Satellite tickets guaranteed. The daily Midnight Madness event also
provides another opportunity to win a seat into the Super Satellite of the year.

The MANSION WSOP Mania Super Satellite is one of the most exciting online poker tournaments of the year which takes place on Sunday June 15 2008 at 19:00 BST, with a buy in of $300 + $20 and a guaranteed prize pool of 20 Packages - each worth an astounding $16,000.

Every package awards winning players at MANSIONPOKER.com to take a seat at the world’s greatest Poker event: the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, winners will be lucky enough to pit their poker wits against other enthusiasts and top professionals such as last year’s winner Jerry Yang and MANSIONPOKER.com’s very own Marc Goodwin.

Unlike other online poker rooms, MANSIONPOKER.com has ensured that their seats are guaranteed. The company looks forward to sending some of their quality players to join in the prestigious event and have a shot at the prize money as well as the kudos.