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Phil Hellmuth: “I Wouldn’t Be Surprised If (Online Poker Measure) Passed Before Feb 1” (Video)

World Series of Poker bracelet record holder Phil Hellmuth may know something we don't.  His hinting about online poker becoming legal in the US and the likelihood of him signing on with a company that nobody has even heard of in the very near future was far from subtle. 

Hellmuth made these remarks in an interview with Short Stacked Radio last week (the stream appearing below).

Submitted by Ace King on, Dec/13/2011

Vanessa Selbst One Million Dollar Year 2011

Noted female poker pro Vanessa Selbst is among the most successful on the live circuit and, once again, she caps off another one million dollar year.

The Brooklyn, New York native is closing in on $5 million lifetime tournament earnings.  Her biggest win came just over a year ago at the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event – No Limit Hold’em, where her first place finish resulted in nearly $2 million.  Months prior to this, Selbst won the PokerStars NAPT Mohegan Sun Season 1 NAPT Main Event – No Limit Hold’em.

Submitted by Patrick Flanigan on, Dec/13/2011

Viktor Blom Wins $1.6 Million

Following a three-month self-imposed exile from the online poker tables, Viktor Blom won $1.6 million on Monday before giving back about $800,000 of those winnings by Tuesday. 

Blom is now up just over a million dollars in profit this year on PokerStars, trailing only Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies and Rafi “refaelamit” Amit. 

Submitted by Ace King on, Dec/13/2011

Doyle Brunson Gets Lifetime Epic Poker Card

(AP)  LAS VEGAS — A professional poker league that's trying to become the PGA Tour of poker is giving card icon Doyle Brunson its first lifetime player card, making him automatically eligible to play all future tournaments.

Submitted by Guest on, Dec/13/2011

James Dempsey Wins 2011 World Poker Tour Five Diamond at Bellagio

James Dempsey has won the 2011 World Poker Tour Five Diamond at the Bellagio Resort.  Dempsey outlasted 413 other players to capture the $821,612 first place prize. 

He is now up over $1.5 million in live tournaments.  His previous big wins included 1st place at the 41st World Series of Poker 2010 Event 9 – WSOP Pot Limit Hold’em, where he cashed out $197,470, and the 41st WSOP 2010 Event #25 – Omaha Hi/Lo Championship 8 or Better with a 2nd place finish but biggest cashout leading into this past week at $301,790.

Submitted by Ace King on, Dec/12/2011

Russian Andrey Pateychuk Wins World Poker Tour Prague Main Event 2011

Russian poker player Andrev Pateychuk has won the 2011 World Poker Tour Prague and the $630,263 that comes with that honor. 

Pateychuk’s live tournament earnings to date were just over $1.1 million prior to this week’s win. 

He is currently on a roll, having won the 2011 PokerStars EPT San Remo in October.

568 players creating a prize pool of €1,753,200.

Here are the final table results and payouts:

1. Andrey Pateychuk — $630,263

2. Adria Balaguer — $320,381


3. Stanislaw Kretz — $212,690


4. Benjamin Pollak — $139,999

Submitted by Patrick Flanigan on, Dec/06/2011

One Million Dollar Buy-In Poker Tournament to Become a Reality

Just days after a report surfaced on Gambling911.com that organizers in Macau were looking to hold the richest poker tournament ever, with a $100 million prize pool, World Series of Poker officials on Monday announced that 22 individuals have committed to putting up $1 million each.  At 22 players, the top prize is $8.89 million.

Submitted by Ace King on, Dec/05/2011

Ilari Sahamies Hits $1 Million in November

Popular online poker player Ilari Sahamies made out like a bandit in high stakes play during the month of November to the tune of $1 million.

From PokerListings.com: 

The aggressive Finn was easily the biggest story of the month as he crushed almost every opponent and stacked his way to nearly $945,000 in profit.

Submitted by Ace King on, Dec/02/2011

Moneymaker Memorabilia is No Moneymaker on eBay

Sports memorabilia, as many collectors know, can be a very lucrative investment, especially if it's from a big name.

Poker memorabilia, it turns out, not so much, even when it's from a big name.

And one of the biggest names in poker is that of Chris Moneymaker, whose epic win at the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event sparked a worldwide poker boom after it was revealed he'd won his seat at the WSOP by winning a $39 buy-in online poker tournament.

Suddenly, everyone was playing poker, online and off, and poker was everywhere on TV.

Submitted by Thomas Somach on, Nov/29/2011

Toby Maguire, Gabe Kaplan, Others Settle High Stakes Hollywood Poker Games Lawsuit

Actor Toby Maguire and Gabe Kaplan have reportedly reached a settlement agreement in a highly publicized lawsuit involving high stakes Hollywood poker games. 

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/28/2011

Mohamed Ali Houssam Wins WPT Marrakech 2011 (Video)

Mohamed Ali Houssam has won the WPT Marrakech 2011. 

Bertrand Grospellier and Jonathan Duhamel were the two most familiar names remaining of the 50 players taking part in the WPT Marrakech final nine, reduced to a 6 player final table for which neither player made the cut. 

Ali Houssam takes home $267,011 with his big win.

Hear were your seats heading into Sunday’s play.

Seat 1: Bertrand Grospellier – 904,000

Seat 2: Mohamed Houssam – 1,330,000

Seat 3: Rodney Assous – 813,000

Seat 4: Maksim Martinov – 646,000

Submitted by Patrick Flanigan on, Nov/27/2011

Doyle Brunson Makes Out Big With Toledo-Ball State Game Total

The Toledo-Ball State game looked like an easy UNDER and poker legend Doyle Brunson looked like a big time loser coming into the 4th quarter.

But this is Doyle Brunson we are talking about, the man, the myth, the legend.  Who cares if your game has a combined score of 35 coming into the 4th and you just happen to have the OVER 71.5. 

Brunson won his bet and you won’t believe how unless you just happened to be tuned into this amazing game.

Doyle Brunson tweeted late Friday: 

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/25/2011

A Very Merry Matusow Thanksgiving: Brothers Battle Goes Cold Turkey

Thanksgiving 2011 turned out to be a time for mending ties in bitter family feuds.  Such was the case at the Matusow family gathering as poker bros Mike and Scott put their differences aside…at lest for the time being. 

If you have been following Gambling911.com closely in recent weeks, you would have learned of the bitter feud between Scott and Mike Matusow

Scott lodged this attack against his brother on his blog a few weeks back: 

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/25/2011

Phil Ivey Out at APPT Macau Main Event 2011

It was down to 304 players at the APPT Macau.  One of those who got sent packing was none other than professional poker phenom Phil Ivey, who made his first public appearance in months.  Ivey was one of over a dozen individuals who represented the now defunct online poker room, Full Tilt Poker.  That company is yet to pay back US players since April 15 and those worldwide since the end of June. 

Submitted by Patrick Flanigan on, Nov/25/2011

Phil Ivey at the PokerStars Macau Poker Room

As Gambling911.com reported the other day, professional poker player Phil Ivey has come out of hiding and showed up at the PokerStars Macau Poker Room at approximately 1:45 pm Wednesday afternoon.

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/23/2011

Who is !P0krparty¡? Yet to be Unmasked

Canadian online poker player !P0krparty¡ is making waves similar to those made by Viktor Blom last year.  Blom, you might recall, played high stakes online poker as Isildur1, raking in tons of cash, the whole time few knowing his true identity (though many did connect the dots).  Blom was eventually signed to PokerStars and his identity was unveiled shortly thereafter.

!P0krparty remains a greater mystery.  Those who think they know his true identity are merely guessing.  The name being thrown around in poker circles is one Harry Kaczka.

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/22/2011

Phil Ivey in Macau for Big Cash Games

It is being reported that professional poker player and Full Tilt Poker stakeholder, Phil Ivey, was spotted in Macau this week for their fabulous cash games.  Also on hand was Tom Dwan. 

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/22/2011

The Phil Ivey Porn: Not Quite But Close (Video)

A member of the popular TwoPlusTwo.com posting forum recently stumbled upon a Phil Ivey look-a-like….in none other than a porn.

Yes, it’s Phil Ivey in a wig.  Not quite, but it’s a dead ringer. 

Submitted by Jagajeet Chiba on, Nov/21/2011

Raul Mestre Wins International Federation of Poker World Championship and $250K: Beats Victoria Coren

Spaniard Raul Mestre was declared the winner of the International Federation of Poker World Championship and takes home $250,000.  In the end, he went head to head with big name female poker pro Victoria Coren of the United Kingdom. 

The World Championship was the final event of the first ever IFP World Championships that was held in London, UK.   The German team won the first event of the Championships, the Nations Cup. 

Submitted by Patrick Flanigan on, Nov/21/2011

Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott Life Headed to the Big Screen

British poker pro Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott is going from the green felt of the poker table to the silver screen.

Poker Icons, the Swedish marketing and public relations agency that handles Ulliott, has announced that Ulliott's autobiography, written last year and titled "Devilfish: The Life and Times of a Poker Legend," is to be made into a movie.

Poker Icons made the announcement Thursday on its website, www.pokericons.com.

Ulliott, 57, is one of England's top poker players.

Submitted by Thomas Somach on, Nov/21/2011

World Poker Tour Jacksonville 2011 Attracts 393 Players (Video)

The World Poker Tour Jacksonville 2011 will pay out $325,928 to the first place winner with 393 players in the field.

90 players remained after Saturday’s play with former WPT champion Tommy Vedes leading in the chip count.  Nick Grippo took over the lead.

Name Chips

1

Nick Grippo 280,000 

2

Submitted by Patrick Flanigan on, Nov/20/2011

Tom Dwan Beaten Badly in Macau: Loses $2.6 Million

The big cash games are back in Macau and online poker phenom Tom Dwan was reportedly annihilated to the tune of $2.6 million.

There was a chat log obtained by HighStakesDB.com:

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/17/2011

Ben Lamb’s New Car

Ben Lamb finished 3rd at this year’s World Series of Poker and is likely to be named “Poker Player of the Year” for 2011.

Lamb took home $4,019,635 and immediately ran out to spend it on the car pictured here.

 

From Pokerati.com

Submitted by Patrick Flanigan on, Nov/17/2011

Phil Ivey Broke? Stopped Paying Alimony After Black Friday

Is poker pro Phil Ivey broke?  That’s the rumor that surfaced in recent days. 

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/16/2011

Matusow Brothers Family Feud Tame Compared to These Rivalries (Video)

This week, the colorful poker playing Matusow brothers, Scott and Mike, went at it in a public forum.  Scott accused his brother Mike of being a drug and gambling addict

Scott had this to offer on his blog: 

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/16/2011

Full Tilt Poker’s Chris Ferguson Responds to US Justice Dept Complaint

Full Tilt Poker stakeholder and professional player Chris Ferguson filed motions with the US Southern District of New York Court on Tuesday requesting to bring on board an out-of-state attorney, Ian J. Imrich. 

Some of those motions filed lay claim to funds seized as part of a massive probe into Full Tilt Poker and two company executives, both of whom were indicted on April 15.  Charges included money laundering and bank fraud.

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/15/2011

Family Dysfunction: Scott Matusow Calls Out Brother Mike as Gambling, Drug Addict

Two of the more colorful characters in the poker world, Mike and Scott Matusow, are apparently at odds, and it’s all taking place publicly a la Facebook.

TwoPlusTwo.com offered up the lively (and sometimes disturbing) chat between the two men. 

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/15/2011

Tax Free Poker: 2011 WSOP Champ Pius Heinz Will Keep Entire $8.7 Million

This year’s World Series of Poker champion Pius Heinz will not have to pay any taxes on his $8.7 million in winnings it was revealed on Tuesday. The German player outlasted 6865 players to win the 2011 WSOP last week.

From DailyFinance.com:

Submitted by Ace King on, Nov/15/2011

Jessica Perez Eliminated From Punta Cana Poker Classic

After a great run, Cuban poker player Jessica Perez has been knocked out of the Punta Cana Poker Classic 2011 in 11th place.  Only one other female remained as the Final table was to be determined. 

CrazyJulius provided us with the breakdown….

Submitted by C Costigan on, Nov/11/2011

Punta Cana Classic 2011 Bubble Boy Is….

The poor sap who was on the bubble managed to get eliminated just before making it into the cashout category of 50 players Thursday evening.

Jose Luis Ruiz is our bubble boy.  Jose Luis min-raise to 15,000, the small blinds moves out of the way and Jared Pacifie comes over the top, Jared made it to around 120,000 and put Jose’s life at risk. Jose thinks for a few minutes and decided to make the call.

Submitted by Payton on, Nov/11/2011

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