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WSOP to continue despite Harrah’s Sale

Poker fans and players can rest a little easier in their beds tonight with confirmation that the way the World Series of Poker is run next year will not change despite the pending sale of Harrah’s to Apollo Management and Texas Pacific Group.

Harrah’s is currently the world’s largest casino operator owning more than 50 casinos. It has also been instrumental in making the World Series of Poker the global brand that it is today.

The current Harrah’s management team (including Chariman Gary Loveman and Commissioner Jeffery Pollack) will be staying with the company once the sale has gone through and the Communications Director for WSOP, Gary Thompson insisted that the World Series of Poker will remain an important part of the poker calendar for a long time to come:

“The WSOP will remain a key brand in the Harrah’s portfolio,” he said “and one earmarked for expansion on a number of fronts.”

The initial $17.7 billion sale was approved by Shareholdersback in April, but the sale is not expected to be finalised until early 2008. The delay has been put down to the sale needing to be approved by the gaming boards of each state that Harrah’s currently operates a casino in. Furthermore, Casinos owned by Harrahs outside of the United States also needed to gain approval.

The last two commissions to give their approval (The Nevada Gaming Commission and the National Indian Gaming Commission) consented to the sale last week.

Festive season continues at PKR

PKR are refusing to give up on Christmas despite the fact that its over for another year. Instead, they have decided to increase the amount of cash up for grabs in all their tournaments until New Years Eve.

Their “Holiday Heaven” promotion means that tomorrow’s Santa’s Bounty tournament will have an extra $1,500 in the prize pool, and an extra 50k guaranteed will be played on 29th December.

Another nice touch means the introduction of an exclusive Millionaire Tournament where players will be given the chance to win one million PKR points to spend however they wish.

New players wanting to join in the fun should check out our PKR Review to grab some bonus codes which will help swell your bank roll even further.

2008 Heads-up invites sent out

The first handful of names invited to play at the presitgious 2000 National Heads up Championship have been announced.

The Championship will be held at Caeasars Palace from 29th February to 2nd March.

Sixty-four players will play in the invitation-only tournament which has rapidly risen in popularity among both viewers and players alike since it started to be broadcast athrough the United States.

The twenty players who have already been invited span legends of the game such as Chris Ferguson, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen and Doyle Brunson. Former winners of the even Paul Wasicka (2007) and Ted Forrest (2006) will also be appearing, although 2005 champion Phil Helmuth is still waiting his invite after he was omitted from the first batch of invitations to be sent out.

It was also nice to see online professionals sbrugby and Fiery Justice recognised for their efforts.

44 players are still needed to make up the field. There is no guarantee as to who these players will be although it’s expected that players such as Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem and Daniel Negreanu will have seats made available for them.

Katchalov wins Brunson classic in record time

Brooklyn born Eugene Katchalov sat down at the final table of this years WPT Doyle Brunson Classic as the chip leader and was able to hold on to his lead to take home almost $2.5million in prize money and a seat in next year’s World Series of Poker main event.

664 players entered the tournament creating a prize pool of $9.6million - the largest pool in poker history outside of the WSOP main event and the WPT World Championship - but in truth once the action at the final table started it was all one way traffic. The final table was won in just 53 hands, a record which had previously been set by Brunson himself in the 2004 Legends of Poker.

In just the third hand of the afternoon, Katchalov clashed with second place player Jordan Rich. Having called Rich’s original raise of $220,000, Katchalov proceeded to check-raise his fellow American after the flop. Rich came over the top again by raising the pot to $1,620,000, but Katchalov was not finished and forced Rich to seriously think by re-raising his closest competitor to $2,640,000. It was too much for Rich who, after a lot of thinking and shaking his head, decided to muck his cards. It was a huge hand for Katchalov who never even had to show his cards.

13 hands later, the same two players were at it again. Katchalov’s initial raise of 300,000 was re-raised by Rich to $1,000,000. Katchalov responded by going all in and was called by Rich who turned over a pair of Jacks. Unfortunately for him, Katchalov had been dealt the pocket rockets and after a flop that helped neither player, Katchalov took a huge chip lead while Rich had to be consoled with a cheque for $289,070 for finishing in fifth place.

Katchalov’s huge stack grew to even greater heights three hands later when he eliminated Ken Rosen (fourth place, $433,675). A 10 on the river gave Katchlov the pair he needed to beat Rosen’s ♦A♦2, and suddenly he was olding over fifteen million chips.

The next player out was Dave (Devilfish Ulliot) who moved in all under the button for just over two million chips. Katchalov was the man who profited again, calling with against Ulliot’s dominated ♦A♠10. Again the board was no help to either player and Ulliot was sent home with the third place prize of $674,500.

This brought the tournament down to two players: Katchalov and the veteran from Michigan, Ted Kearly who was really up against it with a chip stack of just over three million compared to Katchalov who was able to count almost seventeen million chips in his stack. Eight hands later it got worse for Kearly who invested almost a third of his chips pre-flop but then had to watch as the stack made its way over to Katchalov’s side of the table.

From then on, the result was pretty much inevitable. The end came on hand 53 with Kearly under the button.

Katchalov called his raise of $380,000 and the flop came. Another check raise by Katchalov saw Kearly move all in. Katchalov was more than happy to oblige him, turning over ♥J♦10. The Michigan veteran turned over his ♣K♠J hoping for some help from the two remaining cards, but when the turn card was ♦J the tournament was over. Kearly finished in second place with earnings of $1,252,640.

The road to Ireland starts with Cake

The 2008 Irish Open is scheduled to be played between 19th March and 24th March, but the satellite tournaments for main event have already opened up on Cake Poker.

Winners of the supersatellites will take home a cheque for $1,800 in cash and a seat in the Irish Open main event to fight for their share of the 3 million euro guaranteed prize pool.

Players can register with Cake Poker to take part in the satellites whose buy-ins start for as little as $3. For those players who are already members of Cake, Gold Cards, Chips and Cake Loyalty points can all be used to ensure free qualification to the satellites.

For those of you who aren’t currently playing their poker there, be sure to check out our review of Cake Poker to find our exclusive Short Stack bonus code which will allow first time players up to $500 free upon registration

Sydney school teacher hits the big time

A school teacher from Sydney has beaten four former world champions to take down the first ever PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour grand final.

Grant Levy from Sydney took home the $1 million first prize, beating players such as Joe Hachem (2005 WSOP main event champion), Greg Raymer (2004 WSOP main event champion), Chris Moneymaker (2003 WSOP main event champion) and Scotty Nguyen (1998 WSOP main event champion).

“To be honest I am still taking it all in,” the Aussie said after the win. “It’s unbelievable to think that I have taken on some of the world’s greats and come out on top. I’m ecstatic to take the title and the million – I think it’s going to take a week or so to even sink in.”

Grant’s tight game saw off a field of 561 players from all over the world and enabled him to become the game’s first Australian to become a millionaire on his home turf. However, he has no plans to give up the day job.

“I love teaching. It’s a passion. I love poker, it’s a great hobby,” he said. “I get so excited when I sit down to play. People can lose passion for their jobs and I don’t want poker to become work.”

His win gives him the right to enter the Pokerstars Tournament of Champions, which should be a fantastic event given the fact that Hachem, Monkeymaker, Raymer and Nguyen will also be turning up for what will be a rare encounter between the four of them. They’ll all be playing for a $50,000 cheque to go to the charity of their choice.

In the meantime, PokerStars are still offering free-roll tournaments to qualifiers wanting to play in the remaining European Poker Tour events.

Rebuys are now freezeouts at Cake Poker

Reese to be remembered at WSOP

The World Series of Poker have ensured that the memory of David “Chip” Reese will continue to live on by naming the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E trophy after the man who many people believe was the greatest all round poker player of his generation.

“As a tribute to this great player who embodied the very best of our game, next year’s $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship will be played in Chip’s honor and memory,” confirmed Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the World Series of Poker. “The winner will receive the ‘David “Chip” Reese Award,’ as well as a WSOP bracelet, to commemorate his achievement.”

Reese, the winner of the inaugral WSOP H.O.R.S.E. Championship, died in his sleep last week after complaining of pneumonia symptoms.

2008 WSOP schedule announced

The 2008 World Series of Poker will run from May 13th - July 16th and will again feature 55 events, although for the first time it begin and end with $10,000 buy-in World Championship events: a change from the past, when the Series would start with the $500 casino employees event.

The schedule also includes a total of eight $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournaments and a second start day has been added to cope with the huge number of players that these tournaments have traditionally attracted.

“This is our most exciting schedule yet,” said Jeffrey Pollack, commissioner of the WSOP. “Both amateur and professional poker players will have new opportunities to compete for a WSOP bracelet and can choose from the widest variety of games and buy-ins ever offered in one poker tournament and certainly at the WSOP.
The immense schedule will start with the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Pot-Limit Hold’Em on 30th May and end almost six weeks later with the final table of the biggest game in Poker:the $10,000 buy-in World Championship of No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em, or “The Main Event” as it has become commonly known.

During that time 55 individual tournaments will be played and the winner of each of them will be presented with a unique WSOP gold bracelet and a share of a world record $160million prize pool.

The Rio Convention Center will be responsbile for staging the 2008 World Series of Poker although, after the unberable heat of last year, regular players will be pleased to hear of one change from last year’s event.

“The poker tent is gone,” confirmed Pollack. “We heard folks loud and clear last year, and there will be no tents used for tournament play at the 2008 WSOP.”

Registration for all events will being in February and can be done at the Rio or online at http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com .

Idema wins British Columbia Poker Championship

Daniel Idema from Tsawwassen, British Columbia managed to overcome 643 players to win the BC Poker Championship last night. The 23 year old walked away from the tournement at the River Rock Casino in Britsh Columbia with over $400,000 in his back pocket and a huge smile across his face.

“I caught some major breaks in this tournament and I was fortunate enough to win,” said Idema, who ended up with pocket kings as his winning hand. “It’s been a great experience. I never expected to make it this far.”

2007 was the third consecutive year that the BC tournament had been held and although not as many competitors turned out as in previous years, 1,700 players still arrived to fight over the impressive $2.4million cash pool: an amount that caught the attention of professional players Steve Billirakis and Greg Mueller.

In addition to the main even won by Idema, the BC Poker Championship also hosted a women’s No Limit Hold’Em tournament which was eventually won by Paula Stregger of Vancouver. She took home a cheque for $300,000. Other first place finishers included Brian Joslin (No limit) and Scott Craig of Vancouver (pot limit).

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