PKR Live will be taking place at the Loose Cannon club in the heart of London’s banking district (click here for map) and will consist of two freezeouts and a ‘Bounty Tournament’ over the course of the two days.

PKR Live Welcome Tournament

When: 14th November, 19.00 GMT
Type: $60 Freezeout

The Live Festival kicks off with a quick warm up tournament for those attending. Places will be limited to 150 runners.

PKR Live $75,000 Main Event

When: 15th-16th November (Play will start at 14.00 GMT each day)
Type: $500 Freezeout

The centre piece of the festival, the Main Event gurantees a $75,000 prize pool and a minimum first prize of $20,000. As with the Welcome Tournament, places will be limited to 150 players.

PKR Live $10,000 Bounty Freeroll

When: 15th November, 19.00 GMT
Type: Bounty

PKR will finish the festival, by doing what they do best - hosting a big Bounty Tournament, which will include members of the PKR staff. A prize pool of $10,000 has been guaranteed and places will be limited to 150 players again.

The idea of an offline tournament is certainly an interesting one and with over $90,000 up for grabs throughout the Festival, it is certainly not something to be sniffed at.

Players looking to get involved will need to qualify via satellite tournaments. 10 weekly finals have been set up to give away 100 seats, valued at around $1,000 each. The remaining 50 seats will be taken by ’special guests of PKR’.

Satellite tournaments are already up and running. Existing members of PKR will be able to find them in the Tournament Lobby. New players looking to get involved will need to register their details at http://www.pkr.com

Click here to sign up for PKR Satellite Tournaments

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PKR hosting live, offline poker festival in London

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Founded in 2006, PKR have become the fastest growing online poker room in the UK due to their stunning 3D backgrounds and smoothly animated avitars. At the beginning of the year, PKR announced that it had served  10,000 poker players simultaneously for the first time, barely eighteen months after launching.

Their growth has continued since then with over 1.5 million players now registered with the site, and to celebrate this the 3D poker room will be running some special promotions on Sunday 17th August.

1. Three special freerolls will be set up with a prize pool of $500 being made available for each of them
2. Ten ‘Bounty Tournaments’ will run throughout the course of the day. Bounty tournaments mean that each player enters the tournament with a price on his/her head. The idea is to knock out as many people as you can (thus collecting your Bounty) while making sure that the price on your head stays intact!
3. The number of PKR points earned on all cash tables will be doubled between 15.00 and 19.00 GMT. These extra PKR points can be used to pay for entry into tournaments at a later date or they can be exchanged for merchandise in the PKR shop.

To take advantage of these promotions, simply log in to your PKR account. New players will need to register their details at http://www.pkr.com.

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PKR annonunce second birthday promotions

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The PKR bonus currently ranges from $50 to a huge $2,000 depending on the size of player’s bankroll. However, PKR will now award new players free PKR points and free entry into a number of their tournaments.

In addition to the free deposit bonus, new members at PKR will now receive:

• 1,500 free PKR points which can be used to enter tournaments and satellites or purchase items from the PKR shop.
• Entry into the weekly PKR $1,000 Premium Freeroll.
• Free tickets to five premium freerolls with $200 - $300 prize pools.

To take advantage of this offer, visit www.pkr.com to register your details.

Alternatively, click here to read more about the PKR Bonus

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PKR announce improved bonus

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The four players will form Team Bodog with each competitor receiving the buy-in for the Main Event ($5,300), costs for flights and six nights accomodation as well as $500 to spend while they’re out there.

Those of you interested, can claim your seats one of two ways:

Regular Qualifiers:
Qualifiers are already underway and will continue until August 3rd at which point three seats will be claimed. Qualifiers start from as little as $1 or players can buy in at the semi-final stage for $300+$20

Bodog’s Seat Giveaway Series:
The fourth and final place will be given away as the main prize in Bodog’s Seat Giveaway Series- the final of which is being held on August 2nd. Quaifiers for this tournament cost 5 Bodog Poker Points and run every day of the week at the following times:

The top 25 players in each qualifier will be invited to take place in the final with those finishing in positions 26-50 being given a buy-in to the “APT-Macau Cheap Seat” tournament.

To register your interest, visit http://poker.bodoglife.com and submit your details. New players will benefit from a 110% welcome bonus on their first deposit.

Click here to sign up for Bodog’s APT Qualifiers »

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Bodog offering 4 seats to the APT in Macau

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The bad news is that we will have to wait until November to see who will pick up the biggest prize in poker due to new regulations brought in for the first time this year in an attempt to boost flagging TV ratings.

After seven long days, there are no ‘poker superstars’ left in the Main Event  tournament which has disappointed some. Instead, the World Championship will be contested by five Americans, two Canadians, a Dane and a Russian.

Dennis Phillips, a salesman from Missouri, held the chip lead throughout the day and will sit down at the final table with the largest stack. Philips is the oldest player in the field and one of six players at the final table who play their online poker at PokerStars.

At the other end of the spectrum, American Kelly Kim will sit down as the clear short stack with just a little over two and a half million chips in front of him.

Play will kick off again in Vegas on November 9th with the final table battling it out for a first prize worth over nine million dollars.

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The final nine are decided in Vegas

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Reese, who passed away in December last year, was the winner of the inaugural event when it was first introduced to the World Series of Poker schedule back in 2006 and was seen by many of his peers as the best player to have ever played the game.

It was because of Reese’s high standing in the game that the WSOP decided to award the winner of this year’s H.O.R.S.E event with a special trophy named in the legend’s honor. It was a decision that raised the standing of the tournament even higher and ultimately brought the best out of all those who found themselves sat around the final table.

The last eight players were an elite group indeed. Nguyen was joined by Barry Greenstein, Erick Lindgren and another Main Event champion, Huck Seed. to battle it out for the bracelet.

By his own high standards, Nguyen had been having a difficult time lately. Having been performing poorly in tournaments, he found himself leading the Main Event with only 12 players left before crashing out dramatically in eleventh place.

This time round though there was to be no such collapse.

By the time Scotty found himself in a heads up position Michael DeMichele, he had built up an impressive chip of almost 6:1 and it wasn’t long before he put his large stack to good use.

After around a dozen hands of hold-em heads up play, DeMichele raised preflop with A 3. Nguyen kept quite for a little moment before telling his opponent “It’s gonna be all over baby” and moving all in with A 10.

DeMichele called the raise, but couldn’t get any help from the flop and found himself eliminated in second place ($1,423,200)

Scotty Nguyen walked away with a cheque for $1,989,120 making him the only player to have won both the H.O.R.S.E championship and the World Championship.  More importantly though, it gave him the belief that he still had what it takes to win a big one.

“The $50K H.O.R.S.E. event is the best all around player - number 1 in the world” he told his supporters after the victory. “Nobody can walk up to me and say, Scotty, you’re second, baby”

Typical Scotty. It’s good to have him back …

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Reese honoured by Scotty Nguyen’s victory in Vegas

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With 85 players contributing 272 re-buys, the prize pool was an impressive $1,735,020 meaning that on average each player had contributed $20,000 to the overall prize pool.

The Full Tilt Poker professional had to work hard for the $537,862 first prize though, overcoming some of the world’s top poker players who refused to lie down. Erick Lindgren, Tony G and 2007 WSOP Player of the Year, Tom “DonkeyBomber” Schneider were amongst those players involved in what turned out to be a see-saw battle royale.

However it was Tony G and fellow pro David Benyamine who crashed out early finishing in sixth and seventh place respectively. They were followed to the rail by Schneider and poker legend Barry Greenstein who finished in third place and added $225,552 to his already impressive career earnings.

The heads-up play was between Matusow and Jeff Lisandro and lasted almost two hours. It must have been a frustrating time for Matusow who was continually making Lisandro walk the wire only to see him scoop a huge pot and stay alive. Just before 3 o’clock in the morning though “The Mouth” broke into a huge smile as he picked up his third WSOP bracelet.

“I don’t know a lot about this game,” Matusow admitted afterwards. “I kept my patience, and I never gave up. I played against 84 of the best players in the world. I played real good, and I never say that about myself. I’m proud of myself.”

Lisandro was left to contemplate missing out on a second career bracelet, but will have found consolation in his runners up cheque for $347,004

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Matusow wins third WSOP bracelet

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Eric Brooks, a 48 year old unknown from Pennsylvania, was just one of 158 players who entered event number 14, the Seven-Card Stud World Championship in Vegas. He had never cashed in any poker tour but found himself beating the entire field which consisted of Erik Seidel, Alexander Kostritsyn and Minh Ly.

He then donated his first prize of $415,856 to the Decision Education Foundation of which he is a board member.

“We’ve had a lot of success with it so far,” Brooks said after his stunning victory. “Being able to add another $400,000 to it and what they’re doing is going to be pretty big.”

“Essentially what we do is we take the science of decision making, which is something that’s university level, college course work, and (teach the basic principles to grades) K-12 around the country” he explained. “It’s an organization that I really believe in,”

Brooks had initially sat down at the final table in sixth place and didn’t particularly like his chances of success:

“I guess all of us went home last night and thought about winning,” he admiited. “But realistically, these are all really good players. You have to get lucky three days in the row, for sure, to win.”

Call it luck or call it ability, but Brooks was able to build his stack as more and more of his illustrious opponents went to the rail.

He ended up facing Fu Wong in the heads up play with a slight chip lead but managed to wipe him out when his flush rolled over Wong’s two pair in what proved to be the final hand of the tournament. Wong finished in second place and took home a cheque for $259,910.

While Brooks was happy to give up his cheque for charity, he was more than glad to get his hands on the first gold bracelet of his career.

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Brooks shows charitable side at WSOP

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Shootout tournaments mean that players have to negotiate their way through three consecutive Sit and Go tournaments before the winner can be crowned and Tom admitted it was a format that he liked:

“I really think it (the shootout format) fits my playing style. I have to eliminate players as I go along, and the seats are not re-filled. So, you can concentrate on the task at hand, which is to focus on your opponents who are actually at the table.”

Exactly 360 players started the event spread across 36 tables, with the winner of each table progressing to a second round of six tables. The final table consisted of the six winners from the second round all sitting down with 1,000,000 in chips.

Before his victory last night, Phil Tom had never finished higher than 22nd in a major tournament but the Las Vegas resident played what was described as “absolutely ideal poker” to throw that monkey off his back and pick up the winners cheque for $1,692,000.

Tom faced Canadian Greg Mueller in the heads up play and slowly wore him down. In what turned out to be the final hand of the tournament, Mueller threw all his chips into the on the turn with the board reading Jc 9h 3s 5c. After a long think, Tom made the call.

Mueller showed Jh 8c for top pair while Tom turned over Ad Js for top pair and top kicker.

The river was a K which helped no-one and Mueller had to accept 2nd place ($298,638) while Phil Tom was given a cheque for $477,990 and crowned Vegas’ latest champion.

“It’s a great feeling,” Tom said with a huge grin on his face. “This is what it’s all about – to win at the World Series.”

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Phil Tom wins WSOP shootout

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The 42 year old from Germantown had come close to picking up a bracelet a couple of years back when he finished second in a No-Limit Hold’em event, but he took confidence in the fact that he started the final table as the clear chip leader and went one better this time around. In fact, he never lost the chip lead on his way to picking up the winner’s cheque for $232,911.

388 players had entered what was the tenth event of this year’s World Series of Poker and once the dust had settled it was the pros who once again dominated the event. Former gold bracelet winners such as Hoyt Corkins, Allen Cunnigham and Berry Johnston all cashed, whereas Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and “Miami” John Cernuto both provided Rouhani with stern opposition at the final table.

In fact it was Mizrachi who crashed out first, closely followed by Michigan native Daniel Mowczan who found himself short stacked. John Racener soon followed when he went all in against Rouhani who tabled a nut flush. Racener’s could only show two pair and he ended up going to the rail in sixth place with a cheque for $37,781.

Greg Pappas ($48,190) soon followed him when Tom Chambers bested him in a heads up duel by tabling a flush.

Poker pro Yequi Zhu had sat down at the final table as the short stack, and will take some consolation that he managed to work his way up to fourth place ($63,807), but he too eventually fell to Rouhani who was starting to steam roller the field by this point.

His next victim was the last pro at the table, “Miami” John Cernuto who was looking to add a fourth WSOP bracelet to his collection. Instead he had to be content with third place and a cheque for $86,117 when Ks on the river made Broadway for Rouhani, giving him a huge chip lead going into the heads-up play.

With such a difference between the two players’ stacks, it was always going to be difficult for Tom Chambers. Despite his best efforts the heads up play only lasted 15 minutes before Rouhani’s quads crushed Chambers’ low draw.

“I must admit that I really do need the money,” Rouhani said after his victory.

“Everyone needs the money. But this gold bracelet to me means a whole lot more. It is the thing that everyone in poker dreams of.”

Tom Chambers received $142,784 for finishing as the runner up.

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Rouhani claims his first bracelet at WSOP

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