Poker52 Europa - n8 - November/December 2012

N°8

www.poker52europa.com

november/december 2012

upcoming tournaments Wpt mazagan Capt 2013 Ept & wpt prague St marteen Open Acf Hold’em Series Wpt National Brussels Aria Poker Room Wpt National Mauritius Wpt Five Diamond

event

GPI European Poker Awards

exclusive european rankings

tournament director series

Verbal and physical threats

PHIL HELLMUTH

The man with the golden arm Doyle Brunson Kara Scott Phil Galfond Alexandre Dreyfus

January 2013, 8 tournaments,

There Will Be No Mercy.

Euro Finals Of Poker at the ACF, from January 8th to January 28th Tuesday, January 8th

2:30pm 8pm

Satellite ACFPoker Tour Paris Satellite ACFPoker Tour Paris

NLH NLH

€100 €100

Freezeout Freezeout

Wednesday, January 9th

2:30pm 8pm

Satellite WPT National Series Paris Satellite WPT National Series Paris

NLH NLH

€50 €200

Rebuys 1H + 1 Add on Freezeout

Thursday, January 10th

2:30pm

WPT National Series Paris - Day 1A (4 day event)

NLH

€1,500

Freezeout (max 150 players)

Friday, January 11

2:30pm

WPT National Series Paris - Day 1B (4 day event)

NLH

€1,500

Freezeout (max 150 players)

Saturday, January 12th

2:30pm 10pm

WPT National Series Paris - Day 2 Satellite ACFPoker Tour Paris

NLH

€100

Freezeout

Sunday, January 13th

2:30pm 8pm

WPT National Series Paris - Day 3 ACFPoker Tour Paris - Day 1 (2 day event)

NLH

€750

Freezeout

Monday, January 14th

4pm 8pm

WPT National Series Paris - Final Table ACFPoker Tour Paris - Day 2 + Final

Tuesday, January 15th

2:30pm 8pm

Satellite Bronze Championship Bronze Championship - Day 1 (2 day event)

NLH NLH

€50 €500

Rebuys 1H + 1 Add on Freezeout

Wednesday, January 16th 2:30pm 4pm 8pm

Satellite Silver Championship Bronze Championship - Day 2 + Final Satellite EPT Deauville

NLH NLH NLH

€150 €500 €600

Freezeout Freezeout Freezeout

Thursday, January 17th

2:30pm 8pm

Satellite Silver Championship Silver Championship - Day 1 (2 day event)

NLH NLH

€150 €1,000

Freezeout Freezeout

Friday, January 18th

2:30pm 4pm 8pm

Satellite Gold Championship Silver Championship - Day 2 + Final Satellite Gold Championship

NLH

€100

Rebuys 1H + 1 Add on

NLH

€250

Freezeout

Saturday, January 19th

2:30pm

Gold Championship - Day 1 (3 day event)

NLH

€2,000

Freezeout

Sunday, January 20th

2:30pm 8pm

Gold Championship - Day 2 Satellite Omaha Championship

NLH PLO

€100

Rebuys 1H + 1 Add on

Monday, January 21st

2:30pm 4pm 8pm

Omaha Championship - Day 1 (2 day event) Gold Championship - Final Satellite Diamond Championship

PLO

€1000

Triple Chance

NLH

€500

Freezeout

2:30pm 4pm 8pm

Feeder Satellite Diamond Championship €500 Omaha Championship - Day 2 + Final Satellite Diamond Championship

NLH

€50

Rebuys 1H + 1 Add on

NLH

€500

Freezeout

Wednesday, January 23

2:30pm 7pm 8pm

Feeder Satellite Diamond Championship €750 EPA 2011 Ceremony and Dinner Satellite Diamond Championship

NLH

€50

Rebuys 1H + 1 Add on

NLH

€750

Freezeout

Thursday, January 24th

2:30pm

Diamond Championship - Day 1 (4 day event)

NLH

€5,000

Freezeout

Friday, January 25

2:30pm 8pm

Diamond Championship - Day 2 Feeder Satellite High Roller

NLH NLH

€150

Freezeout

2:30pm 8pm

Diamond Championship - Day 3 Satellite High Roller

NLH NLH

€1,000

Freezeout

Sunday, January 27

2:30pm 4pm 8pm

High Roller - Day 1 (2 day event) Diamond Championship - Final Satellite ACFPoker Tour Brussels

NLH

€10,000 Freezeout

NLH

€100

Freezeout

Monday, January 28th

2:30pm 8pm

High Roller - Day 2 + Final Satellite WPT National Series Brussels

NLH

€200

Freezeout

th

Tuesday, January 22

nd

rd

th

Saturday, January 26

th

th

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EDITOrial

These victories reaffirm the preeminent positions of players whose fans have admired them for years

Dear Readers, October and its whirlwind of tournaments did not disappoint, with Phil Hellmuth’s stellar victory at the WSOPE Main Event followed by Ludovic Lacay rising like a phoenix from the ashes at the San Remo EPT, and besting his opponents thanks to his relentless rhythm and savvy. These victories reaffirm the preeminent positions of players whose fans have admired them for years, and who time and again have demonstrated that winning tournaments means starting over, fine-tuning strategy, and – first and foremost – never ever giving up.

This is also a time when the poker community’s professionals and enlightened amateurs can look back on the past year’s tournaments in order to judge the best performances of 2012. Alexandre Dreyfus, who brilliantly reintroduced the GPI a few weeks back, has now joined forces with the European Poker Awards, a continental event which has been running for twelve years, in order to give us, on January 23, 2013 at Paris’s Élysées Biarritz, a remarkable opportunity to meet the players whose talent has left an indelible mark on the tournaments of 2012. And readers of Poker52 and Poker52 Europa will have the added bonus of being able to cast a vote for their favorite players online!

POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

5

EPT PraguE FEsTival 2012 NON-sTOP Cash GaME

www.casino-atrium.com

www.goldenpraguepoker.cz

UPCOMING EPT EVENT TIME # EVENT Daily Cash Games and Sit N Go’s 5 December - Wednesday 12:00 A NL - Eureka Main Event Day 1A 19:00 B NL - Unl. Rebuy + Addon Super Satellite to Eureka Main Event (€50 RB + Add On) 21:00 C NL - Turbo 6 December - Thursday 12:00 A NL - Eureka Main Event Day 1B 21:00 D NL - Turbo 7 December - Friday 12:00 A NL - Eureka Main Event Day 2 16:00 E NL - Holdem - Day 1 20:00 1 NL - Turbo 22:00 F NL - Last Chance Hyper Turbo Super Satellite to Eureka High Roller (#G) 8 December - Saturday 12:00 A NL - Eureka Main Event Day 3 12:00 G NL - Eureka High Roller - Day 1 13:00 E NL - Holdem - Final Day 16:00 H PLO - Eureka PLO Championship - Day 1 18:00 2 NL - One Rebuy One Addon Super Satellite to EPT Main Event 9 December - Sunday 12:00 3 EPT Main Event Day 1A 12:00 A NL - Eureka Main Event Final Table 12:00 G NL - Eureka High Roller - Final Day 13:00 H PLO - Eureka PLO Championship - Final Day 13:00 4 NL - Holdem - Women’s Event 16:00 5 PLO - Turbo - «8 Handed» 19:00 6 NL - One Rebuy + One Addon Super Satellite to EPT Main Event 19:00 7 EPT8 Country of the Year Freeroll - Lebanon EPT8 Main Players Only 22:00 8 NL - Last Chance Turbo Super Satellite to EPT Main Event Day 1B 10 December - Monday 12:00 3 EPT Main Event Day 1B 16:00 9 NLO8 - «8 Handed» - Turbo 20:00 10 NL - Turbo - «8 Handed» 11 December - Tuesday 12:00 3 EPT Main Event Day 2 16:00 11 NL - Holdem - Day 1 21:00 12 NL - Turbo - Win the Button!

12 December - Wednesday 12:00 3 EPT Main Event Day 3 12:00 13 NL - Turbo 13:00 11 NL - Holdem - Final Day 16:00 14 NL - Holdem - Day 1 20:00 15 PLO - Dealer’s Choice 4/5 Cards - «8 Handed» - 30 Minute Levels - Day 1 21:00 16 NL - Turbo 13 December - Thursday 12:00 3 EPT Main Event Day 4 12:00 17 NL - Holdem - «6 Handed» - Win the Button! - 30 Minute Levels 13:00 18 NL - High Roller - Single Reload - «8 Handed» - Day 1 13:00 14 NL - Holdem - Final Day 13:00 15 PLO - Dealer’s Choice 4/5 Cards - «8 Handed» - 30 Minute Levels - Final Day 18:00 19 PLO - One Rebuy + One Addon - «8 Handed» - Day 1 21:00 20 NL - Turbo - Antes Only

BUY IN Various €1,000 + €100 €100 + €10 €200 + €20 €1,000 + €100 €200 + €20 CLOSED €300 + €30 €1,000 + €100 €300 + €30 CLOSED €1,850 + €150 CLOSED €550 + €50 €550 + €50 €5,000 + €300 CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED €300 + €30 €2,000 + €100 €550 + €50 Invitation €1,050 + €50 €5,000 + €300 €1,000 + €100 €2,000 + €100 CLOSED €2,000 + €150 €300 + €30 CLOSED €1,000 + €100 CLOSED €1,000 + €100 €1,000 + €100 €300 + €30 CLOSED €1,000 + €100 €10,000 + €300 CLOSED CLOSED €1,000 + €100 €300 + €30

14 December - Friday 12:00 3 EPT Main Event Day 5 12:00 21 NL - Turbo - «8 Handed» - Bounty 13:00 18 NL - Holdem - High Roller - Single Reload - «8 handed» - Final Day 13:00 19 PLO - One Rebuy + One Addon - «8 Handed» - Final Day 14:00 22 NL - Heads Up (64 cap) - Day 1 16:00 23 NL - Holdem - 30 Minute Levels - Day 1 19:00 24 NLH / PLO / PLO8 - «6 Handed» - 15K Stack / 30 Min Levels - Day 1 20:00 25 NL - Turbo - «8 Handed» 21:00 26 NL - Turbo 15 December - Saturday 13:00 3 EPT Main Event Day - Final Table 12:00 27 EPT Main Event - Turbo - 30K Stack / 15 Min Levels 12:00 22 NL - Heads Up (64 cap) - Final Day 12:00 23 NL - Holdem - 30 Minute Levels - Final Day 12:00 24 NLH / PLO / PLO8 - «6 Handed» - 15K Stack / 30 Min Levels - Final Day 13:00 28 NL - Turbo - «6 Handed» 16:00 29 NL - Hyper Turbo - 10K Stack - 10 Minute Levels 17:00 30 NL - Turbo - «6 Handed»

CLOSED €1,000 + €1,000 + €100* CLOSED CLOSED €1,000 + €100 €1,000 + €100 €1,000 + €100 €1,000 + €100 €300 + €30 CLOSED €300 + €30 CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED €5,000 + €200 €100 + €20 €2,000 + €100

3% will be withheld from all events to cover tournament staffing costs with the exception of Event #15 (2%) We reserve the right to change, amend or alter any portion of the above schedule All tournaments may have a day added or subtracted at Tournament Director discretion Lettered Eve nts are part of Eureka Prague and may qualify for Eureka Player of the Year Awards Numbered Events are part of EPT Prague and may qualify for EPT Player of the Year Awards *Bounty will be 25,000 CZK

contents 12

NEWS chronicles

22 Phil Galfond

38 Doyle Brunson

event

30

interview

20 Kara Scott

Life Before Poker

Viktor Blom, The Man, The Myth, The Legend “A man isn’t finished when he is defeated.

He is finished when he quits.”

26 GPI European Poker Awards 28 Poker Business – Alexandre Dreyfus

44

40

Phil Hellmuth

40

upcoming tournaments

42 WPT Mazagan 44 WPT & EPT Prague 48 Aria Poker Room 52 Baltic Winter Festival & Tallinn All-in 54 Aviation Club de France Hold’em Series 58 WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic 62 Casinos Austria Poker Tour 2013 66 St Maarten Unibet Open 68 World Poker Tour National Brussels 69 World Poker Tour National Series Mauritius

72 76 80

Hendon Mob Rankings GPI Rankings Tournament schedule

58

30 is published by Game Prod - 14 rue de Berri 75008 PARIS / France +33 (0)1 53 89 14 00 www.poker52europa.com Directed by: Bruno Benveniste +33 (0)1 53 89 14 08 - brunobenveniste@poker52europa.com Assisted by: Samantha Delmas - samantha@poker52europa.com Chief editor: Jérôme Schmidt - jerome@poker52europa.com Writers: Julien Morello, Antoine Salvi, Philippe Lemaire, Philippe Aronson Cover picture: Yann Stofer Inside pictures: XDR, Neil Stoddart Re-writing and translation: Alexander JE Bradley Advertisement: Martin Garagnon +33 (0)1 53 89 14 04 - martin@poker52europa.com Founder: Bruno Fitoussi DESIGN Artistic Director: Frédéric Hallier Layout: Jennifer Bouvard Print: Imprimerie du Canal

Online qualificatiOns On

news // World Series of Poker Europe Cannes

“Poker Brat” Phil Hellmuth earns a 13th bracelet in Cannes Once again, Phil Hellmuth had no pity for his 419 opponents in the World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes, and was crowned champion on October 4, after dominating the field for almost the entire five days of the €10,450 Main Event. Hellmuth is now setting new records, having secured yet another bracelet — his 13th — and grabbing €1,022,376, a tidy sum to add to his already huge fortune.

“Poker brat” is still the biggest winner of the Cannes series, though the €51,000 Majestic High Roller was won by Canadian Michael Watson, who pocketed €1,000,000.

When the World Series of Poker Europe started on the French Riviera on September 21, faces were a bit grim, as the field was not as huge as expected. Only 420 players entered the €10,000 + €450 Main Event, compared to last year’s 593, which led to the biggest prize pool ever in French poker history: €5,692,000. One year on, the field was down by almost a third. To be sure, there were some famous faces, such as Men Nguyen, Joseph Cheong or Daniel Negreanu, but the exclusive room of the Majestic Barrière seemed relatively empty. Still, the prize pool reached the quite honorable figure of €4,032,000, and the great names of poker attending the event were hell-bent on taking it all.

After four great first days undoubtedly dominated by Hellmuth (3,434,000 chips), Sergii Baranov (3,339,000 chips), Joseph Cheong (1,966,000 chips) and Stéphane Albertini (1,162,000 chips), the final day began in a very electric atmosphere, with everyone excited by the charismatic presence of Hellmuth and the thought of besting him. Chris Brammer, Stéphane Girault, Jason Mercier and Paul Tedeschi were also on the final table. The first hour of play was not particularly intense, but things finally became explosive at the start of Level 24 (blinds 15K/30K ante 5K).

Jason Mercier was busted in eighth after his A-Q was called by Baranov’s A-K, quickly followed by Stéphane Girault whose A-J had no chance against Hellmuth’s 5-5. In the next hand, it was Tedeschi’s turn to exit as he put all his chips in with A-J, but ran into Joseph Cheong’s Q-Q. Brammer did not last long either, as he was eliminated

by Sergii Baranov’s (K-10) paired ten. The four players were down so fast that play was halted for four hours — waiting for live TV coverage to start. At that point, Hellmuth was still the chip leader (5,480,000), far behind Baranov (3,755,000), Cheong (2,105,000) and Albertini (1,260,000).

12 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

After quite a scare, Hellmuth managed to take a million chips from Baranov, caught a flush to eliminate Joseph Cheong in fourth (K-Q > A-Q), took another million chips from the Russian and made a set of Sevens that eliminated Stephane Albertini (J-J) in third. Having a considerable advance on Baranov, Hellmuth finished the game quite quickly, when Baranov’s A-4 just weren’t enough against his A-10. After one of the most intense final days ever, Phil Hellmuth started jumping like a lunatic, adding €1,022,036 to his impressive lifetime record, estimated over $18 million. It was his third career seven-figure score — prior to the 2011 $50,000 Poker Players Championship, Hellmuth had never earned more than $755,000 in a single event.

He’s also in the lead in the WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard, and now has an impressive collection of thirteen WSOP bracelets.

For those who were disappointed by attendance, this dramatic win was the perfect consolation. Also amazing was Michel Watson’s impeccable and unexpected win in the €50,000 + €1,000 High Roller Event against John Juanda and Steve O’Dwyer, who were already seen as victorious. The young Canadian pro managed to make his way to the top, grabbing €1,000,000 behind John Juanda with €600,000 and Richard Yong who got third with €400,000.

What a year for the WSOPE!

WSOPE €10,000 Main Event

List of Winners 1st Phil Hellmuth Jr. $1,022,376 2nd Sergii Baranov $632,592 3rd Stéphane Albertini $423,360 4th Joseph Cheong $292,320 5th Christopher Brammer $207,648 6th Paul Tedeschi $149,184 th 7 Stéphane Girault $108,864 8th Jason Mercier $84,672 9th Timothy Adams $66,528

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WPT World Champion Season X

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news // European Poker Tour San Remo

Frenchman Ludovic Lacay dominates a 797-player field After the madness of the WSPOE in Cannes, the ninth edition of the European Poker Tour San Remo came to an end, crowning Frenchman Ludovic Lacay who won €744,910 after besting a 797-player field over seven days of play in the €5,000 + €300 Main Event. The other big winner of the Italian leg of the EPT is German Benny Spindler who got first of the €10,000 + €1,000 High Roller Event, grabbing €253,000 and overcoming a tough and prestigious field.

After weeks like this, you can be sure that European poker series have a bright future as they attract more and more international crowds and famous players. In San Remo, from October 3-11, Vanessa Rousso, Bryn Kenny, Jonathan Duhamel and John Duthie were in the field, which promised a very high-level game. The final table of the €10,000 + €1,000 High Roller Event was particularly spectacular and included November Niner Joeseph Cheong, Germany’s Philipp Gruissem, Russia’s Igor Kurganov or Swedish pro Joel Nordkvist. But it was rising German star Benny Spindler who got the first prize, earning €253,000 after his brilliant win last year in the English leg of the EPT. The other great victory in this Italian competition was also European, with Frenchman Ludovic Lacay collecting the €744,910 first-place prize in the €5,000 + €300 Main Event against over a field of 797 players. The 27-year-old

// Unibet Open London

England’s Pratik Ghatge walks off with title and £85,050 From September 13-16 at Aspers Casino Westfield, the Unibet Open was a very British affair, as Londoner Pratik Ghatge won the €1,650 Unibet Open London Main Event, taking £85,050 after dominating 314 opponents. The turn14 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

commented on his victory with a huge smile: “It feels pretty good. It’s an accomplishment, getting there and beating all these players. When you start a tournament you aim for the first place but you never expect it. Here I am, it’s amazing.” Canadian Jason Lavallee struck a deal with him for the top two spots and went home with €538,089; third place Artem Litvinov from Russia grabbed €283,000. After such amazing action in Cannes and San Remo, we can only ask for more European series as the bar is set higher and higher every year.

ePT San Remo e5,300 Main Event

List of Winners 1st Ludovic Lacay 2nd Jason Lavallee 3rd Artem Litvinov 4th Angelo Recchia 5th Jason Tompkins 6th Micah Raskin 7th Adrian Piasecki 8th Ismael Bojang 9th Amerigo Santoro

$744,910 $538,089 $283,000 $225,000 $171,000 $132,000 $96,000 $65,450 $50,000

ing point in his tournament came on Day 2, when he won a big hand against fellow pro Chaz Chattha. Ghatge started the nine-handed table third in chips and worked his way through a table which included 2010 Unibet Open champion Paul Valkenburg and England’s Gavin Eley.

Heads-up was reached when Eley was sent to the rail by his fellow pro’s pair of kings, and Ghage started two-handed play with a two to one chip advantage against Poland’s Tomasz Kozub, but it still took an hour to confirm this advance. The final hand saw Kozub move all in with Q-10 and up against As-7 and when the five community cards ran out 3-7-6-5-3 Ghage was declared champion of the Unibet Open London Main Event, for the biggest cash win of his career, after his victory last September in the £2,000 EPT London side event for £71,700.

“I ran pretty good today from the get-go. I got a lot of hands, and I picked up a lot of chips. I’m really happy with myself and the patience I’ve shown,” declared the champion after his first victory in a major event.

EPT SEaSon 9

Qualify online now to the world’s largest and richest poker tournament only at pokerstars.

SeaSon 9 VenUeS Barcelona San Remo Prague Bahamas (PCa) Deauville London Berlin Monte-Carlo Final For more details visit www.ept.com

we are poker

news // World Poker Tour Malta

Frenchman Yorane Kerignard bests Italian Jackson Genovesi for €120,000 WPT Malta attracted a lot of international players from September 16-20, and 169 players entered the €3,300 Main Event, held at the Portomaso Casino. Dan O’Brien, Erik Cajelais, Marvin Rettenmaier, Phil Hellmuth and Dominik Nitsche entered on Day 1A; Anton Wigg, Kara Scott, Giovanni Rizzo and Tony G on Day 1B; but the chip leader at the end of these opening days was Italian player Jackson Genovesi. Genovesi kept his advance after Day 2, while poker pros such as Vanessa Selbst, Arnaud Mattern, Sandra Boyd, Jason Mercier and Jonathan Duhamel were hitting the rail — alongside Rettenmaier, Hellmuth and Cajelais — and even after Day 3, entering the 6-Handed final table with the biggest stack.

France’s Yorane Kerignard was the only other player sitting behind a stack of more than 1 million, with Finland’s Sampo Ryynanen in a nifty third position. The table was completed by birthday boy and WPT Venice champion Alessio Isaia, Taiwan’s Hui Chen Kuo — the last woman to reach a WPT Final table since Cecilia Pesaglini placed second in this event last year — and Malta’s Zeljko Krizan, who had knocked out both Phil Hellmuth and Tony G in his first ever WPT event.

Within the first level, two players lost their stacks: Ryyanen was the first to bust out, bested by Genovesi’s full house, and followed by Krizan, dominated by Isaia’s pocket threes.

Then, Kerignard ousted Kuo fourth, and after a three-hand-

// EMOP IV Barcelona

Russia’s Sergei Petrushin bests a 455 field Russian player Sergei Petrushin overcame a field of 455 participants during the fourth leg of the European Masters of Poker, a €1,100 Main Event, which was held at Gran Casino, Barcelona, from September 13-16. Petrushin bested Spaniard Joseph Lopez after a two hour heads-up (the two players made a deal leaving €10,000 extra for the winner), and he cashed in €56,875 for his victory.

On the final hand, Petrushin raised 200,000 preflop, and Lopez reraised all in. The Russian called and turned over K-Q, while Lopez had A-8 and the board fell K-3-3-42 giving Petrushin a pair of Kings and the title.

The EMOP is now on the starting blocks for the fifth and final stop of this fourth season at Clontarf Castle, Dublin, from November 16-18. The Main Event buy-in 16 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

WPT MALTA €3,300 Main Event

List of Winners 1st Yorane Kerignard 2nd Jackson Genovesi 3rd Alessio Isaia 4th Hui Chen-Kuo 5th Zeljko Krizan 6th Sampo Ryynanen

$120,000 $82,370 $52,600 $39,200 $29,300 $23,300

ed play that last for four long hours, the Heads-Up between Kerignard and Genovesi began after the elimination of Alessio Isaia. It took only one level for Yorane Kerignard to overturn a 630,000-chip deficit and snatch victory.

On the final hand, Kerignard called Genovesi’s all in while holding just Ace-3 on a 10-4-2 flop, while Genovesi had 10-9 for top pair. The 3 of the turn improved Kerignard’s options and then the Ace on the river gave him victory.

Genovesi broke down in tears after this cruel turn of events, and stormed away from the tournament area. Kerignard went to hug him before receiving the WPT winner’s trophy and first prize of €120,000. The French player wrote a new entry in a very impressive list of tournaments results, as his fourth place in EPT Deauville 2012 Main Event for €260,000, a sixth place in EPT San Remo 2011 Main Event and other cashes in major international tournaments. is set to €1,000 + €100, for a 20,000 starting stack with levels of 45 — for the first 6 — and 60 minutes, and 4 side events from €120 to €350 are scheduled for this final series. More information about online satellites at www.europeanmastersofpoker.com.

EMOP IV Barcelona e1,100 Main Event

List of Winners 1st Sergei Petrushin 2nd Joseph Lopez 3rd Joakim Rahmouni 4th Yosef Lammosh 5th Damien Collins 6th Marc Gonzalez 7th Adrian Nunez 8th Alexander Scherdin

$56,875 $48,405 $25,750 $15,680 $12,320 $9,520 $8,400 $7,280

news // XXI Master Classics of Poker Amsterdam

The Dutch tradition For its 21st edition, from November 3-10, the famous Master Classics of Poker will offer another great schedule of events.

The MCOP is a series of poker tournaments held each November at the Holland Casino in Amsterdam, and it is one of the oldest European poker festivals, known for being player-friendly and adored by the citizens of Amsterdam.

Last year, the €5,250 Main Event attracted 294 players, generating a €1,470,000 prize pool, the lion’s share of which found its way into Danyel Boyaciyan’s bank account as the Dutchman bested Finland’s Jussi Nevanlinna on heads-up for €382,200. This year again, a huge crowd of players will participate in this €5,250 four-day tournament, from November 7-10, but the Main Event won’t be the only highlight of this Dutch series, as several stunning side events will also be occurring at the Holland Casino’s tables during the week.

Indeed, a 3-day €1,590 NLHE event will run November 3-5, while a 2-day €220 PLO Unlimited Rebuys + Add-on will be held on November 4 and 5. Then, a 2-day €880 Bounty tournament will follow on the 5 and 6, as well as the 2-day €10,250 High Roller event (on November 6 and 7) (won last year by Scott Baumstein, for €129,500). Finally, a €1,080 Speed event, and a 2-day €825 event will close the series, while the Main Event finalists will be vying for the title.

These XXI Masters Classics of Poker are the perfect occasion to visit beautiful Amsterdam and play some great poker!

Schedule November 3 • €1,500 + €90 NLHE Freeze-out (3-day tournament) November 4 • €200 + €30 Pot Limit Omaha (2-day tournament) November 5 • €800 + €80 NLHE Bounty (2-day tournament) November 6 • €250 + €50 Satellite to Main Event

• €10,000 + €250 NLHE High Roller (2-day tournament) November 7 • €5,000 + €250 NLHE Main Event (4-day tournament) November 8 • €1,000 + €80 NLHE Speed November 9 • €750 + €75 NLHE (2-day tournament) November 10 • €300 + €30 NLHE Speed

18 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

// ISPT

The big names are waiting for Wembley 2013 The International Stadiums Poker Tour, which will be launched on May 31 and will run through June 6, 2013 at Wembley, is the first tournament combining online and live poker, and with its €600 buy-in, it is fully expecting 30,000 participants, and an estimated prize pool of €20,000,000. In order to represent and support the grand opening of the biggest tournament in live poker history, ISPT hooked up with some of the biggest names in poker.

Michael Mizrachi was the first to publicize this collaboration, as the “Grinder” wore ISPT T-shirts during the World Series of Poker Europe 2012. The American player announced on his twitter account that he had become an “official ambassador” of one of the biggest events ever organized: “it’s a wonderful idea and I want to be in on this project,” Mizrachi said. He was then joined

by British superstar Sam Trickett, fourth-biggest live-tournament winner in history, with gains in excess of $16,471,099, and one of England’s most famous poker players, who soberly declared: “As a poker player, I have to be associated with an enormous event.

Being part of this event means being part of the history of poker”.

These two poker celebrities were not enough for Laurent Tapie and Prosper Masquelier, ISPT cofounders, and a few days later American player Liz Lieu, more famous in the US than in Europe, joined the Ambassadors team as well: “My role will be to act as an ambassador of the tournament and share my opinion on this event,” declared Lieu, “I not only want players to know about the historic nature of the event, I want them to see that it’s going to be a tremendous amount of fun”. Then, during Cannes poker festivals, it was French player David Benyamine’s turn to reveal his partnership with the new huge circuit. The French pro participated in a promotional video, alongside fellow pros Mizrachi and Trickett in front of the Majestic Hotel in Cannes, after winning the Aviation Club de France’s €5,000 Omaha Cup for €94,050 a few days before, in celebration of this new collaboration. Last but not least, Patrik Antonius associated himself with the event, wearing ISPT colors during Cannes tournaments.

The list is far from complete, and other poker celebrities will soon appear as ambassadors of the event. We are not done hearing about the ISPT!

// app

Poker Analytics, the all-round tracker Poker Analytics is a completely new style of poker companion. It is the ultimate tracker for every single game you play. Track all your sessions, live or online, cash or tournament in one single app. Now you can analyze all your games. Poker Analytics provides a powerful reporting engine to crunch and organise your data a totally innovative manner. Filter and compare your stats on our beautiful charts and tables to pinpoint all your strengths and weaknesses. It couldn’t be simpler. Poker Analytics was built from scratch by a team headed by two seasoned players and developers, the focus being on usability. To be downloaded on your favorite AppStore !

TRACKING. Record your results quickly and easily.

Track all aspects of the game, using standard parameters and create custom parameters, to gain a detailed picture of each session you play. Use favorites or lastgame settings for faster tracking.

STATISTICS. All your key stats in your pocket. Wherever you are - sitting on a train or at the doctor’s - you know how you’re running. Choose what you see using our bespoke filter system. Find out if you are a winner

playing long sessions, or what your best performance was when playing cash games at the WSOP. CHARTS. Your data deserves beautiful graphics, so using our own algorithms we’ve built variety of charts for you. Follow the evolution of your statistics over time, in order to see what the current trend is and take action from it. Work on different play styles to accumulate and compare data, in order to know how, where and when you are most profitable... You will also be able to find your weaknesses and thus avoid them. Build your own reports. Select statistics, filters and comparative metrics to visualize your figures in charts and tables.

BANKROLL. Manage all your bankrolls in one place.

Monitor the history of all your operations: deposits, cash-outs and more. You will finally be able to tell how much you’ve deposited since you first played, and how much you’ve cashed-out.

CUSTOM PARAMETERS. Any piece aspect of your game can be tracked. With custom parameters, record the elements of the game that really matter to you and help your game improve. Use custom reports to make comparative charts based on these parameters : your physical and emotional shape, the quality of your game, your stamina, table levels, etc.

// online

Isaac ‘philivey2694’ Haxton Joins Team Pokerstars Online ing a team and a brand. That brings new opportunities and new responsibilities.

Haxton first made his name when he finished second in the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event, winning $861,789. Since then he has continued to be successful in live tournaments, finishing runner-up in e550$40,000 MainNL Event the WSOP Hold’em event in 2009 to pocket $1,168.565 and third in the $25,000 High Roller tourney at the 2012 PCA for $380,730. He now has over $4 million in live winnings to his name.

Haxton has also appeared on the PokerStars Big Game TV show, playing against the likes of fellow Team PokerStars players Jason Mercier, Barry Greenstein and 13-time WSOP winner Phil Hellmuth.

PokerStars.com is the world’s most popular online poker site, with more than 50 million registered members since it launched in 2001. More hands have been dealt on PokerStars.com than any other site; that’s over 85 billion hands and more than 590 million tournaments played.

List of Winners

One of the poker world’s smartest, most successful and fearless young talents,Isaac ‘philivey2694’ Haxton has joined PokerStars as the latest member of Team Online.

Commenting on the deal and what he’s most looking forward to about being a Team Online member, Haxton said: “I’m excited for the new opportunities this partnership brings. I’m not just playing for myself now – I’m represent-

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C H R O N I c l E k a r a s co t t

kara scott

Life before Poker – part 1 The last five years I’ve spent on the road for my job have been incredible. For a small-town girl from Northern Canada, being able to go to exotic locations and experience cultures that only ever seemed to exist in books, has been a treat of epic proportions.

I’m a very lucky person and believe me, I know it.

Poker has given me a lot and although (like many players) I sometimes have a love/hate relationship with this often frustrating game, I can’t help but think how unrecognizably different my life would look right now if I’d never discovered it.

Poker and TV definitely weren’t things that I grew up wanting to do. When I was a little girl, I never really had dreams of being a ballerina (way too clumsy) or a mom or a nurse, or any other of the stereotypical “girl” roles that were the norm in our town. If anything, I wanted to grow up to be Jackie Chan. Unlikely.

My parents and my upbringing had instilled a deep sense of social responsibility in me, so my fondest dreams had me working towards women’s rights in developing nations through providing more access to education. Non-profit work, but with the added twist of being a kung-fu fighting superhero.

I wanted to be like Buffy. Only instead of vampires, I’d be kicking the ass of illiteracy.

I ended up getting two university degrees. The first was in Linguistics. I took a full degree in this area because it was the most fun I’d had in a long time and I’d developed an intellectual crush on the father of modern linguistics, Noam Chomsky. Yes, I was just that cool.

The other one was a very practical teaching degree. I never really had any great desire to be a high school teacher in Canada but a teaching degree seemed like a nice, safe option. It was insurance. It meant that I’d always have a job and some security. Even in my late teens, I knew these things were important. I was an eminently sensible and serious person. Plan for the future. Always have a backup plan. Cautiousness and prudence. These were my watchwords.

My desire to “give back” was being assuaged by volunteering at a literacy project and helping run a soup kitchen on the weekends. I have no doubt that I was one of those truly annoying, painfully earnest people with a cause. I was No Fun. And yet...

And yet somewhere deep inside I also knew that a teaching degree meant that I would be able to travel the world. It was just my backup plan but somehow it still held the seeds of adventure.

And so the first thing I did after graduation was look into the teaching jobs listed for far away places. I narrowed them down to two choices.

The first one was in a Dogrib settlement in the North West Territories, a place that was only accessible by snowmobile in the deepest parts of the winter. Their language was in danger of being lost because of assimilation, so I could also use my linguistics degree to work alongside the local people to help them preserve their oral history. This held huge appeal to me, but let’s be honest. It was going to be ridiculously cold. I’d grown up in the North so I was used to -50C weather (as much as anyone actually gets used to it) but I didn’t love the prospect of being frozen most of the year.

The other choice was to move to England as a Supply Teacher (this is what they call substitute teachers) and just hope I’d actually find work once I got there. I’d never been out of the country before, let alone overseas. I was still very young because I’d managed to plow through both of my degrees in the time it usually takes to earn one. With all of that studying, I hadn’t had anything even resembling a social life, so as a result I was also unbelievably shy and vaguely anxious about everything. I didn’t know anyone in England, had no idea where I would live and my entire knowledge of the place was based on what I’d seen on the British soap opera, Coronation Street. I was hardly a worldly jetsetter. It was a ridiculous option, really.

So that’s what I did.

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Phil galfond

Viktor Blom

The Man, The Myth, The Legend

C H R O N I c l E p hi l g a l f on d

If you play or follow online poker, merely seeing the name “Isildur1” evokes a strong emotional response. He first became known for having (far and away) the most epic rise and fall in online poker history. Let’s start there.

F

rom what I assume was a relatively small deposit onto Full Tilt, Isildur1 quickly amassed six million dollars, playing the best of the best at the highest stakes available. Much of this money was made playing $300/600 and $500/1000 HUNL against none other than Tom Dwan.

Isildur1 went on to challenge himself in ways never before seen in online poker. Seared in my memor y is the image of him nine-tabling $500/1000 against Dwan, Ivey, and Antonius all at the same time. Isil swung up and down, creating some amazing action for the railbirds. It was the first time in my life I felt like a fan watching the big online games. I couldn’t wait to grab a front row seat and watch the show.

He focused on HU NLHE but once he built up the bankroll, he started taking on opponents at PLO, a game he wasn’t familiar with. Unfortunately for the railbirds, Isildur1 (whose identity was still a mystery) and his bankroll came crashing down, mostly in one long PLO session against Brian Hastings, one of the strongest PLO players around.

Over the coming year, Isil ran bankrolls up and down again, creating more action in the high stakes online games than anyone before or since. The largest winning day in my career occurred HU vs. him, at the $300/600 and $500/1000 PLO tables. After what felt like a full daylong battle, I walked away with over $1.6 million.

Fast forward to the end of 2010, when Pokerstars announced the signing of Isildur1 and promised to reveal his identity. Not long after, we all knew the name Viktor Blom, and saw the avatar of a young, handsome Swede whose stare was almost as intimidating as his game. ince then, I’ve played more hands with Viktor than I have with any other player over the full length of my career (6-8 tabling HU adds up pretty quickly).

How Good Is He?

Given that Viktor is the most talked-about player in online poker, I frequently get asked about him. For all of those who don’t compete at his stakes, who watch his incredibly aggressive play style and his swings to match, it’s very hard to tell actually how good a player Viktor actually is. I think I’m as qualified as any to shed some light on this for you.

When I first played PLO against Viktor back on FTP, he was bad. Now, he wasn’t a bad poker player. He was already world-class at NLHE, but he had just started playing a game that was completely different, and had jumped in to the highest stakes possible. He overvalued weak pair+draw type hands, weak two pair, and all the other hands the typical NL convert misplays. I

was able to play a relatively tight style, and get a lot of money in with my dominating hands and draws.

Even while he was making so many mistakes, many signs of his poker intelligence shone through. It’s hard to explain specifically what I mean; you’ll just have to trust me. I could tell I was playing with an incredibly smart person.

Black Friday hit, so I went many months without playing online poker, and consequently, many months without playing Viktor.

At the end of last year, once Viktor and I started playing on Stars, I was shocked by how far his PLO game had progressed over such a short period of time. Not only had he corrected most of the leaks I’d seen earlier, but he was playing a style that was new to me, and forced me to think very hard about my own game. Because of that, I’ve learned and improved a large amount just from playing with him. I still felt I had a decent edge, and that his game wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t expect that to last long.

It turns out I was right.

By early 2012, Viktor had not only become very good at PLO — he’d become the toughest opponent I’ve ever played against.

Now he’s one of three opponents I play with but genuinely have no clue whether I have an edge or not. I’m going to keep the other two to myself, sorry.

The Man

This summer in Las Vegas, I finally got the chance to meet Viktor. We’d exchanged numbers and talked a little bit via text, but that was the extent of it. Though the first time we met was in the poker room, I had the chance to hang out with him a few times over the course of the series.

The first thing that stood out to me was how tall he was. The second was the image in my head of Isildur1 (the intimidating, aggressive, scary dude) being shattered to pieces. Viktor emanates happiness and kindness from the moment you meet him.

He’s one of those guys you can instantly tell is a truly nice and genuine good person. His happygo-lucky demeanor makes it very hard not to smile when you see him, and he seems to go through life just having fun.

After hanging out only a few times, both me and my friend were bummed that he couldn’t move back with us to Vancouver. I feel like he’d definitely be one of my best friends in poker if we had the opportunity.

During the time we spent together, I got to learn more about his thought process and his approach to the game. Some fun facts: Viktor doesn’t use any kind of poker database or HUD, and he doesn’t watch any training videos. In fact, he hasn’t used any of the

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C H R O N I c l E p hi l g a l f on d

Phil galfond

resources that almost all full-time online pros have.

The main thing that came across to me was Viktor’s pure love for the game. My impression from talking to him was that he genuinely doesn’t care about the money. I know some people say they don’t care… but they care. I’m not sure Viktor does. He plays poker because he has fun playing and he enjoys the competition.

If you could have heard him describe playing the $50k 8-game WSOP event, which included six games he didn’t know how to play, you’d understand what I mean. He was so excited to be playing in such a huge event and to attempt to learn the games on the fly.

He looked like a kid in an arcade whose Dad had just given him $500 worth of quarters.

I’m extremely jealous of the amount of fun he has playing poker, and I’m someone who loves the game more than most.

My friend played in a 3-handed $100/$200 PLO game with Viktor this summer and told me a funny story about a hand from that night. Viktor was facing a large river bet in a medium sized pot, and instantly folded. As the dealer started to pass the chips the other way, Viktor looked confused and reached for his mucked hand. After taking a look at it, un-phased, he said, “I don’t know why I always do that.”

He had folded a full house without noticing when the board paired on the river. Not surprisingly, given the insane speed at which he plays online, this wasn’t the first time it’d happened.

Viktor explained to me over dinner one night that he likes to make his decisions instantly so that he doesn’t question his first instinct. Apparently, folding the nuts every once in a while is a price he has to pay.

Most of us would be upset at misreading a hand. If you’re a pro, it’s not impossible to deal with the swings of poker because they’re out of your control. If you misplay a hand horribly (like accidentally folding a monster), that’s both financially and emotionally

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damaging, at least for me and most of the players I know — but not for Viktor.

Why? Because what you’re doing with a fold like that is simply throwing away money, and as Viktor says (more believably than all the other players who try to say it), “It’s just money.”

Strengths and Weaknesses

Viktor’s passion for the game is his biggest strength as a player. He told me he likes to play most with whomever he thinks is the best in the world. I guess if you’re going to challenge yourself, you might as well REALLY challenge yourself.

I’ve said this before, but playing against tough players is one of the greatest ways to improve. I’m sure that Viktor learns from each opponent he plays against, and it explains how quickly his game has progressed, especially without using any of the tools that most pros use.

When you start thinking about the money involved, it inhibits your ability to play your best. People who approach poker purely as a job, for the financial reasons, will have a very hard time becoming the best of the best (though they may make plenty of money). To actually be great, you need to love the game. You need to have fun playing. Viktor has this covered and then some.

His passion is also his greatest weakness. Since he doesn’t care about the money he’s not careful about the games he plays in. If I were just talking about the opponents he chooses, that would be one thing. Playing only in tough games of course makes your variance and risk of ruin skyrocket, not to mention that he may be an underdog to some players.

More than that though, I’m talking about the actual variant of poker he’s playing. He lost most of his first $6mill roll playing PLO before he really knew how to. Just this month, he’s been playing the highest stakes available of Omaha 8 or Better and 2-7 Triple Draw. These are both games that he played for the first time this summer, and he’s taking on the specialists

at the highest stakes. It’s almost a lock that he’s an underdog in these games, and a favorite to go broke in them, but he probably knows that already. He’s probably just having too much fun.

Viktor still has some work to do on his 6-max PLO game, too. He’s very good postflop, but his love of playing big pots causes him to put in way too much money preflop with some marginal hands (my opinion). In a 6-handed game, someone is much more likely to have a good hand to punish his looseness.

Also, many weak hands can play okay in HU pots, but not when the action is multi-way.

On top of this, Viktor definitely has a C game that he hits often after losing a large amount. When tilting in a 6-max game (or even a HU game), I think his results get hurt quite a bit. They’d benefit a great deal from Viktor employing a stop-loss strategy.

If you’re wondering why I’m posting this publicly, potentially helping one of my most frequent opponents improve, I’ve told Viktor personally all this before, and they were things he already knew. I’ve told him I’m happy to be honest with him about what I think is good and bad in his game. In fact, we both talked very openly about the ways we’ve adjusted to each other over the series of HU matches we’ve played.

He impresses me on every level — not only his game, but his competitive drive, his love of poker, and his refreshingly happy disposition. Frankly, I’m a legit Viktor Blom fan. You just have to respect someone who has his money from poker but plays the toughest games and highest stakes available for fun.

So what does Viktor’s poker future look like? With his talent, fearlessness, and pure enjoyment of the game, are we witnessing the beginning of one of the top poker legends of our time?

Personally, I believe that Viktor has the ability to be the best in whatever form of poker he focuses on (certainly any big bet game), but he needs to work on his discipline if he wants to have sustained and major success.

So that’s the question. Can he plug some of the leaks that could keep him from rising to the top and staying there? Can he avoid games he’s not familiar with until he’s practiced at lower stakes? Can he tighten up his 6-max PLO game? Can he exercise some bankroll management and not consistently put his whole roll on the line?

The answer: Sure, he can… but it doesn’t sound very fun.

The Legend

The majority of my high stakes opponents have put more work into their games away from the tables than I have (which is still more than Viktor). For whatever reason, studying poker in that way doesn’t interest me. The reason I’m still able to compete with them is that I’m lucky enough to have some natural skills that make up the difference. Call it what you’d like: intangibles, raw poker talent, poker IQ… whatever it is, I’m very lucky that poker comes more easily to me than it does to others.

In my opinion, Viktor Blom clearly has more raw poker talent than I do.

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event Tournament

A BIG EVENT

The GPI European Poker Awards A Guaranteed Success

The twelfth edition of the European Poker Awards has merged with Alexandre Dreyfus’s GPI (Global Poker Index), and is now called the GPI European Poker Awards. Europe has never before seen the likes of a ceremony such as this one, and its attendant event, which will reward the year’s top poker performers, as well as some of the poker world’s most remarkable people.

T

This ceremony, which was created in 2000, will now be jointly presented by the GPI, the Aviation Club de France, and the magazine Poker52 Europa. The GPI European Poker Awards have become an event no one in the poker world will want to miss The prize-giving ceremony will take place on January 23, 2012, during the Euro Finals of Poker, at the Aviation Club de France, with a jury of professional poker players and hardcore fans. After the ceremony, there will be a sumptuous dinner in one of Paris’s most beautiful spots: the

By Antoine Salvi Élysées Biarritz, a stone’s throw from the Champs-Élysées.

All of the nominees are chosen by the nomination panel, a group of industry experts and the GPI 300. Readers of Poker52 and Poker52 Europa are invited to vote on the following official sites: http://globalpokerindex.com/awards, and europeanpokerawards.com.

The GPI European Poker Award for player of the year is the only prize to be automatically given to the player with the highest GPI Europe ranking.

The 2012 GPI European Poker Award categories are as follows: • Player of the year • Best tournament performance • Rookie of the year • Europe leading lady • Poker staff person of the year

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• Internet player of the year • Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Personality of the year • Best european event of the year • Lifetime achievement Award

Winners of the 2011 edition • The Rob Gardner Memorial Award for the Personality of the year was awarded to ElkY by Bruno Benveniste.

• The Poker staff person of the year was awarded to Warren Lush (represented by his PartyPoker colleague, Hermance Blum), by Juha Helppi.

• The Best 2011 European event of the year was awarded to the entire WSOP-Europe team, by Liv Boeree.

• Rookie of the year was awarded to Russian Andrey Pateychuk, by Victoria Coren.

• Best tournament performance was awarded to Pius Heinz, who won the 2011 Main Event WSOP

• Internet player of the year was awarded to Ilari Sahamies (who spoke on the phone, live), by Mike Michelin of

PokerStrategy

• Europe’s leading lady was awarded to Natalia Nikitina,

by Alexis Laipsker.

• The prestigious Player of the year award was given to Sam Trickett, presented by the ever-charming Kara Scott.

• The Lifetime achievement Award was given to Jesse May,

who was very moved to have been rewarded for a lifetime given over to poker.

poker business

Alexandre Dreyfus

The future of poker

For the past several years, Alexandre Dreyfus has been very busy in the poker world.

This indefatigable entrepreneur, whose head is always overflowing with good ideas, has recently acquired the GPI, and will soon be co-organizing the GPI European Poker Awards. We caught up with him recently, for a chat.

Par J茅r么me Schmidt 28 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

A few weeks ago you acquired the Global Poker Index. Could you tell us about it?

The GPI ranks the top tournament poker players in the world. We have a database with over 215,000 players and 60,000 events. The players’ rankings are updated weekly according to their performances and ITMs during the course of the three previous years. This allows us to define who is world number one, much like the ATP in tennis, or golf’s PGA. The Global Poker Index also establishes a Player of the Year ranking, which allows us to elect the best player over the last full calendar year. Comparing the two rankings, we can see who are the overall best players, and who is playing best at the moment. The GPI also uses these two rankings in order to establish national rankings in over 20 countries or continents.

How is your ranking system different from others?

We work directly with the Hendon Mob, who gives us their data, and the results from all the tournaments. Their ranking is not a real ranking; it just takes into account how much money the players have made. So it’s a perfect complement to the GPI ranking. For me, the Hendon Mob’s database is for live poker, whereas GPI takes into account the players’ rankings. The ranking system used

by Bluff or CardPlayer for example, are similar, but not as sophisticated as the GPI one, and they also only take into account American and international players — with no national rankings.

The GPI ranking method is recognized by the poker community as the most fair and complete possible.

W hat plans do you have for growth?

We are currently looking at several different options. We can already say that we are going to lower the buy-in minimum in Qualifying Events, to $1,000, in order to take all WSOP events into account, or certain European events, starting January 1, 2013. We are also going to have a Player of the Month feature, thanks to which readers will be able to follow players on a monthly basis and therefore have an idea as to who might be crowned Player of the Year. We are launching GPI Awards in Europe and in the US; we also have other projects on an international level, in order to promote poker as a sport.

I bought the GPI because I felt that poker was suffering worldwide, and needed a breath of fresh air The EPA, which have existed for 12 years, are now becoming the GPI European Poker Awards, which you are co-organizing.

How important is such an event in the world of poker?

EPA’s teams have been doing great work for the past dozen years, and GPI wanted to make itself known as a label, an authority on live poker. We would like to create our own GPI Awards, but with the historic relationship we have with Bruno Fitoussi and the ACF, we felt it would be more pertinent to pool our efforts and make the GPI European Poker Awards Europe’s one and only such event.

Why are rankings so important in the world of poker?

I bought the GPI because I felt that poker was suffering worldwide, and needed a breath of fresh air. We need to compare poker to a sport, and in order to do this we needed an authority to establish player rankings, independently of one media outlet (such as Bluff and CardPlayer). I have a lot of ambition for the GPI and its ancillary projects. We will be airing very interesting ads about this project in January, but the goal is simply to develop poker worldwide. Poker has now come to a place in which it is essential to be able to designate its leading players, by basing oneself on facts and not only on braggadocio, in the goal of reaching a wider audience. So while popularizing poker, GPI also has a fair approach to rankings, which has been recognized by great players such as Daniel Negreanu and Mike McDonald, thanks to which we are able to know who the best tournament players in the world are, and why.

How did you start out in poker?

I’ll tell you the truth: I began with the Internet, I wasn’t a player at all. I have

been an Internet entrepreneur since I was 18 (1995). I created several businesses during this period, and online gaming became the next step for me, in 2003. So I cofounded Winamax with two friends in 2004 in London, and then, for personal reasons, I went to live in Malta, where I launched Chiligaming/Chilipoker. So I fell into it almost by chance, but I discovered an environment that I adore.

Now that you look back on your ChiliPoker years, what do you see?

I learned a lot about business. It lasted six years, and ended on a happy note, since I ended up selling it to Bally Technologies (the world’s number two slot-machine makers, based in Las Vegas), in April of this year. I travel a lot between the US and Malta. I lived for 29 years in France, without having business holdings on an international level. Today, I couldn’t conceive of making a website, or having a project which wouldn’t be international.

That is what I intend to do in January… but mum’s the word.

What is the professional poker achievement of which you are proudest?

As a player? Nothing (laughter). As an entrepreneur, there are many things I am proud of. Having sparked Winamax, Chilipoker, the WPT Marrakech, the DeepSt ackOpen, and Chiliconnect i nto e x i ste nce. P roud to s upp or t iGamingFrance, MadeInPoker, etcetera, and more recently the fact that I have become involved in the American poker industry, where my personal projects and my relationship with Bally have allowed me to meet and work with the biggest casinos in the country, as well as the regulators. In a word, I am proud to have had the chance to do what I want, and to share this pleasure with my colleagues and friends.

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rencontre

Phil Hellmuth

Outstanding Champion

Through his phenomenal consistency and his game — which he has seriously revamped these past few years — Phil Hellmuth has made history yet again, winning his thirteenth WSOP bracelet at the WSOPE Main Event in Cannes. After having been on the receiving end of a lot of grief, he has made four ITM out of six WSOPE tourneys, including two smooth twelfth-place finishes and one victory. His newfound humility seems to have made the “Poker Brat” more unbeatable than ever. A few hours after winning his thirteenth title — and what a title! — Phil Hellmuth granted us an exclusive interview in order to discuss his historic victory, during a final that he dominated from beginning to end, in spectacular fashion.

By Jérôme Schmidt / Pictures: Yann Stofer & Jules Pochy Your victory during the final of the WSOPE Main Event seemed almost preordained. How do you explain the sense of absolute ease you gave off during the final table?

I was exhausted after the 2012 World Series in Las Vegas, and needed a change of venue before heading back on the circuit. I played at Malta for the WPT, since it’s a stop and a town I really like. But I was totally motivated for the WSOPE. The proof is that I made four ITMs in a row… There’s a lot of love between me and the World Series, and winning this thirteenth title means a lot to me, since I set the record. During the final table I was extremely concentrated, and had no doubt that I would win. I chose to play a lot of pots, to play “crazy,” but in the end, I was never all-in during the tournament… I may have been “putting

on a show,” but I had a definite game plan, and my most difficult opponent was Serguei. He is very difficult to read; he is unpredictable, uncontrollable. Contrary to what happened on TV, he wasn’t tilting me but it was easy to put on a show with him.

How has your game evolved of late?

For two years I played mixed games in order to perfect my NLHE game, thanks to which I was able to regulate my game and my strategies.

Recently I’ve been talking a lot with Brandon Cantu, in order to examine our way of playing 9-handed and 6-handed, as well as for shootouts.

I can’t remember the last time I had such constructive discussions about poker strategy. The doubts and criticism leveled at me by my detractors gave me a lot of motivation these last

few years, and since 2011 my hunger for victory has never been stronger. I love competing, and if someone tells me something is impossible, it makes me more determined than ever to prove him wrong. My goal is to win…

24 bracelets! (laughter) Winning at poker may be a question of luck — but it’s not only luck: you have to adjust to different strategies, prepare counterattacks, etcetera.

How did becoming the youngest world champion ever in 1999 change your life?

The first thing I did was to buy a beautiful condo in Madison, Wisconsin, facing the water, with a duck pond! I paid cash upfront; I couldn’t believe it… Then I bought a Cadillac, like a true American conservative! (laughter) A couple months later, I got into Porsches… In the beginning

POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

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interview I became pretty famous, but it was nothing compared to what’s going on now, with TV and Internet…

You didn’t blow it all in a few weeks?

I blew a lot of it, that’s for sure! (laughter) Luckily enough I made sure to buy stuff that lasts, and I set aside $150,000 for my taxes. In April of 1990, when I had to pay the government, I didn’t end of completely broke, but I only had $20,000 in cash, plus the apartment and the car. But for a 24-year-old kid, I think I was pretty reasonable. At least I didn’t go into debt.

Is that your most meaningful victory to date?

It was extraordinary. My father, who was against me playing poker professionally, came to cheer me on during the final table, to show that he believed in me. It was the first time he had come to see me play, and I won the Main Event! I have a very clear memory of the last hand: I raised my arms in the air, everything seemed to be happening in slow motion, I made a fist, turned around, my father was running toward me, security stopped him, but I yelled at them to let him through, and we ended up in a bear hug. The next day, I bought him a Mercedes, and since then my being a poker player stopped being a problem! (laughter) Who were your heroes when you were starting out?

I worshipped a guy named Jack Keller, who was world champion in 1984, an ex US Navy pilot who brought his wife along to every tournament. He also won two SuperBowl of Poker titles. He was very good at Limit Hold’Em, tournament and cash-game as well. He was an example for me, just like my dad, who also managed to keep a good relationship going with his wife. He has always been the exact opposite of the “Poker Brat!” (laughter) 32 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

When did you play your first hand of poker?

Probably when I was 20: there was a game at my college in Wisconsin. I lost the first two times, borrowed $100, lost that, left my drivers license as security for $100, then on my third try I won $500. I worked for two months in the fields, picking up rocks, in order to finance my nighttime poker playing.

I began to think, drink, eat and sleep poker. Then I began to win a lot. I turned up at an enormous poker game in Madison, Wisconsin and played

against the doctors and lawyers of the town. I literally took them to the cleaners. When I turned 21, as soon as I could I drove out to Vegas, and paid some serious dues — by losing nonstop.

After my ninth trip, I finally started to win. At the time the best players from little towns across America would go to Vegas to take each other on. Internet didn’t exist, so you had to go to Vegas to improve your game. After ten trips, I was on my way…

During the 2011 WSOP you had several near misses as regards

earning a new bracelet. How did it feel to be the runner-up all those times?

The hardest thing was coming in second at the Deuce-to-seven game. I had already found myself in the same situation in the same tournament, in 1993, against Billy Baxter. We were à tapis, and Baxter was looking for a card to beat my “pat 10”, he got a miracle card and managed to come back and take the title. I did so many final tables afterward, but nobody knows this because if you didn’t pay to be

The doubts and criticism leveled at me by my detractors gave me a lot of motivation these last few years, and since 2011 my hunger for victory has never been stronger.

I love competing POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

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interview

there, it’s not taken into account.

One time also, all-in with three other players, I played all my cards, except a single 2, and my opponent hits it Huck Seed, who was in the same situation as me, beat me on an incredible draw. This year, when John Juanda came back to beat me, I was worn-out, exhausted, just devas-

tated. That bracelet was within reach, but it got away from me… I went to the Aria Hotel, and made a beeline for the bar, in order to drink Scotch.

After some incredible alcohol-fueled nightmares, I went straight to a big table and won $30,000. For the next three days I replayed the game in my head: should I have paid? Should I

have raise? And what if I had gotten another card? My second place finish in the Stud-8 wasn’t so hard, even though I was chip leader for a long time. When there were only seven players remaining, I didn’t think I would survive. Then, when there were only three, I lost a scooped pot, and that really hurt, but I wasn’t as

This year, when John Juanda came back to beat me, I was worn-out, exhausted, just devastated. That bracelet was within reach, but it got away from me 34 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

comfortable as with the Deuce-toseven event. My third second-place finish was very hard to take, even if I didn’t play the best heads-up possible during the Hold’Em. Yet, I lost un pot à tapis where I was 84% ahead, and also, I would have won the most beautiful tournament in the world!

Strangely enough, it was a lack of experience in Hold’Em that did me in, because these past few years I had

gotten slack on this kind of game.

The thing that was very positive was that 99% of the people watching were rooting for me, because I hadn’t misbehaved after my last losses. For the first time in my life, people were rooting for me — what an incredible feeling. When I busted second, I tried to keep cool, to shake everybody’s hand, to do interviews… But I still ended up at the bar afterward…

Did you think that people would ever like you this much?

Last year, during dinner breaks, everything was so slow that I would leave for two and a half hours; I’d drink alcohol and come back in pretty bad shape. This year, I was so concentrated that I would go back to my room at the Aria with my wife; I’d eat quickly and then have a nap.

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interview Event, in which I quickly became chip leader. I ended up facing Johnny Chan, and tried to bluff him. He called me and I busted 33rd. At that moment, I knew that my one goal in life was to win the Main Event. And I did it the following year. All my dreams came true thanks to that incredible moment back in 1989…

Where do you prefer to play poker?

The new poker room in the Aria casino in Las Vegas is fabulous: the service is great, with maximum comfort and very nice games, including open-face Chinese poker, a kind of game that allows you to relax and take a break from the more complicated games. It is a really modern, luxurious casino, and they take good care of their clientele. Otherwise, I still love to drink a cognac and play at the legendary Aviation Club de France, or at Malta, which is a really gorgeous island.

I was so determined… Even after I was eliminated, I was constantly thinking about strategy, not about how unhappy I was. After my second second-place finish, people came see me. “You were on your best behavior, Phil, that’s fantastic!” And I was surprised: “Really?” I couldn’t tell the difference. Everybody kept telling me that they were truly rooting for me…

I understood that it was time for me

to grow up, and that even if I was disgusted with myself, I needed to have self-control. The 8-game $50,000 tournament was such a dream come true; it was an incredible feeling.

Is the WSOP the poker Mecca?

I went for the first time in 1998, and placed fifth in a Stud 8-or-better tournament. Then I played my first Main

What are your plans for the coming weeks?

I’m leaving Cannes today to go to Los Angeles and organize a charity tournament with my friend Eva Longoria.

Then I’ll go to Chicago, and then New York with Tiger Woods. I do a lot of media events in the States, it takes my mind off of stuff, even if it is very tiring.

My next big tournament will be in January, in China, which in my opinion is where the future of poker lies.

Everybody kept telling me that they were truly rooting for me… I understood that it was time for me to grow up, and that even if I was disgusted with myself, I needed to have self-control 36 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

Prize list

5 march 2003

2012

Tournament

Result

29 sept.

1st jully

WSOP $ 1,000,000 The Big One for One Drop (Event #55) 43rd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2012, Las Vegas

4

16 june

WSOP 10,000 $ H.O.R.S.E. (Event #32) - 43rd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2012, Las Vegas

4

134,056

8 june

WSOP $ 2,500 Seven Card Razz (Event #18) 43rd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2012, Las Vegas

1

182,793

2011 2 jully 2010 8 march 2008

Tournament $ 50,000 The Poker Players Championship - 8 Game 42nd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2011, Las Vegas Tournament $ 9,600 No Limit Hold’em Championship Event Bay 101 Shooting Stars, San Jose Tournament

1

1,333,841

2 Result 6 Result

1,063,034 Earnings 117,000 Earnings

28 juilly

$ 50,000 Week 3 Heads up Challenge Poker After Dark IV, Las Vegas

1

200,000

1st jan.

$ 20,000 Week 1 - « Dream Table » Poker After Dark III, Las Vegas

1

120,000

2007 6 juin 2006

Tournament Tournament $ 1,500 No Limit Hold’em 38th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2007, Las Vegas Tournoi

23 juilly

$ 1,000 No Limit Hold’em 37th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2006, Las Vegas

4 juilly

5,000 $ No Limit Hold’em 37th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2006, Las Vegas

2005

6 nov.

Tournament Tournament of Champions No Limit Hold’em 2005 WSOP Tournament of Champions, Las Vegas

Result 1 Result 1

2 Result

Earnings 637,254 Earnings 631,863

423,893

Earnings

3

281,700

15 may

$ 3,000 No Limit Hold’em 34th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2003, Las Vegas

1

410,860

26 april

$ 2,500 Limit Hold’em 34th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2003, Las Vegas

1

171,400

2,645,333,

Earnings

Result

500,000

$ 10,000 No Limit Hold’em WPT Event 2003 World Poker Finals, Mashantucket

2001

Result

Tournament

1

14 nov.

Earnings

WSOP € 10,000 No Limit Hold’em - Main Event (Event #7) 2012 World Series of Poker Europe, Cannes

Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Las Vegas

Tournament

Result

Earnings

14 may

$ 10,000 Championship Event No Limit Hold’em 32nd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2001, Las Vegas

5

303,705

24 april

$ 2,000 Texas Hold’em (no limit) 32nd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2001, Las Vegas

1

316,550

2000

Tournament

Result

$ 250 Limit 7 Card Stud Poker EM 2000, Baden

5 oct.

1997 6 may 1995

20 dec.

1993 7 may 1992 9 may 1989

15 may

1

Tournament

Result

$ 3,000 Hold’em Pot Limit 28th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 1997, Las Vegas Tournament

1 Result

$ 5,000 Hall of Fame Championship Hall of Fame Poker Classic 1995, Las Vegas Tournament

1

Result

$ 2,500 No Limit Hold’em 24th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 1993, Las Vegas

1 Result

Tournament $ 5,000 Limit Hold’em 23rd World Series of Poker (WSOP) 1992, Las Vegas Tournament

1 Result

$ 10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship 20th World Series of Poker (WSOP) 1989, Las Vegas

1

Earnings 106,250 Earnings 204,000 Earnings

236,000

Earnings 173,000 Earnings 168,000 Earnings

755,000

Earnings Total earnings (career): $ 17,493,271

3

250,000

Total 2012: $ 4,394,823

POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

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DOYLE

as x e “t

”

lly o d

BRUNSON

38 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

THE GODFATHER OF POKER Poker in Las Vegas was already pretty slow because of all the tournaments in Europe and the USA. It seems there is a tournament somewhere all the time and most of the high stakes cash players go to them.

I don’t blame the young players who travel around the world to participate; frankly I’m jealous of them

Doyleism of the day:

“A man isn’t finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.”

I’m trying to get through this strange writer’s block I’m experiencing. I’ve always been able to put my thoughts and actions on paper but I’ve had problems getting started. I feel bad because I committed to doing at least one blog a week for my website and I’ll do my best to accomplish that from now on. I’ve had lots of personal issues that I’m determined to put behind me and move on.

Poker in Las Vegas was already pretty slow because of all the tournaments in Europe and the USA. It seems there is a tournament somewhere all the time and most of the high stakes cash players go to them. I don’t blame the young players who travel around the world to participate; frankly I’m jealous of them. But it does create havoc with the cash games. The existing cash game players, who aren’t quite as talented as some of the touring pros, have introduced new games that favor the bad players. Most of the time the cash game mix has games like Badeucey, Badacey, Badugi, and Razzdacey in them. Even in the stud games, each player gets four hole cards and discards two of them. These games even the playing field in poker and are very slow. In my opinion this is very bad for poker and will keep most of the pros on the sideline.

I’ve watched the Lederer Files and they are exactly what I expected. I was widely criticized for saying that I believe that Howard and Chris didn’t know the terrible condition Full Tilt was in. Does this absolve everyone

Find Doyle Brunson at www.pokerroad.com

from wrongdoing? No, of course not, but I think any reasonable person will say that Bitar did many things that no one was aware of. In my mind, before Black Friday, not only the board, but all the FT stockholders were complacent and guilty of negligence. But if you were getting checks each month for hundreds of thousands of dollars, would you feel the need to investigate your company?

Everybody keeps harping on the fact FT continued taking deposits after BF. I was involved with the deal Jack Binion was trying to make and there was plenty of hope that FT was going to survive and become a viable company. I talked to Jack every day while he was doing his due diligence, until he withdrew. After that, there were other deals on the table that I’m sure looked favorable.

There had to be a point where FT should have stopped taking deposits but that is one of the many bad decisions that management made after BF. At least now hopefully we will get our money from the DOJ. It will be interesting to see how the loans FT made to the players and particularly the stockholders turn out.

Anyway, please don’t bombard me with tweets and e-mails about the FT situation. History usually tells us what the real facts are. In this case, the true facts might never be known for sure.

May the flop be with you. n

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UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

Tournament

World Poker Tour Mazagan

A favorite destination for a new event Last July’s try-out of the new National Series of the World Poker Tour in Mazagan, Morocco made clear that this fantastic resort city had great potential and deserved an even bigger event. So from November 26-December 1, let’s head back to the ever-sunny Mazagan Beach Resort for a brand new World Poker Tour Event! In the stunning luxury of this Moroccan palace, you’ll be able to play a €3,200 + €300 Main Event and numerous side events of all kinds. Get your sunglasses and go — this is definitely going to be the hottest poker event of the winter!

M

Morocco is famous among poker players, as it hosts some first class poker events each year: the World Poker Tour Marrakech, held in the sumptuous Casino de Marrakech, the PokerStars Sun Fest Mazagan, and the Mazagan Poker Million, as well as a lot of regular tournaments; but there’s more.

Last summer, Mazagan was definitely the Moroccan capital of poker as it held another major tournament: for the first time, it hosted a brand new WPT National Series. From July 12-15, the €1,500 + 150 event was a success, attracting 158 players, that Roger Hairabedian bested, winning €63,890 and a €7,500 ticket to the WPT Grand Prix de Paris.

Next winter, things are going to be getting more serious: the World Poker Tour will be back, not as a National Series but a brand new major event, from November 26-December 1. This first edition will replace the traditional Marrakech stop and is therefore expected to be huge. The buy-in will upgrade to €3,200 + 300 — more than twice the price of the National Series — so the prize pool will be much bigger than it was last July; this first-class WPT event will also drag much more players as it will offer more games, more big names and higher stakes.

Mazagan Beach Resort, heaven on the Moroccan coast The sumptuous settings of this new WPT stop will be those of the Mazagan Beach Resort and Casino, a truly unique resort on the seaside, just 200 kilometers north of Marrakech, where players will enjoy the immensity of the ocean, the beauty of endless beaches and the aromas of sweet-scented gardens.

Set in over 600 acres of undeveloped land, next to a sevenkilometer-long beach, this exceptional five-star hotel will welcome players from around the world, instantly charming 42 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

By Julien Morello them with its 500 rooms, suites and villas inspired by Moroccan architecture and green-tiled roofs melting into luxurious vegetation. Overlooking the lagoon, the swimming pool and the patio, the resort features an astonishing 180° view of the Atlantic Ocean. Guaranteed to take your breath away.

All the world’s cuisines

To entice the eyes and the palate, the Mazagan Beach Resort’s eight restaurants offer a cuisine that brings together the best in international dining and the refinement and variety of Moroccan gastronomy. Whether one desires exclusive fine dining or more informal refreshments, with Mazagan’s numerous culinary delights, guests are genuinely spoiled as far as choice goes.

Mouthwatering traditional dishes served and prepared as they have been for hundreds of year are on the menu at authentic Mediterranean, Moroccan and specialty seafood restaurants. Guests can always eat in style with the freshest ingredients and carefully selected wine list, whether in the hotel lobby lounge, the golf club or the casino.

A well-oiled casino on a secluded beach The Mazagan Beach Resort and Casino has held many international tournaments over the years; it’s no surprise the World Poker Tour committee chose it to be the new Moroccan hot spot of the great series. In Mazagan, a great team of seasoned professionals will expertly handle the tournament and provide you an exciting yet relaxed week of poker in a gorgeous 30,000 sq.-foot casino. 60 tables, 410 slot machines and private game rooms are awaiting you in a magical exotic décor with a stunning view of the Atlantic Ocean.

With such amazing facilities, it’s no surprise the Mazagan Beach Resort and Casino has for the past few years been welcoming international poker tournaments such as the France Poker Series, which always attracts crowds of players with its Sun Fest. That’s why the WPT board decided to make Mazagan the first stop of its National Series circuit last season, from July 12-15. Now they’re betting even more on the secluded poker paradise, giving it the one and only Moroccan stop (which was traditionally in Marrakech) of the season.

A 4-Day Main Event and several side events The €3,500 Main Event will start on November 27, with two Day 1, and a re-entry option, and will run until December 1 for the final table. Last year, in Marrakech, Moroccan player Mohamed Ali Houssam walke off with €159,150 after besting his 273 opponents, and again this year a huge turnout is expected, as seven satellites to the Main Event have been announced, with buy-ins ranging from €90 to €395.

Seven side events will run during this Moroccan series, including three €200 Turbo events, a €200 Pineapple event, a €300 K.O. event and a €500 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Max tournament.

Then, on November 29 the €1,000 PMU event will attract players looking for a two-day tournament and a comfortable structure, with its 20,000 starting chips and 40 minute levels. For all kinds of budgets, and for all kinds of games, this series will offer a great experience for all kinds of poker lovers!

Outside the resort, the charms of a historic city The Mazagan Beach Resort is in itself something of a small, enchanted world, but once you pass through its gates, you’ll have even more to see. El Jadida, the neighboring city, has a long and complex history, having being under Portuguese control for two centuries. European and Arabic cultures are forever mixed there, offering a wonderful jolt to the senses.

There, food is rich with nuts, almonds, honey, and delicious lamb; a very sweet mint tea will help you digest your fantastic meal as you stroll among the aroma-filled, narrow streets of the old town of El Jadida in the warmth of the Morroccan winter. Jasmine, rose, spices everywhere, smiling faces, warm people greeting you as you walk by... The remains of the Portuguese fortified city, such as the cistern and the beautiful Catholic church are still intact; it’s no accident that UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site in 2004.

So whether it’s your first time in Mazagan or if you’re already addicted to this gorgeous resort, the new World Poker Tour stop will give you a perfect excuse to travel to Morocco and spend a magical week in the luxury and the tropical warmth of this perfectly secluded resort, hidden on the scenic Atlantic coast. So pack your summer clothes and bring your A-game, it may be your turn to make World Poker Tour History!

How to get there?

Address: Mazagan Beach Resort – 24000 El Jadida By air: Arrival at Casablanca Mohammed V International Airport to the south of Casablanca. The hotel is located near El-Jaddida, by highway, approximately one hour away (80 km). A private parking space to accommodate 1,000 guests is available to hotel guests.

Rent a car: Main international car rental companies offer rental services in both Casablanca and Marrakech airports.

By rail: Arrival at Azzemour or El-Jadida station, direct connection to Casablanca.

Room reservations: +212 5 2338 8000 E-mail: reservations@mazaganbeachresort.com Villa Reservations: Aziz Ayouch Tel: + 212 5 22 23 44 44 E-mail: villa.mazaganresort@kerzner.com Group Reservations: Bouchra El Youssi Tél : +212 5 23 38 80 00 E-mail : bouchra.elyoussi@mazaganbeachresort.com

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© eleephotography

Tournament

World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour Prague

Christmas and poker magic in the Czech Republic The World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour are heading back to party-filled Prague this winter, with an exceptional poker combo in early December! From December 3-15, these two great international series will once again draw players in from all over the continent and beyond. Last year, the WPT €3,200 + 300 Main Event brought 571 entrants and the European €5,000 + 300 Main Event attracted a massive 722 players, with both generating a huge prize pool. This year should be even bigger… So if you want to take part of this incredible poker fest, come to Prague next Christmas and take your chances!

By Philippe Aronson 44 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

T

This winter, from December 3-9, the World Poker tour will have its second edition in Czech Republic, for an amazing week of high-level poker. Three €3,200+300 Day 1 will give you several chances to get to the final table, that 22-yearold pro Andrey Pateychuck dominated last year, bringing home €450,000. Right after this major tournament, you’ll have the exceptional opportunity to play another one: from December 5-15, the European Poker Tour is back in Prague for the sixth time with a €5,300 Main Event during which a champion will be crowned after five days of play. Crowds of players from all over Europe will take part in these two amazing series and enjoy the delights of this superb Eastern European city, a veritable winter wonderland. A snowy and beautiful stay in Prague is guaranteed — with hopefully a good run at the poker tables thrown in!

Christmas in the city of a thousand spires

How to get there?

By air: There are direct flights from just about every European capital to Prague Ruzyne Airport, including many with budget airlines such as Easyjet. There are also some non-stop flights from North America direct to Prague. Prague airport is located 20km northwest of the city. A taxi ride to the city center takes 20-25 minutes and costs around 700 CZK (€27).

By train: Prague is well connected to the European EC train network. It will take you 4 ½ hours from Berlin, 4 ¾ from Vienna, 5/6 hours from Munich/Nuremberg.

Direct night trains connect Prague with Cologne, Fra nkfurt, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Zürich, Basel, Kra kow, Moscow, Kiev, Saint Petersburg and Odessa. All international trains arrive at Praha hlavní nádraží, the central station, abbreviated to Praha hl.n.

By car: Driving to Prague is not the most convenient way to reach the city, even though Prague has highway connections from five major directions. Unfortunately, the Czech Republic’s highway network is incomplete; some highways are old and in poor condition. Thus, the highway connection from Prague to the border of the Czech Republic is available only in two directions: southeast and southwest.

Divided in two by the Vtlava River, Prague is one of the most beautiful world capitals. Its thousand-year history, and numerous architectural sights and attractions make the political, cultural and economic center of the Czech Republic an open-air museum — one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations since the fall of the Iron Curtain. There is a lot to do and see in the “city of thousand spires,” and you can explore its entire downtown area on foot, walking across romantic bridges and through winding medieval streets.

Christmas is the perfect season to visit this stunning city with its famed Yuletide markets featuring gingerbread and hot wine stalls, not to mention great atmosphere. From late November, Christmas Markets occupy the city squares, selling arts & crafts, Czech specialties and Prague souvenirs — perfect places to shop for Christmas presents.

A record-setting 2011 field to best in 2012 From December 3-9, the second Czech edition of the World Poker Tour will be held in the gorgeous and very central Corinthia Hotel, where an even bigger field than last year’s 571 players is expected. You won’t have to travel very far for a completely different scene from December 9-15, as the European Poker Tour will be bringing the action to the Hilton Prague Hotel. There, a sixth champion will be crowned, one year after German Martin Finger’s success, when the young player — he’s only 21— left Prague with the huge €720,000 first prize, besting a record-setting field of 722. This year, the EPT Main Event’s buy-in remains unchanged, at €5,300, and we are expecting some great satellites and side events, such as the €3,200 Heads Up event, the €330 and €1,100 Pot Limit Omaha tournaments, plus numerous NLHE events, with buy-ins ranking from €330 to €2,150, and the awaited two-day €10,300 High-Roller event, won in 2011 by American player John Andress for €176,400.

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Tournament

Hotels

Hilton Prague Hotel

Awarded four years running best hotel in Czech Republic, the Hilton Prague Hotel is the most luxurious establishment in town. 791 exquisite rooms and suites, gym, swimming pool, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi and even indoor cycling and squash are all waiting for you in this gorgeous hotel that will be hosting the EPT tournament — so you won’t have to rush to the poker tables, they’re at your doorstep! Special rates for EPT participants.

Address: Pobrezni 1 – Prague 186 00 Tel: +420 224 841 111 http://www.hiltonprague.com

Corinthia Hotel

With 539 elegant and comfortable rooms and suites, the Corinthia Hotel is another fantastic establishment of the Czech capital, with three restaurants, two bars, a fantastic spa and an incredible swimming pool on the 26th floor with a panoramic view on the snowy rooftops of the Old Prague. Special rates for WPT participants.

Address: Kongresová 1 – Prague 4, 140 69 Tel: +420 261 191 111 http://www.corinthia.com

Prague Marriott Hotel

© quinet

A few steps from Old Town Square and the EPT venue at the Hilton, this upscale hotel evokes classic European charm and welcomes you with elegant accommodations:

293 guest rooms and 35 suites with a safe, 32-inch LCD TV and broadband Internet access. Rooms from €115.

Address: V Celnici 8 – Prague 110 00 Tel: +420 222 888 888 http://www.marriott.com

Restaurants

CzecHouse Grill & Rotisserie

The CzecHouse Grill & Rotisserie is the Hilton Prague hotel’s flagship restaurant, renowned for its blend of contemporary European cuisine and traditional Czech specialties prepared with a contemporary twist. Relax in a designer dining room featuring a show kitchen; watch professional chefs prepare signature dishes; with a great variety of local and international wines, you are guaranteed an exquisite dining experience. Full-course meal from €50.

Address: Pobrezni 1 – Prague 186 00 Tel: +420 224 842 700 restaurants.prague@hilton.com

Piano Nobile

This restaurant is a genuine jewel worth trying even though it will be a little out of your way if you’re staying at the Hilton. Located on the top floor of Villa Richter, a classicist summerhouse dating from 1836, Piano Nobile is set amongst the luxuriant vines of one of Bohemia’s oldest vineyards. There, you’ll be able to enjoy gems of Austrian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Tyrolean, Croatian and Jewish cuisine, given a modern twist by the head chef, and the best

wines of the region. Amazing. Full-course meal from €80.

Address: Staré zámecké schody 6/251 – 118 00, Praha 1 Tel: +420 257 219 079 info@villarichter.cz

Night life

Cloud 9 sky bar & lounge

Cloud 9 sky bar & lounge is the Czech Republic’s premier sky bar. Located 40 meters above ground, on the rooftop of the Hilton hotel, this cocktail bar offers stunning views over the city and the Vltava River. Sip on a Milky Way or Star Dust while soaking up spectacular Prague views through the glass walls or from the open terrace. Opening hours: 6 p.m.-2 a.m.

Address: Pobrezni 1 – Prague 186 00 Tel: +420 224 842 999 info@cloud9.cz

Karlovy Lazne Club

Karlovy Lazne is the largest music club complex in Central Europe, and one of the coolest places in Prague to hang out. For party animals, this is the place to be!

You’ll find five clubs on five levels, each floor boasting its own style, from disco to hardcore trance; enough variation to keep even the most dedicated clubber entertained all night. Opening hours: 9 p.m.-5 a.m. daily.

Address: Novotneho Lavka 5 – Old Town, Prague 1 Tel: +420 222 220 502 info@karlovylazne.cz

WPT Prague Main Event

List of Winners Field: 571 players; Prize pool: e1,753,202 1st Andrey Pateychuk €450,000 2nd Adrai Balaguer €238,000 3rd Stanislaw Kretz €158,000 th 4 Benjamin Pollak €104,000 5th Sigurd Andreas Eskeland €80,000 6th Russell Carson €63,000

European Poker Tour Prague

List of Winners 2007

Field: 555 players; Prize pool: e2,530,240 1st Arnaud Mattern €708,400 2nd Gino Alacqua €407,300 3rd Kristian Kjondal €235,300

2008

Field: 570 players; Prize pool: e2,764,500 1st Salvatore Bonavena €774,000 nd 2 Massimo Di-Cicco €445,000 3rd Andrew Chen €257,000

2009

Field: 586 players; Prize pool: e2,842,100 1st Jan Skampa €682,000 2nd Eyal Avitan €454,000 3rd Stefan Matsson €255,000

2010

Field: 563 players; Prize pool: e2,730,550 1st Roberto Romanello €640,000 2nd Emiliano Bono €435,000 3rd Marcin Horecki €247,000

2011

Field: 772 players; Prize pool: e3,501,700 1st Martin Finger €720,000 2nd Danyel Boyaciyan €535,000 3rd Nicolas Levi €270,000

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Tournament

Baltic Winter Festival & Tallinn All-in

Baltic Winter Festival and Tallinn All-in is coming soon!

The festival is held in Tallinn at Reval Park Hotel & Casino from 26.11 - 02.12.2012.

In cooperation with Poker Icons the Main Event of the festival is Tallinn All-in tournament, NL Texas with 30 000 starting stack and is expected to gather the best players from the Baltics, Finland and Scandinavia.

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Tallinn All-in with a buy-in of €310+40 will be played as a three day event from Friday the 30th of November until Sunday the 2nd of December 2012 at Reval Park Hotel & Casino in Tallinn, Estonia.

In addition there will be a Tallinn All-in Highrollers with a buy-in of €1000+100 which will be played in a 6-Max format over two days with re-entry possibilities during the whole first day or as long as there are three tables (13 players) left in the game. Big starting stack and 1 hour blind levels will attract players for sure. Schedule is to play from Saturday the 1st of December until Sunday the 2nd of December 2012.

If you believe that you will walk home as a champion then make sure that you reserve your seat soon since this event will sell out. As with other events organized

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by Poker Icons there are good rates available at different hotels as well as an open invitation to the players’ party for tournament participants.

Get your seat

You can make your buy-in straight to the casino or qualify online through some of the partner companies. You can also qualify through any of the Live satellites which will be held in Reval Park Hotel & Casino.

Baltic Winter Festival Satellites

Date: 01.11, 08.11, 15.11, 22.11 and 26.11 at 19:00.

Buy in: 20+2€ Game: No Limit Texas, unlimited rebuys 20€ 90 minutes + Double Add-on NB! 1 ticket guaranteed with at least 10 players.

Restaurants Luscher&Matiesen

Luscher&Matiesen is an old Estonian wine company which operates an open-air terrace on top of Tallinn in Toompea hill. Enjoy the best view and the delicious hot mullet wine (glögg) made according to an old recipe from the 1930’s. The terrace is located right next to the main viewing platform overlooking the magnificent skyline of Tallinn over the old town rooftops. Also visits to the 800-year-old Luscher&Matiesen wine cellar and mini-museum can be organized with pre-booking.

SfääR

SfääR Resto’s modern Nordic cuisine is fresh and seasonal, simply executed and delightfully served up with plenty of smiling waiter service. The menu offers an exciting array of tempting, harmonic dishes that are locally sourced and carefully prepared. Sfäär also offers an impressive selection of wines that are a good reflection of the current trends, without forgetting the old classics. The restaurant

is located in the heart of Tallinn, not far from the harbor, and it’s atmosphere is bright and cozy, mixing chic with casual, and Scandinavian classics with local design.

Wabadus

Wabadus Cafe is ideally situated on the central square of Tallinn. It´s the perfect location for a business lunch and in the evenings local people gather here for drinks and an overall good time with friends.

Night life Bibabo

Club Bibabo is the newest hottest nightclub of the city.

Also situated on the central square, it offers a sexy interior and a bustling vibe all through the night. Close proximity to Wabadus Cafe and an other nightclub Vabank ensures a lot of interesting encounters on various floors and party rooms with different styles.

Baltic Winter Festival Schedule November 27, 18:00 • NL Texas Warmup – Olympic-Online Special.

Freezeout, additional prizes from Olympic-Online.

Buy-in 110e November 28, 18:00 • NL Texas Terminator. Freezeout, 25e Terminator Chip. Buy-in 150e November 29, 18:00 • PL Omaha. Freezeout. Buy-in 150e November 30, 18:00 • Tallinn All-in Main Event – NL Texas. Freezeout.

Buy-in 350e December 1st, 16:00 • Tallinn All-in Highrollers – NL Texas 6-max.

Second chance. Buy-in 1,100e

Tournament

Aviation Club de France Hold’em Series

In November, a great series will light up the legendary Parisian club

From November 16-25, the French capital will be the best place to play poker, with six competitions organized by the mythical Aviation Club de France, for a great Hold’em experience. It will also be the opportunity to enjoy the last days of Autumn in the beautiful city of light, filled with art, history and of course, high-end shopping on the fabulous Avenue des Champs-Élysées. So pack your camera and get ready for an intense and wonderful stay in Paris — the tables are calling!

By Steven Adelman

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Founded in 1907, the legendary Aviation Club de France in Paris is famous for holding some of the best tournaments in France, such as the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, won this year

by American player Matt Salsberg, who pocketed €380,000 at the €7,500 Main Event. Next November, it will present the ninth edition of its Hold’em Series, with six competitions over ten days of intense game. Each year, the prize pool is huge and the big guns of the international poker scene show up to grab a share of it; so this is your chance to compete against them and maybe return home with a title and a nice pile of cash.

Last year, Frenchman Julien Jolivet was crowned champion of the €3,000 Main Event, his second victory of the year, besting his 116 opponents and grabbing €93,855 out of the €335,205 prize pool. Some of the best Paris players were there but this young stud ate them alive. If

How to get there?

Six competitions and a threeday Main Event The three-day €3,000 Main Event, from November 23-25, will be the highlight of this series, attracting as usual dozens of players vying for a six-figure first prize, like Suat Uyanik in 2009 (€157,320) and Paul Pires-Trigo in 2010 (€129,610). Several step satellites, from €50 to €350, will be held each day before the Main Event, from November 18-22. As for the side events, a two-day €1,000 tournament will run on November 17 and 18 (with €50 and €150 satellites on the 16), and a two-day €500 event will follow on November 21 and 22, (with a €50 satellite on the 21).

Four other events will liven up this series, such as the €200 Pot Limit Omaha-No Limit Hold’em event on November 18, the €300 Bounty tournament on November 19, a €200 Deepstack event on the 25 and a €500 satellite to the World Poker Tour Mazagan Main Event, which will close this Parisian festival only two days before the great Moroccan poker rendez-vous takes place.

For a great series dedicated to all forms of pure Hold’em, and for all kinds of budgets, Paris will be the place to be next month. If you don’t make it to the end, relax and have a look around; there is no way you will get bored among the fantastic museums and bridges of the French capital, basking in the sparkling glow of the Eiffel Tower. Enjoy!

© Moyan Brenn

By air: Most international airlines fly through Paris; the French capital is served by Aéroport d’Orly and Aéroport Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle, both well-linked by public transport to central Paris. L’Aéroport de Beauvais, which handles charter and some budget carriers, including Ryanair and Central Wings, is more of a trek.

By train: Thanks to very fast TGV (train à grande vitesse) trains, getting to Paris is quick and convenient.

The six railway stations — Gare d’Austerlitz, Gare de l’Est, Gare de Lyon, Gare du Nord, Gare Montparnasse and Gare St-Lazare each handle passenger traffic to different parts of France and Europe. From London, the Eurostar arrives in Gare du Nord in a superfast two hours; the station is also the final destination of trains coming from Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne.

you want to make history and be crowned Hold’em king of Paris, go straight to the Avenue des Champs-Élysées!

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© Moyan Brenn

Tournament

Hotels

Four Seasons Hotel George V

Just off the Champs-Élysées, this mythical palace is the most luxurious place to stay in Paris. Its gorgeous 1928 building boasts 244 rooms and suites, many of them featuring a terrace overlooking the lively streets of the French capital, a fantastic spa, a pool in a very « Versailles » décor, a two-star Michelin restaurant and high-end technological amenities. Rooms from €900.

Address: 31, avenue George V – 75008 Paris Reservations: +331 49 52 71 00 Web: http://www.fourseasons.com

Hotel California

Just steps away from the Champs Elysées, Hôtel California has welcomed a demanding clientele wanting to take full advantage of Paris since 1923. Leading stores and French luxury brands are at hand as you stroll along the world’s most beautiful avenue. The hotel’s classic Art Deco architecture is filled with light and opens on a bucolic central patio offering tranquility and relaxation. The 158 rooms are “so French” and offer a choice between classical Louis XVI furniture and warm, contemporary settings. Contact them for special ACF players rates!

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Restaurants Le Cinq

With two Michelin stars and an exquisite dining room, Le Cinq is a culinary experience you mustn’t miss if you want to fully enjoy French art de vivre. All the great classics are served here with a touch of modernity, paired with an amazing wine selection and perfect service.

C’est magnifique. Menus from €90.

Address: 31, avenue George V – 75008 Paris Reservations: +331 49 52 71 00 Web: http://www.fourseasons.com

Chiberta

Less famous than Le Cinq, this fantastic restaurant offers a series of black and white dining rooms, a bottle-lined oenothèque, and a bar section. One-star chef Guy Savoy will make your taste buds come alive with his pigeon with risotto and foie gras or his truffle and artichoke soup. Lunch menu from €49.

Address: 3 rue Arsène-Houssaye – 75008 Paris Reservations: +331 53 53 42 00 chiberta@guysavoy.com

Night life Le Baron

This very exclusive club looks like a mini-cabaret, with red velvet and pearls, soft light — and most of all great music. A former hostess bar off the Champs-Élysées, Le Baron might be one of the hardest places to get in, in the French capital — but it’s definitely worth it. Open 11PM-dawn everyday.

Address: 6 Avenue Marceau – 75008 Paris contact@clublebaron.com

Culture Bière

The name of this classy establishment sums it up: it’s heaven for beer lovers. Hundreds of kinds are available here, from all over the world. Ten thousand square feet dedicated to the sparkling beverage: three bars, a restaurant and a lounge, to enjoy varied experiences as you let your curiosity run free. Open everyday until midnight, 2:00 a.m. on Fridays and 5:00 a.m. on Saturdays.

Address: 65 Avenue des Champs-Élysées – 75008 Paris http://www.culturebiere.com/

ACF Hold’em Series

List of Winners 2006

Field: 153 players; Prize pool: e426,870 1st Brice Cournut €94,540 2nd Benjamin Kang €80,000 3rd Xavier Detournel €60,000

2007

Field: 120 players; Prize pool: e334,800 1st Xavier Detournel €107,135 2nd Vincent Courtois €56,915 3rd Stépahne Bazin €40,175

2008

Field: 178 players; Prize pool: e331,080 1st Pierre Brochard €105,950 nd 2 Eli Marciano €56,290 3rd Jacques Guenni €39,730

2009

Field: 178 players; Prize pool: e496,620 1st Suat Uyanik €157,320 2nd Alain Le Pen €83,575 3rd Jonathan Layanai €58,995

2010

Field: 145 players; Prize pool: e405,039 1st Paul Pires-Trigo €129,610 2nd Stéphane Benadiba €68,855 3rd Clément Thumy €48,605

2011

© Wlappe

Field: 117: players; Prize pool: e335,205 1st Julien Jolivet €85,595; 2nd Frédéric Hamon €75,300 3rd Massou Cohen €43,575

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Tournament

WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic

The Las Vegas Finale of the mid-season The World Poker Tour will conclude the first half of its eleventh Season in the poker Mecca with one of its best tournaments, the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. The Bellagio will once again thrill players from around the world with two perfect weeks of intense play, from November 25-December 9, concluding with a fantastic A-Range $10.000 +$300 championship. This year again, swarms of poker celebrities will no doubt be on hand, vying for a piece of the massive prize pool and enjoying the best poker event under the sun. But success and adrenaline are not exclusive to the poker elite, so go live the dream of every poker player and become part of this major tournament’s history. Welcome to Las Vegas!

Š larry lobster

By Kyle Smith

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The Mojave Desert, the Strip, hundreds of casinos and crowds of gamblers playing poker and slot machines and looking for fun and money: yes, you are in Vegas, the most famous gambling city of the world. Known as the entertainment capital of the planet, Sin City never sleeps, and has for 70 years been providing countless attractions to daydreamers of all stripes.

The Bellagio: an institution Some of these establishments have after all these years become genuine institutions, such as the Rio Casino, which has been hosting the World Series of Poker for 40 years, while others have risen to prominence more recently, such as the Bellagio, which opened in 1998 on the Strip. Majestic, elegant architecture, an eight-acre lake and beauteous fountains make this AAA Five Diamond Award winner and its thousands rooms and suites an absolute must for all visitors to Vegas.

You will enjoy the huge poker room of the Big Game’s casino, next to the mythical Bobby’s Room (named after Bobby Baldwin, eccentric poker player and former owner of the casino), where VIPs and high-rollers play up to $4.000/$8.000 games, for some amazing seven-figure pots.

will run from November 25-December 8, including a $1,000 + $80 Senior event, and three $1,000 + $80 Super Satellites to the Main Event, December 1, 2 and 3. The other events will feature two $2,500 + $120 events, on November 27 and December 2, and two $5,000 +$180 tournaments, on November 30 and December 6. The last event, a $1,500 + $90 tournament, will be running December 8.

WPT Five Diamonds is always a great poker moment, so if you want to follow in the steps of the game’s greatest masters, discover mythical Sin City and dig that Far West vibe you’ve loved since childhood (which has a lot to offer outside of gaming, with beautiful locations such as Lake Mead or Death Valley), pack your bags and jump on the next flight to Las Vegas. The adventure begins now!

Play Doyle Brunson’s tournament Poker stars feel at home at the Bellagio, which they call “the Office,” and the list of the WPT Five Diamond finalists illustrates this perfectly: Gus Hansen, Scotty Nguyen and Daniel Negreanu (each twice!), Patrik Antonius, Phil Laak, John Juanda, Freddy Deeb, Joseph Hachem, David Rheem, Eugene Katchalov, Hoyt Corkins, Steve Sung, Paul Phillips, Abe Mosseri, Nam Le, Daniel Alaei, Josh Arieh, Faraz Jaka, Shawn Buchanan, Antonio Esfandiari, Andrew Robl, Vanessa Rousso, John Racener and Doyle Brunson — all made it to the top 6! The WPT even gave Poker Dolly’s name to the Bellagio Five Diamond series the year after the poker legend finished third in 2005 for $563,485.

This great experience became more affordable in 2010, when the $15,000 buy-in was reduced to $10,000. It was proven to be a great idea last year, as 413 players came to compete for a massive prize pool of $4,006,100. English pro James Dempsey bested his opponents and brought home the title and a well-deserved prize of $821,612.

The 2012 program

The $10,000 + $300 five-day Main Event will start December 4 (only one Day 1), and will offer a re-entry option until level 8, on Day 2. The winner of this huge tournament will receive, besides a massive cash prize, a $25,000 + $500 entry into the 2013 WPT Championship at Bellagio. But this year, the televised Main Event won’t be the only one to attract poker superstars, as a brand new $25,000 High Roller event will highlight this series. This high-stakes tournament will be running on December 9 and 10, and will provide a hair-rising show before the Main Event Final Table!

As for the side events, no less than thirteen tournaments

How to get there?

Just south of the major Strip casinos and easily accessible from I-15, McCarran International Airport is among America’s 10 busiest airports. Most domestic flights use Terminal One; international, charter and certain domestic flights use Terminal Two.

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Tournament

Hotels Bellagio

If you want to live the poker life 24/7, chat with the best poker pros and enjoy stunning facilities and services, the Bellagio is the place to stay in Las Vegas. Book one of the four thousand rooms and suites and enjoy the view of the famous Fountains (as seen in Ocean’s Eleven) for approximately $160 on weekdays. There, you will be comfortably installed in the heart of the action..

Address: 3600 Las Vegas Blvd. South Las Vegas, NV 89109 Tel: +1 888 987 6667 Web: http://www.bellagio.com/

Palms Hotel & Casino

Hotel Aria

A corner view, full connectivity workstation and bed so comfortable you’ll want to cancel your morning plans— all are standard in every room at ARIA. Direct every aspect of your room with your bedside touch- screen controls, and end the night effortlessly with one tap of our “Goodnight” button. Every room at ARIA offers a blend of luxury and technology previously unheard of _in Las Vegas. Enter any one of our rooms or suites, and you’ll suddenly realize you have a new personal standard for travel. Very quiet but still on the strip, a hop from Bellagio and its tournaments…

Address: 3730 South Las Vegas Boulevard Las Vegas, NV 89102 Tel: +01 866 359 7757 Web: http://www.arialasvegas.com

© Moyan Brenn

Located on Hugh Hefner Road in front of the Rio, this casino-less resort offers quiet and tranquility, far from the incessant clicking of chips, for a reasonable price: from $150 for the smallest suite, to $450 for the largest.

Young guns like Tom Dwan like to stay there during the WSOP, in order to enjoy the two other towers of this huge complex and the crazy nightlife therein. Just follow the bunny…

Address: 4321 West Flamingo Road, Las Vegas, NV 89103 Tel: +1 866 942 7770 Mail: info@palms.com

Restaurants & Night life There are restaurants for every taste and every budget in Vegas; all you have to do is choose the right place.

Avoid buffets, which are crowded and boring, and listen to your cravings. You want a cheap and tasty burger?

Don’t miss the In’N’Out, or the Fat Burger on the top of the Strip, right behind Planet Hollywood. For Japanese food, the Wynn is fantastic, serving teriyaki, teppanyaki, sushi great sushi, and a super selection of sake. If you are looking for a steakhouse, go downtown to Binion’s or, if you’re in the mood for trendier fare, head on down to the Palms’ Nine Steakhouse. The Noodles, on the Bellagio, offers great Chinese food at a reasonable price, and if it’s fabulous French cuisine you’re after, Ducasse and Robuchon are open for business on the top of the Strip.

Las Vegas never sleeps, and is justly famous for its terrific nightlife. During weekdays, the nightclubs are all affordable and pleasant, but on weekends, better try alternative places, like the BB King Blues Club, behind the Venetian, the Sand Dollar on Spring Mountain Road or the new Metropolitan on the Strip. If you feel homesick, you’ll find Irish pubs on the South of the Strip, and if you want to party all night long, sidle on down to The Bank (Bellagio), The Pussycat Club (Caesars), The Moon (Palms) or Tao (Venetian). After 6 a.m., The Drais (After Hours), on Las Vegas Boulevard and Flamingo, and The Spearmint Rhino, on Industrial Road, are good options.

WPT Five Diamond WPC

List of Winners 2009

Field: 329 players; Prize pool: $4,761,450 1st Daniel Alaei $1,428,430 2nd Josh Arieh $952,290 rd 3 Faraz Jaka $571,374

2010

Field: 438 players; Prize pool: $4,261,267 1st Antonio Esfandirari $870,124 2nd Andrew Robl $549,003 3rd Vanessa Rousso $358,964

2011

Field: 413 players; Prize pool: $4,006,100 1st James Dempsey $821,612 2nd Soi Nguyen $517,478 3rd Vanessa Selbst $338,351

Tournament

Casinos Austria Poker Tour 2013

A brand new structure for an amazing season 2013 As the biggest Austrian poker circuit is waiting for the final leg of this season in Baden Poker in late October to celebrate its fifth anniversary, CAPT has already announced some big improvements for its sixth season, with a brand new structure and additional stops. CAPT 2013 will be bigger than ever! But as for now, the 2012 season is still running and has been a big success so far, with hundreds of players in each stop and a new record set in Velden, with 237 entries for the €2000 Event and 571 entries for the €500 Event Showdown am Wörthersee! The changes announced by CAPT promise even more attractive events in 2013, as the series will split into two subseries: CAPT Big Four (€2,000 4-day Main Event), and CAPT Deep Stack (€500, 3-day Main Event), for estimated prize money of €7,500,000! The tour will also add some new legs to its schedule, growing from six to eight destinations, with the addition of Linz and Kitzbühel, where the new season will start as early as December 5. Here’s the CAPT 2013 full schedule in exclusivity, explained by tour director Stefan Gollubits.

C

Created in 2008 by Edgar Stuchly, the Casinos Austria Poker Tour has since then been connecting tournaments held all over Austrian Casinos in order to offer poker series to the local players and create nice prize pools for international players as well. Directed now by Stefan Gollubits, the circuit is still growing and improving its structure: while the 2012 season included six destinations

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By Chuck Wundert — Baden, Velden, Innsbruck, Salzburg, Bregenz and Seefeld — 2013 will have two additional stops, in Kitzbühel and Linz, and the biggest events of each series will be more exciting than ever, with a 4-day €2,000 CAPT Big Four Main Event — so far there was only 2 days for the Main Event — and a 3-day €500 Deep Stack with a 30,000 starting stakes.

“Eight locations, eight tournaments are scheduled for 2013, and the estimated prize money will reach €7,5million,” says Stefan Gollubits, looking quite excited by the upcoming season. “The two new concepts will provide tournaments to each customer.” Indeed, the innovative structures, designed especially for all kinds of players, will alternate all year long to ideally suit the local crowds and the time of the year. Some might like higher stakes, while others might be more cautious; in any event, each will find something to their liking in the new CAPT edition.

The biggest cash game in Europe at Casino Baden But 2012 is not over yet, and it has already been a huge success: “So far, we had our biggest tournament in Velden: €500 buy-in, 571 entries! Our main events in Seefeld, Bregenz and Velden — all with a €2000 buy-in — had around 200 participants. Even the smaller events had nice prize pools.” In Velden in July for instance, poker players of all nationalities competed for cash prizes over €1 million. The main event was won by Austrian Christian Stallinger, who grabbed €108,070, followed by Switzerland Andre Mayr with €66,690 and Josef Friedl from Germany went home with €45,030. In Bregenz in February, the prize pool reached €323,000; in Seefeld in January, it went up to €355,300. The CAPT has cash you only dream of seeing in huge international competitions such as the WPT or the EPT, and each year more and more players are attracted to it.

The last leg of this season, hosted by the Casino Baden, is coming soon, and it already looks promising: “We already have a really good booking status, as it is nearly 40 % full.

There will be a “full house” beginning October 25, to November 3. Next to the tournaments I’m sure we will have the biggest cash game in Europe at Casino Baden during the Poker Europmeisterschaft.”

Events all year long to discover the treasures of Austria The thing that’s great about the CAPT is that it provides events all year long, to the tune of nearly one each month. So as soon as season 2012 is over in November, after a final stop in Baden, a new edition will begin again in Kitzbühel in early December. “The idea is to schedule events in the perfect location for each season. For instance, our first tournament of the season in Kitzbühel is in winter, to offer the perfect combination of poker and skiing; in the summertime, the event in Velden allows participants to enjoy the Wörthersee lake, which is great for swimming with its nice sandy beaches,” Stefan Gollubits tells us.

So each tournament has its own character and its own settings — the casinos really cover all the Austrian regions — but what makes the CAPT a harmonious whole is the consistent quality of its events: “We have the besttrained employees and the highest standard casinos and events,” says Gollubits. And for those who have already played on the Austrian circuit, these are not just words; if Austria has the reputation of being a well-run country, perfectly organized and offering great services, its casinos are exactly the same, the massive luxury added on.

No expense is spared to offer the best poker experience, planned in every detail with utmost seriousness, leaving all the fun to players who can enjoy the game with a carefree attitude.

There is no doubt that the growing success of the Austrian circuit will not slow down as more and more international players join the locals, attracted by the bigger and bigger prize money. With new concepts and two new strategic stops in December and September, things should take an even more intense turn: “2012 was a great year, concludes Gollubits. But 2013 will be the year of the CAPT!”

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Tournament

Two fantastic new destinations: Kitzbühel, pearl of the Tyrol...

The two new stops scheduled for CAPT 2013 have a lot to offer. First, there is Kitzbühel, the pearl of the Tyrol, which will open the new season with events running from December 5-9. Internationally renowned for its great mountains and known as the best city for winter sports, Kitzbühel has a 118-year old skiing tradition; it’s home to the world-famous Hahnenkamm ski race, the most treacherous competition in the world, with jumps of 80m, steep slopes close to 85% and speeds up to 140 km/h. It’s no surprise CAPT Kitzbühel will be held in December, so the guests of the casino will be able to enjoy the snow and combine sports and poker in the luxury of the high-standard casino and hotels of the alpine region.

In Casino Kitzbühel, when it freezes outside, the poker tables are as hot as can be! All games are played here: the place is famous for its five American roulette tables, six Black Jack Tables, its Tropical Stud and Seven Card Stud poker Tables as well as six Easy Roulette and 54 Slot Machines.... And of course, Texas Hold’em is always the star of the show! The diverse range of games and the elegant Hinterstadt24 casino restaurant with its wellstocked cellar, elegant bar and pleasant bistro will afford participants everything they need for an unforgettable tournament.

...And Linz, modern cultural haven by the Danube The second new addition to the CAPT schedule is Linz, with events from September 17-21, for a completely different experience. Indeed, Linz is a bustling, ultra-modern city by the Danube that has developed quite a taste for innovative architecture and interior design, arts and new technologies.

A simple walk around the streets will inevitably turn into the most exciting architectural experience, from modern cultural buildings to gorgeous baroque façades, sitting harmoniously next to groundbreaking industrial architecture. There is a real city life here; with amazing museums, restaurants and the great Ars Electronica Festival — also held in September — that celebrates digital art and media culture in a stunning glass building.

Casino Linz is one of the most important venues in Upper Austria. Its elegant glass façade reflects the industrial history of the steel town as well as its taste for exclusive and modern architecture. Sophisticated comfort, amazing restaurants and all kinds of games are on offer for players and there is no doubt young crowds — who are sure to get the appeal of the brand-new €500 Deepstack Challenge — will immediately adopt this new CAPT destination as one of their favorites.

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CAPT Schedule for 2013 December 5 to 9 •C APT Kitzbühel Deep Stack Challenge January 19 to 27 •C APT Seefeld March 16 to 23 •C APT Bregenz

Casinos Austria Poker Tour 2012

List of Winners Seefeld

Field: 187 players; Prize pool: e355,300 1st Dorde Jovanovic €94,690 2nd Thomas Butzhammer €56,850 3rd Antonio Turrisi €35,540

Bregenz

Field: 170 players; Prize pool: e323,000 1st Stjepan Jokic €88,825 2nd Kai Schmied €54,910 3rd Josef Friedl €35,530

April 9 to 13 •C APT Salzburg Deep Stack Challenge May 28 to June 1st •C APT Innsbruck Deep Stack Challenge July 12 to 20 •C APT Velden September 17 to 21 •C APT Linz Deep Stack Challenge October 24 to November 2 •P oker EM Baden

Salzburg

Field: 69 players; Prize pool: e131,000 1st Simon Mertlitsch €41,950 2nd Klaus Harder €26,220 3rd Mansour Khorramshahi €17,180

Innsbruck

Field: 59 players; Prize pool: e112,100 1st Jan Peter Jachtmann €39,790 2nd Heinz Kamutzki €25,780 3rd Florian Schleps €17,930

Velden

Field: 237 players; Prize pool: e450,300 1st Christian Stallinger €108,070 2nd Andre Mayr €66,690 3rd Josef Friedl €45,030

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Tournament

St Maarten Unibet Open

Sea, Sun and Poker

Unibet.com will host its season finale early December in one of the most fabulous islands on earth, St Maarten. From November 27-December 7, the Caribbean Sea’s most luxurious island will welcome a great poker series: for its fifth anniversary, the Unibet Open will travel all the way to the Dutch Antilles for a very special edition hosted by the sumptuous Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino. This eleven-day poker festival will bring crowds of American and European players to the tropical island to compete for a huge prize pool at the €1,500 + €150 NLH Freezeout Event.

Perfect organization, a tropical climate and an exclusive venue — the St Maarten Unibet Open has all the ingredients for the best poker experience ever.

T

The small island of Sint Maarten, located in the northeast of the Caribbean, approximately 300 km from Puerto Rico, has since 1648 been shared by the French and the Dutch Antilles, and with time has become an exciting, active and bustling island, home to residents from over 90 different nations. A festive nightlife, gorgeous jewelry, exotic drinks, plentiful casinos, luxury boutiques and rich French and Indian cuisine — you can find everything under the sun on “the biggest small island in the world”.

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By Jim Sullivan

A destination within the destination In order to offer more entertainment to its special guests, the island has since 2009 hosted a great poker series, the St Maarten Open, within the lush surroundings of the Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino, set on luxurious ten-acre beachfront property. Next December, it’s the Unibet Open’s turn to rule this tropical resort ideally located in the heart of Maho Village,

on the southwest coast of St Maarten. With 534 guest rooms and suites, this amazing complex is located only five minutes from the Princess Juliana International Airport, and is the island’s largest resort, a “destination within a destination,” with its own shopping promenade, tennis courts, spa, fitness center, gardens, swimming pools, restaurants, bars and lounge, casino and nightly entertainment. Sonesta Maho Beach Resort & Casino is all about entertainment, luxury, comfort, relaxation and fine food, whenever and wherever you want. A heaven within heaven, and an unforgettable holiday experience.

The Casino Royale

Sonesta Resort’s masterpiece, its Casino Royale, is the largest in St Maarten’s, with 14,000 square feet of gaming. Located directly across the street from the complex, it features 450 slot machines, American and French roulette, craps, baccarat, blackjack and, of course, poker. The casino also has a private “high-roller” area, with the highest table limits on the island, and a VIP room truly dedicated to professional gamblers. The casino has been hosting international poker tournaments for several years, but this winter it will be all about the St Maarten Unibet Open’s action, which will be full of exciting surprises.

A great series for the 5th Anniversary

For its fifth anniversary, Unibet Open has planned an amazing series in St Maarten. Four Super Satellites to the Main Event will open the celebration from November 27, with buy-ins ranging from $120 to $330, as well as a three NLHE events ($220 and $330 on November 28, 29 and December 1st), and a $220 PLO event on November 30. Then, the €1,650 Main Event will kick off with two starting days, on December 3 and 4, and 20,000 starting chips, for 60 minute levels. For the first time ever the tournament has been extended, and will run over four days, until December 7, when the first St Maarten Unibet Open champion will be crowned.

Who will succeed Norwegian Stale Lokse, Swedes Simon Johansson and Jimmy Jonson, and Dutchmen Paul Valkenburg and Peter Harkes as season event winner?

In the meantime, five side events will be held at the tables of the Casino Royale. The $440 2-day tournament will kick off on December 4, the $550 2-day event will start on the 5, and the 2-day $770 will follow from December 6. Finally, as the Main Event finalists will reach the table on December 7, a $220 Pot Limit Omaha Rebuy + Addon tournament and a $330 NLHE event will close this sunny poker festival. Four parties will also be organized for the Unibet Open players on December 3, 4, 6 and 7, for a truly great time!

Even if your eyes won’t leave the poker table, you will undoubtedly get caught up in the fever and charm of the Caribbean. High quality tournaments specially designed for a very special anniversary in a paradise resort standing next to the Simpson Bay Lagoon… what else?

St Maarten Unibet Open

List of Winners

How to get there?

Address: 1 Rhine Rd. – Maho Bay, Sint Maarten Tel: +1 721 545 2115 – http://www.sonesta.com

By Air: Flights to St Maarten arrive on the Dutch side of the island, at one of the busiest airports in the Caribbean, St Martin Princess Juliana International Airport (SXM).

Air service to SXM in St Maarten is provided by KLM two times a week from Amsterdam, Air France daily from Paris, Spirit Air, American Airlines daily from Miami and New York, twice on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday, Jet Blue daily from New York and Philadelphia, Continental daily from New York, American Eagle eight times daily from Puerto Rico, Delta, Northwest, US Airways, United once a week from Washington and Chicago, LIAT, Windward Islands Airways (WINAIR) and many other major airlines.

Prague

Field: 254 players; Prize pool: C377,190 1st Filip Verboven C100,000 2nd Ruggiero Scommegna C56,600 3rd Steven Razab C37,700

Paris

Field: 439 players; Prize pool: C653,671 1st Jaroslaw Barglik C140,539 2nd Kent Lundmark C98,051 3rd Daniel Pastor C70,596

London

Field: 315 players; Prize pool: £378,000 1st Pratik Ghatge £85,050 2nd Tomasz Kozub £60,500 3rd Gavin Eley £43,090

POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

67

Tournament

World Poker Tour National Brussels

The grand circuit’s first stop ever in Belgium

From February 14-18, Grand Casino Brussels will for the first time ever hold a World Poker Tour National Series event, with a €1,500 + €150 Main Event which is sure to bring the best European players to the lively Belgian capital. The ACF Poker Tour will also stop in Brussels at the same time with a €750 Main Event.

T

To celebrate the brand new Viage Casino in Brussels, the World Poker Tour will stop in the Belgian capital for a very special National Series event — the first ever to be held in Belgium.

For all poker lovers in the country, as well as from neighboring Hollad, France, Germany or Denmark, Brussels will be the place to be from February 14-18, with a great €1,500 + €150 Main Event. So get your ticket to the WPT, it’ll be the opportunity to play in a vast and modern complex in the heart of one of Europe’s most dynamic cities. With its classic and contemporary museums and stunning architectural monuments, its traditional brasseries and first-class restaurants, a trip to Brussels is always a treat. And since spring 2012, the Belgian capital is also a European poker city, as the new Casino Viage, a genuine temple of gaming, is located but a few steps from the Grand-Place, the city center’s most animated spot.

A brand new complex to host the WPT National event Opened on April of 2012 after three years of construction work, the Viage Casino is a vast complex dedicated entirely to leisure, games and shows. Its vibrant interior features everything a modern international casino can offer, with its spectacular roof-top restaurant, theme-bars, showroom for the performing arts, and of course its innovative gaming rooms. Besides Brown’s Sports Bar & Grill, where you will find twelve large-screen TVs, and the Cinna-Bar, known for its great choice of cocktails, Viage is home to Saffron, 68 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

By Vernon Carroll

an Asian and traditional Belgian restaurant opened until two a.m. The Theatre provides great shows and events year round, and the modern gaming rooms offer some of the very latest equipment. Mah Jong, Black Jack, Punto Banco, and English Roulette, as well as Slots, Video Reels, Automatic Roulette and Video Poker Machines, Viage provides all kinds of games, to the great delight of gambling lovers.

Poker receives all the honors in this new complex, with a great choice of daily cash games and weekly Sit & Go’s. And in order to celebrate its recent opening, the Viage Casino has been picked by the most amazing poker series in the world for a first national competition. We are willing to bet that attendance will be huge, as Belgians are real poker lovers and the venue and the WPT brand will undoubtedly bring players from all over Europe. If this first edition is a success, the World Poker Tour will certainly be back next year for an even bigger event!

We’ll bring you the complete schedule details of this Belgian premiere event, in our upcoming December edition.

Information

Address: Anspach Boulevard 30, 1000 Brussels Telephone: +32 2 300 01 00 E-mail: info@viage.be Web: www.viage.be Opening hours: Monday – Thursday + Sunday: 12 p.m. – 4 a.m. / Friday & Saturday: 12 p.m. – 5 a.m.

World Poker Tour National Series Mauritius

The WPT returns to the Indian Ocean After a great first season, the WPT is already certain to head back to the sunny island of Mauritius, a sparkling crystal in the turquoise waters of the Indian Ocean, east of Madagascar and southeast of the Seychelles. The Ti Vegas Casino of Grand Baie will host several events and several satellites for the €1,500 Main Event, and you’ll be able to enjoy the beauty of this charming paradise island, playing poker for a huge prize money. Welcome to a land full of colors, where Europe meets India, China and Africa for an amazing mix of scents, cultures and savors… welcome to Mauritius!

I

By Julien Morello

In March 2012, after a great deal of effort, the passionate Sylvain Liotard, CEO of Paradise Events, a company located between Madagascar, La Réunion and Mauritius, which is trying to develop the poker scene in this part of the world, managed successfully to bring the World Poker Tour National to its small island, in partnership with the French poker website PMU.fr and the Paradise Girls…

The WPT National Mauritius was born, and its first season was a success: plenty of top names were on hand on the African island, competing on 4-Day Main Event, including Guillaume Darcourt, Raymond Rahme, John Eames and famous French rapper Bruno Lopes aka Kool Shen who recently took the European Poker Championship at the Aviation Club. None of them could match Gary Lentin though; the South African player pocketed a first prize of €70,000 after outlasting a final table that included Frenchmen Stéphane Albertini and Fabrice Ricci, as well as Portugal’s Ayaz Manji.

A world-class series in the “Small Las Vegas” “I’m so impressed with the work of all the organization to set up such an incredible tournament in Mauritius. Everyone worked so hard to make it a success, and I could not be happier to bring the title home to South Africa. The next great thing would be to host a WPT National event in South Africa,” said Lentin. Well, we don’t know yet for South Africa, but for Mauritius, it’s on, a new season is coming, hosted once again by the Ti Vegas Casino (meaning “Small Las Vegas” in French Creole) of Grand Baie,

POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

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Tournament

PACKAGES WPT National Mauritius 2013 Hotel LUX **** sup.

WPT • Lodging (1-2 persons + children) Lux ocean Room, 7 nights.

• Transfert for 2 by cab.

• Price: e1,290 (night +1 : e170) Gold • Lodging (1-2 persons + children) Lux ocean Room, 7 nights.

• Tournament: 1 Main Event • Transfert for 2 by cab.

• Price: e2,790 (night +1 : e170) Diamond • Lodging (1-2 persons + children) Lux Junior suite, 7 nights.

• Tournament: 1 Main Event • Transfert for 2 by helicopter.

• Price: e4,990 (night +1 : e350) • Card guard collector WPT 5000 offert

Appartment Domaine des alizées Appartment • Lodging (2-4 persons) Appartement ****+ • Number of nights, your pick • Transfert for 2 max.

• Price: e200 (night +1 : e200) • Transfert for free for 8 nights or + Book online at : www.wptmauritius.com

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in the northwestern part of the island. While winter will strike in Europe, this part of the world will enjoy summertime, the perfect moment to discover the white sandy beaches, the turquoise sea and one of the most beautiful coral reefs in the world.

This year, the WPT Mauritius series will featured a 5-Day €1,500 Main Event, with 25,000 starting chips and, as well as several interesting side events, with buy-ins ranking from €300 to €3,300 (High Roller Tournament). A €500 + €50 Deepstack event will kick off the Mauritius festival on March 3rd, followed by a Turbo Bounty PMU Team Pro €500 + €50 tournament. There will be plenty to do and we’re sure it will once again attract many big poker stars, as they had a blast during the 2012 edition.

Heavenly settings, comfortable facilities, exciting activities and, of course, high-level poker tournaments, everything you can dream of will be in Mauritius once again to give you a magical stay amid the blue lagoons and tropical gardens of the Indian Ocean!

WPT National Series Mauritius

List of Winners $1,100 Main Event

Field: 290 players; Prize pool: C303,050 1st Gary Lentin C70,000 2nd Fabrice Ricci C42,000 3rd Ayaz Manj C29,000

€3,700 High Roller Event

Field: 32 players; Prize pool: C83,000 1st Jean-Philippe Rohr C30,000 2nd Darren Kramer C22,000 3rd Ravish Tulsidas C15,000

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RANKING

2012 European Poker Money Lists

From 1st Jan 2012 to 15th oct 2012

Sam Trickett is definitely unbeatable: after having signed a runner-up place at the world’s highest buy-in tournament this summer at WSOP, the British player is way ahead the European Poker Money List this year. Behind him, German players are competing, around 2 millions each, and even if the PartyPoker.com player Marvin Rettenmaier has made some famous successes in 2012, Tobias Reinkemeier is still second. But, beware! Antonius and Hansen are just a few dollars away and will be for sure hard competitors at the end of this year...

Sam Trickett

Ranking

Marvin Rettenmaier

Tobias Reinkemeier

Player

Winnings (USD)

Ranking

Player

Winnings (USD)

1

Sam Trickett

11,166,185

16

Davidi Kitai

1,110,367

2

Tobias Reinkemeier

2,019,906

17

Ludovic Lacay

1,005,714

3

Marvin Rettenmaier

2,001,563

18

Karen Sarkisyan

893,665

4

Patrik Antonius

1,945,242

19

John Paul Kelly

891,171

5

Gus Hansen

1,823,579

20

Jannick Wrang

888,446

6

Philipp Gruissem

1,744,052

21

Philippe Ktorza

878,303

7

Ole Schemion

1,700,207

22

Sergii Baranov

859,673

8

Igor Kurganov

1,694,089

23

Paul Guichard

818,446

9

Leonid Bilokur

1,631,586

24

Joni Jouhkimainen

812,844

10

Bertrand Grospellier

1,488,434

25

Frederik Brink Jensen

760,206

11

Viktor Blom

1,456,683

26

Andras Koroknai

754,798

12

Lucille Cailly

1,437,474

27

Dominik Nitsche

740,662

13

Vadim Kursevich

1,382,367

28

Jan Peter Jachtmann

14

Mikalai Pobal

1,274,331

29

Bernard Guigon

728,368

15

Ilari Sahamies

1,132,326

30

Aubin Cazals

708,382

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737,115

Ranking

Player

Winnings (USD)

Ranking

Player

Winnings (USD)

31

Artem Litvinov

696,537

66

Vuong Than Trong

431,369

32

Mikhail Smirnov

688,483

67

Ruben Visser

428,374

33

Rocco Palumbo

669,436

68

Neil Channing

421,624

34

Tomas Junek

661,022

69

Artem Metalidi

421,008

35

Mickey Petersen

645,438

70

Luke Schwartz

406,736

36

Gaëlle Baumann

639,754

71

Tom Middleton

405,781

37

Kevin Vandersmissen

611,578

72

Govert Metaal

403,477

38

Christopher Brammer

606,112

73

Besim Hot

394,417

39

Stéphane Albertini

593,522

74

Pierre Neuville

386,643

40

Elisabeth Hille

590,442

75

Theo Jørgensen

382,764

41

Stephen Chidwick

588,463

76

Fraser MacIntyre

380,438

42

Sergio Castelluccio

582,674

77

Andre Morath

379,125

43

Jan Heitmann

571,231

78

Benjamin Spindler

371,858

44

Oleksii Kovalchuk

570,373

79

Anaras Alekberovas

370,746

45

Terje Augdal

559,699

80

Ognjen Sekularac

370,398

46

Wilfried Harig

533,728

81

Dominykas Karmazinas

369,928

47

Vladimir Mefodichev

533,138

82

Jason Tompkins

369,594

48

Laurent Polito

529,288

83

Rinat Bogdanov

367,127

49

Yorane Kerignard

527,613

84

Fernando Fontoura Brito

365,414

50

Bruno Lopes

523,021

85

Paul Vas Nunes

353,747

51

Michael Gathy

521,397

86

Vyacheslav Zhukov

345,993

52

Kristijonas Andrulis

517,876

87

Marcello Marigliano

345,835

53

Éric Sfez

511,301

88

Andreas Eiler

342,466

54

Samad Razavi

499,290

89

Mario Puccini

338,046

55

Craig McCorkell

483,266

90

Angelo Recchia

337,602

56

Roger Hairabedian

473,023

91

Robert Baguley

335,527

57

Talal Shakerchi

468,567

92

Vincent Van Der Fluit

332,929

58

Morten Lihn Christensen

452,645

93

Konstantin Puchkov

331,798

59

Jérémy Quehen

444,926

94

Balazs Botond

331,544

60

Jonathan Aguiar

444,088

95

Ercin Corc

326,354

61

Fabrice Soulier

443,711

96

Stefan Huber

325,745

62

Juha Helppi

440,504

97

Toby Lewis

323,826

63

Tom Alner

439,339

98

Nicky Evans

317,386

64

Mohamad Kowssarie

435,861

99

Nicco Maag

316,305

65

Andrei Stoenescu

432,912

100

Morten Mortensen

315,514

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RANKING

All time money list - Europe

Despite the WSOPE, no big moves at the top of the all time money list Europe, as all the leaders have not cashed during the fall competitions. ElkY is still fifth, and noone seems to be able to beat him in the upcoming months. David Benyamine is coming back strong, and as he is now sponsored again (by ISPT), he might beat few big fields in the upcoming months‌ Same for Hansen, who has been picked as FullTilt Poker new icon for the relaunch of the website.

Sam Trickett

Ranking

Country

Gus Hansen

Player

Winnings (USD)

Peter Eastgate

Ranking

Country

Player

Winnings (USD)

1

Sam Trickett

17,470,283

16

Surinder Sunar

4,647,479

2

Gus Hansen

11,210,073

17

Juha Helppi

4,479,550

3

Peter Eastgate

11,127,554

18

Yevgeniy Timoshenko

4,449,354

4

Carlos Mortensen

10,811,436

19

Andy Black

4,423,333

5

Bertrand Grospellier

10,135,037

20

Tobias Reinkemeier

4,285,333

6

Pius Heinz

8,893,098

21

Vitaly Lunkin

4,263,374

7

Eugene Katchalov

7,216,939

22

Fabrice Soulier

4,033,513

8

Ivan Demidov

6,773,227

23

Marcel Luske

4,006,735

9

David Benyamine

6,454,548

24

Antoine Saout

3,996,098

10

Dave Ulliott

6,011,126

25

Marty Smyth

3,876,539

11

Martin Staszko

5,595,821

26

Alexander Kravchenko

3,864,463

12

Chris Bjorin

5,399,123

27

Roger Hairabedian

3,793,667

13

Roland de Wolfe

5,330,556

28

Annette Obrestad

3,773,511

14

Patrik Antonius

5,328,713

29

Benjamin Spindler

3,506,782

15

Jeff Lisandro

4,974,548

30

Ram Vaswani

74 ISSUE 8 // November-december november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

Available at www.poker52europa.fr

3,477,251

5

6 7

8

9

Spain

10

Alessio Isaia

Luca Pagano

Dario Minieri Dario Alioto

Sergio Castelluccio Player

3,230,265

2,800,188

2,405,966

Winnings (USD)

Juan Maceiras Lapido Jr.

1,082,049

Tomeu Gomila

6

Dragan Kostic

8

Leo Margets

7

9

10

1,666,245 916,089

Juan Manuel Pastor

707,924

Player

Winnings (USD)

Ivan Demidov

3

Alexander Kravchenko

3,864,463

Max Lykov

2,803,200

Kirill Gerasimov

2,563,108

Vitaly Lunkin

4

Alexander Kostritsyn

6

Igor Kurganov

5

7

8

9

10

Konstantin Puchkov

1,757,024

Player Chris Bjorin

3

William Thorson

5

Martin Jacobson

6 7

8

9

10

Winnings (USD) 5,399,123

Player

Winnings (USD)

Andy Black

4,423,333

3

Eoghan O'Dea

2,522,625

Marty Smyth

4

Padraig Parkinson

6

Dermot Blain

5

7

10

Liam Flood

Noel Furlong

Peter Eastgate

4

Rehne Pedersen

Frederik Brink Jensen Jan Sorensen

Søren Kongsgaard Nielsen

8

Lars Bonding

10

Rasmus Nielsen

Sander Lyloff

Ranking

Player

11,127,554

2,302,466 2,205,263 2,162,419

1,988,594 1,836,215 1,712,552

1,418,747 Winnings (USD)

1

Annette Obrestad

3

Andreas Hoivold

1,654,064

Dag Martin Mikkelsen

1,499,148

2

Jan Olav Sjavik Trond Eidsvig

5

Andreas Walnum

9

Johnny Lodden

7

8

977,333

Player Bertrand Grospellier

3

Fabrice Soulier

5

Roger Hairabedian

9

10

1,197,518

1,125,214

Marcel Bjerkmann

1

7

1,623,879

1,092,588

Ranking 2

3,773,511

1,839,863

Bjorn-Erik Glenne Kristian Kjondal

10

8

1,145,807

Winnings (USD)

3,239,762

1,201,017

1,142,446

2,018,653

2,005,334

Theo Jørgensen

6

1,209,798

2,286,485

3

1,219,667

John Magill

Donnacha O'Dea

3,370,892

2,932,396

11,210,073

4

1,398,668

3,457,185

Gus Hansen

1,648,429

Fintan Gavin

8

9

3,876,539

Player

4,285,333

1

2

9

1,696,936

1

Florian Langmann

Ranking

6

Ranking 2

Dominik Nitsche

2,778,777

Kent Lundmark

3,372,026

Moritz Kranich

7

2,161,275

Marvin Guido Rettenmaier

10

Michael Tureniec

1,707,983

3,506,782

Andreas Krause

4

Mikael Thuritz

Benjamin Spindler

8

3,002,166

Christer Johansson

Winnings (USD) 8,893,098

Philipp Gruissem

Johan Storakers

2,754,389

Player

3,158,830

Pius Heinz

6

3,419,490

Erik Marcus Friberg

3,106,616

Sebastian Ruthenberg

6

2,910,950

James Akenhead

4

Martin De Knijff

3,372,326

3,308,051

3,306,889

Tobias Reinkemeier

3

3,477,251

John Gale

2

5

2,002,195

3,331,128

Ranking

9

2,584,867

2,188,926

Leonid Bilokur

1

4

2,915,269

Andrey Pateychuk

Ranking 2

6,773,227

4,263,374

Neil Channing

Jake Cody

7

680,222

4,647,479

Tony Bloom

1

6,011,126

Surinder Sunar Ram Vaswani

5

770,273

1

2

4

9

827,975

826,264

Ranking

5,330,556

10

847,718

Jesús Cortes

Adria Maria Balaguer

Roland de Wolfe

Dave Ulliott

7

1,457,233

3

Raul Mestre

3

8

10,811,436

Raul Paez Corral

17,470,283

2

1,861,016 1,225,238

Winnings (USD)

Sam Trickett

5

2,055,370

Player

1

6

Carlos Mortensen

2

Ranking

2,078,362

1

5

Russia

Salvatore Bonavena

Ranking

4

Sweden

David Steicke

3,464,384

England

Max Pescatori

Filippo Candio

4,974,548

Germany

3

2

Winnings (USD)

Denmark

Jeff Lisandro

4

Ireland

Player

1

Norway

Ranking

France

Italy

top ten - all time money list

David Benyamine

1,057,150

Winnings (USD) 10,135,037 6,454,548 4,033,513

Antoine Saout

3,996,098

Ludovic Lacay

2,970,920

Jean-Paul Pasqualini

2,603,467

Alain Roy

2,426,868

Bruno Fitoussi

Antony Lellouche

3,793,667 2,645,431 2,551,175

POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

75

GPI ranking

GPI Top 100

Poker52 Europa is very proud to provide you with the exclusive GPI European Top 100, created especially for the magazine by Global Poker Index (GPI). Starting this issue, you will be able to discover the Top 100 European players in real time as well as the GPI POY 2012. Marvin Rettenmaier is the first European player this year, well ahead ElkY, but in the GPI Top 100, the Frenchman is still first, thanks to his large winnings the previous year. Germany is doing good with two players in the Top 3, as well as France with Roger Hairabedian being number 5! English players should fight back very soon...

Bertrand Grospellier

Rank

Country

Player

Philipp Gruissem

Marvin Rettenmaier

Score

Rank

Country

Player

Score

1

Bertrand Grospellier

2732.80

19

Zimnan Ziyard

1691.65

2

Marvin Rettenmaier

2602.64

3

Philipp Gruissem

2477.83

20

Kristijonas Andrulis

1682.33

4

Roberto Romanello

2279.33

1679.89

5

Roger Hairabedian

2155.08

6

Toby Lewis

2013.18

7

Tobias Reinkemeier

1950.26

8

Martin Jacobson

1892.21

9

Stephen Chidwick

1873.31

10

Juha Helppi

1862.69

11

Andrea Dato

1845.06

12

John Paul Kelly

1760.86

13

Govert Metaal

1754.27

14

Chris Moorman

1744.40

15

Christopher Brammer

1736.99

16

Tristan ClÊmençon

1735.16

17

Anton Wigg

1712.75

18

Mihails Morozovs

76 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

1694.51

21

Fernando Brito

22

Fabrice Soulier

1646.57

23

Dimitar Danchev

1635.80

24

Davidi Kitai

1628.51

25

Phillippe Ktorza

1626.17

26

Martin Finger

1623.12

27

Alain Roy

1614.92

28

Bruno Lopes

1609.56 1602.26

29

David Benyamine

30

Vojtech Ruzicka

1592.53

31

Mickey Petersen

1584.40

32

Heinz Kamutzki

1555.43

33

Mustapha Kanit

1549.45

34

Ludovic Lacay

1518.16

35

Mihai Manole

1517.10

36

Guillaume Darcourt

1514.07

The Global Poker Index (“GPI”) is a ranking of the top 300 live tournament poker players in the world as of the day it is published. Players are ranked weekly based on their performance by finishing in cash positions in qualifying tournaments occurring over the previous 36 month period. A cash position is any position where the player receives a portion of the total prize for their performance in an event (all references to buy-in are inclusive of entry fees). Typically the top 10% to 20% of the participants in an event finish in a cash position.

Qualifying tournaments are events with 21 or more players and a buy-in of $1500 USD (or other currency equivalent) or higher that are open to the public, and are not specialty or selected audience events such as charity, seniors, doubles, satellite, women, team, employee, executive and CEO events. Players are ranked according to their finishing scores in qualifying tournaments. Each player’s individual GPI score is an aggregate of scores in events over the previous 36 month period, measured from the day the GPI is calculated. The score for a given event is derived from a combination of their finishing place percentage, buy-in and aging factor. Finishing percentage refers to the percentage of the starting field a player bests in his or her finish. Buy-in refers to the relative amount of the event buy-in to the baseline buy-in of $1500 USD. Aging factor refers to the weighting of results by their recency, where more recent results are weighted more heavily than past results. The GPI limits results to four (4) results per half-year time period for the most recent 18 months and three (3) results per half-year period for the 18 months prior. The GPI aggregates only the top four scores per each half-year period in the most recent year and a half and the top three scores for the year and a half prior for a maximum total of 21 scores per 36 month aggregation period.

Rank

Country

Player

37

David Vamplew

Score

Rank

Country

Player

Score

82

Dominik Nitsche

1497.12

83

James Akenhead

1150.57

1490.82

84

Ana Laura Marquez Esteban

1149.52

1510.52

1153.27

38

Sergio Castelluccio

39

Ismael Bojang

40

Aubin Cazals

1479.95

85

Jason Tompkins

1142.98

41

Alessio Isaia

1476.40

86

Ignat Liviu

1139.34

42

Joni Jouhkimainen

1476.27

87

Kevin Vandersmissen

1137.45

43

Martins Adeniya

1473.41

88

Alessandro Longobardi

1133.44

44

Pierre Neuville

1462.81

89

Adrien Allain

1132.93

45

Jean-Noël Thorel

1458.80

90

Wilfried Harig

1131.43

46

Sam Trickett

1425.65

91

Dermot Blain

1127.24

47

Kent Lundmark

1388.82

92

Carla Solinas

1126.23

48

James Dempsey

1386.18

93

Eric Sfez

1122.09

49

Liv Boeree

1371.28

94

Lucille Cailly

50

William Thorson

1363.00

95

Marc Inizan

1110.62

51

Rocco Palumbo

1357.48

96

Craig McCorkell

1103.04

52

Kenny Hallaert

1349.13

97

Samad Razavi

1102.05

53

Jake Cody

1346.32

98

Stephane Albertini

1093.16

54

David Steicke

1341.28

99

Benjamin Spindler

1080.74

55

Yorane Kerignard

1336.68

100

Chris Bjorin

1075.97

56

Nicolas Cardyn

1333.41

57

Dominykas Karmazinas

1326.73

58

Jeff Lisandro

1322.64 1320.63

59

Nicolas Levi

60

Simon Ravnsbaek

1317.45

61

Jan Bendik

1307.13

62

Massimo Mosele

1284.41

63

Frederik Brink Jensen

1281.12

64

John Eames

1278.97

65

Jan Heitmann

1269.11

66

Ben Vinson

1262.85

67

Ole Schemion

1261.47

68

Paul Berende

1261.43

69

Jan Peter Jachtmann

1259.24

70

Mario Puccini

1231.49

71

Zoltan Szabo

1221.51

72

Rupert Elder

1217.62

73

Marco Leonzio

74

1111.85

GPI POY 2012 100 top 20 Rank

Country

Player

Score

1

Dan Smith

1044.71

2

Kyle Julius

906.02

3

Marvin Rettenmaier

891.34

4

Phil Hellmuth

846.83

5

Andrew Lichtenberger

819.75

6

David Baker

790.71 766.72

7

Jason Mercier

8

Bertrand Grospellier

752.53

9

Daniel Negreanu

747.64

10

Jonathan Duhamel

741.24

11

Justin Bonomo

720.35

1216.23

12

Mohsin Charania

718.52

Jean-Philippe Rohr

1213.84

13

John Juanda

714.42

1208.69

14

Phil Ivey

713.44

1207.75

15

Joseph Cheong

655.76

16

Stephen O'Dwyer

655.63

17

Michael Watson

654.81

18

Erik Cajelais

639.54

19

Timothy Adams

622.25

20

Eugene Katchalov

613.80

75

Morten Mortensen

76

Koen De Visscher

77

Fabian Quoss

1202.25

78

Max Silver

1190.88

79

Laurent Polito

1183.89

80

Dan Murariu

1171.00

81

Tomeu Gomila

1166.68

POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

77

You are the Tournament Director, Series 5

Verbal and Physical Threats

The Hendon Mob gets a lot of emails asking about tournament rulings relating to player conduct and verbal or physical threats. This one was sent in by Mr. John Binns.

The incident was recounted as follows: At a WPT event, two players exchanged heated words. During the ensuing break one of the players made threats against the other’s life. This was overheard by several other players, who then brought it to the attention of the TD. Before play resumed security was called. Both players’ names were taken but the player making the threats was not penalized (he was later given a year suspension from the casino). Should this player have been allowed to continue playing or should he have been ejected from the tournament?

C H R O N I c l E hen d on m ob

Matt Savage

Trying to talk to the player is my first course of action and if he does not back down AND apologize then I have no problem with security escorting him off of the property.

Threats like this should not be taken lightly these days and the player should know that barring him permanently is also an option.

TDA rule #50 “Penalties and Disqualification” covers this decision pretty clearly (see below).

David Lamb

Once it is established that an individual has made threats against a participant, we are obligated to notify security.

Players are entitled to a safe and non-intimidating arena.

Based upon the witness’s reliability and the nature of the threats, I would have no problem with immediately ejecting the offender and deciding later whether this individual should be barred from future play. Threats are definitely abusive and disruptive behavior, and TDA Rule #50 covers disqualification as follows: 50: Penalties and Disqualification.

A penalty may be invoked if a player exposes any card with action pending, throws a card off the table, violates the oneplayer-to-a-hand rule, or similar incidents occur. Penalties will be invoked in cases of soft play, abuse, disruptive behavior, or cheating. Penalties available to the tournament director include verbal warnings, “missed hand” penalties,

78 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

and disqualification. Except for a one-hand penalty, missed hand penalties will be assessed as follows: The offender will miss one hand for every player, including the offender, who is at the table when the penalty is given, multiplied by the number of rounds specified in the penalty. For the period of the penalty, the offender shall remain away from the table but will continue to be dealt in.

JP McCann

Staff and players are entitled to work and play in a safe environment and for this reason I don’t tolerate abuse of any nature to staff members or other players, and will give penalties up to disqualification. I deal with these matters on a case-by-case basis. I often find speaking to the players away from the table about their conduct with a warning that continued abuse will result in disqualification normally puts an end to the matter.

With regards to the case at the WPT, I would need to further investigate the matter, as a threat against one’s life is a very serious one indeed, and is not to be taken lightly. My problem with the WPT case is that no tournament staff actually heard what was said, so we are talking about second-hand information. Is it possible that this information is coming from one of the guys’ friends, and that we are getting a onesided story? For this reason I think speaking to both players privately about the situation with security present is the best course of action.

The incident was recounted as follows: At a WPT event, two players exchanged heated words…

Thomas Kremser

The TD, in cooperation with security, should handle this type of situation. Every incident is different and has to be handled as such. It is up to the judgment of the TD and security to disqualify or not. No rule will specifically apply, except that the casino has the right to bar players who don’t follow house rules or who threaten the security of other persons.

David Luzago

Obviously the Casino might have its own ruling for these cases too. It is one thing to not allow him to continue to play the tournament, and another to boot him from the building. It is very important to act quickly, before any other decision by the casino or by security can be taken, thus rendering impossible the TD’s decision. So acting in concert is very important. I would ask the table and dealer to break down the situation, relaying whatever threats were made and by whom, and then you either give him a verbal warning or the boot if he is very reiterative in his threats and refuses to apologize. This situation may affect the normal progress of the tournament and should not be tolerated. There should be zero tolerance for this type of behavior in the poker world, and TDs should do everything in their hands to prevent it from happening.

FIDPA (The International Poker Rules) Ruling (Marcel Luske)

There are clear IP rules concerning this kind of situation. Such behavior should be taken very seriously and stopped immediately. #2. While management always attempts to maintain a pleasant environment for its customers and employees, it is not responsible for player conduct. Management reserves the right to refuse entry into the casino, card room, and/ or tournament area(s) to any player it sees fit to reject. The following will not be permitted or tolerated: —Collusion with another player or any other form of cheating. —Verbally or physically threatening any customer or employee. #3.4. Players should conduct themselves in a disciplined manner, demonstrating sportsmanlike behavior at all times. #9.1. A player will receive a penalty when he, knowingly or unknowingly, violates a rule that compromises the fairness of the game. Actions, statements and/or behavior …

We all understand that as far as possible the TD has to base his decision on fairness. If it is really a very serious threat, then security and casino management will act by banning the player for life, and probably calling or informing the police, no matter what the TD’s verdict is.

David Flusfeder (IFP – International federation of Poker)

The IFP rule number 78 includes the following: “In order to maintain a congenial environment for all players, the TD may, at his or her sole discretion, penalize, suspend or disqualify a participant who [exhibits]... abusive behavior...” This includes: “verbally or physically attacking other competitors.”

In the example given here, I think the TD would be perfectly justified to disqualify the offending player immediately.

Thomas Lamatsch

At EPT we don’t have a specific rule for this.

I had a similar situation at the EPT Final Monaco. The best way for me to solve this is to talk to both players, with security present, and explain the ruling, and see if there is any further problem. So, one round penalty for both and last warning. I have to give a penalty to both players, because I can’t guarantee that the other player didn’t say something similar to his opponent, but without an audience present!

Without necessarily booting a player from the tournament, I have to inform security and floor staff about the altercation, so we can keep an eye on the players involved. At MC it worked out perfectly — no discussion, and peace at all the tables!

The Mob Verdict

All the TDs agree: this is something that falls within their jurisdiction, even though it took place during a break with no tournament staff present. There is also a general consensus that security staff should be involved.

As Thomas Kremser says, “Every incident is different and should be handled as such,” with regard to the right of payers and staff to be protected from threatening and abusive behavior as well as the prospect of physical harm.

JP Macann and Thomas Lamatsch are right to point out that the TD is dealing with second-hand information here, and though he must take decisive action he cannot necessarily be expected to make a judgment regarding who is and who is not at fault.

If the incident had taken place at the table and been witnessed by tournament staff, the TD would most certainly want to issue penalties or even a disqualification.

In this particular case we agree with those who would speak to both players with security present and, at the very least, issue a warning that further incidents would lead to penalties, or — what is more likely — to disqualification.

Furthermore, if the TD judged that penalties or disqualification were warranted based on the initial incident, then that would be his call to make.

POKER 52 europa // november-december 2012 // ISSUE 8

79

tournament schedule november 1 - 4 Nov PCL GRAN FINAL 2012 - Poker Champions League, Nova Gorica 1 - 4 Nov Million Poker Race 11, Marrakech 2 - 3 Nov Comar Poker Tour - Main Event, Madrid 2 - 11 Nov 2012 Heartland Poker Tour - Las Vegas, Las Vegas 3 - 4 Nov Fox Poker Club - November Main Event, London 3 - 4 Nov One Way Poker Deepstack, Swansea 3 - 10 Nov Master Classics of Poker 2012, Amsterdam 3 - 12 Nov [WPTN] WPT National Series Grussan, Gruissan 4 - 11 Nov 2012 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour - Leg 12, Blackpool 4 - 12 Nov 1 Million Merit Fall Poker Open 2012, Kyrenia 5 Nov 2012 Genting Poker Big Game, London 6 - 10 Nov 2012 2012 Harvest Poker Classic, Regina 7 Nov 2012 2012 Great Blue Heron Casino Tournament, Port Perry 7 - 11 Nov 2012 UK & Ireland Poker Tour - Bristol, Bristol 7 - 11 Nov Cotrugli Poker Week, Zagreb 7 - 11 Nov Czech Poker Tour - November Special, Prague 7 - 21 Nov Borgata Fall Poker Open, Atlantic City 8 - 11 Nov 2012 Chilipoker Deepstack Open Vienna, Vienna 9 - 17 Nov WPT Copenhagen, Copenhagen 9 - 19 Nov 2012 2012 Aruba Poker Open, Palm Beach 10 - 11 Nov 2012 ACF Poker Tour & WPT National Series, Gruissan 13 - 19 Nov 2012 France Poker Series - Paris, Paris 14 - 18 Nov Latin American Poker Tour V - Grand Final, Lima 14 - 20 Nov APT - Asian Series Cambodia, Bavet City 15 - 17 Nov 2012 Poker Autumn Challenge, Innsbruck 15 - 18 Nov European Masters of Poker IV, Dublin 15 - 24 Nov Czech Poker Festival, Prague 15 - 26 Nov WPT Montreal, Kahnawake

16 - 18 Nov Canarias Poker Tour - Playa de las Americas, Tenerife 16 - 25 Nov Paris ACF Hold’em Series, Paris 17 - 18 Nov Poker Player UK Tour 2012 - Grand Final, London 20 - 26 Nov Dusk Till Dawn Caribbean Poker Party, St. Kitts 21 - 25 Nov India Poker Series - Chapter 18, Goa 23 Nov - 4 Dec DeepStacks Poker Tour Mohegan Sun National Championship, Uncasville 24 Nov - 2 Dec Ukrainian-Russian Tour - Grand Final, Kiev 24 Nov - 2 Dec 2012 Grosvenor UK Poker Tour - Grand Final, London 25 Nov - 11 Dec WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Las Vegas 26 Nov - 2 Dec Fitzwilliam Poker Festival, Dublin 27 - 30 Nov World Sit’N’Go Masters, Prague 27 Nov - 1 Dec WPT Mazagan, El Jadida 27 Nov - 2 Dec Baltic Winter Festival 27 Nov - 7 Dec St. Maarten Poker Unibet Open 5th Anniversary, St. Maarten 29 Nov - 2 Dec High Limit Turniere 2012, Baden DSO Deepstack, Gran Casino Barcelona 30 Nov APAT - United Kingdom Home International Poker Championship, Stoke on Trent december 1 - 2 Dec APAT - United Kingdom Amateur Poker Championship, Unknown 1 - 9 Dec Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge XXVI, Mashantucket 2 - 3 Dec Kings € 1000 Event, Prague 3 - 8 Dec WPT Five Diamonds, Las Vegas 3 - 9 Dec WPT Prague 3 - 9 Dec APT - Asian Series Goa 5 - 15 Dec EPT Prague 6 - 9 Dec 2012 Chilipoker Deepstack Open Marrakech, Unknown 6 - 17 Dec WSOP Circuit - Harrah’s Rincon, San Diego 7 - 8 Dec Kings High Roller Event, Prague

80 ISSUE 8 // november-december 2012 // POKER 52 europa

7 - 10 Dec WPT Regional Series - Seminole Hard Rock Winter Tampa Bay Open, Tampa 10 - 16 Dec £100,000 Guaranteed Xmas Grand-Prix, London 11 - 15 Dec GSOP Live, Prague 12 Dec 2012 Great Blue Heron Casino Tournament, Port Perry 13 - 16 Dec B.O. Poker Classic, Bad Oeynhausen 14 - 17 Dec WPT Sanya – China 15 - 16 Dec Fox Poker Club - December Main Event, London 17 - 19 Dec The Xmas Cracker, London 18 - 23 Dec Merit Poker Holdiay Series 2012, Kyrenia 19 Dec 2012 Great Blue Heron Casino Tournament, Port Perry 22 Dec AS D’OR Deepstack, SPA 23 Dec 2012 Super Stack Series - Leg 18, London 26 - 30 Dec Big Bluffs Xmas Extravaganza. £150,000 GTD, London 27 Dec Fitzwilliam End of Month Event, Dublin 27 - 30 Dec Euregio Poker Challenge Winter Edition, Valkenburg 28 - 29 Dec 2012 Super Stack Series - Leg 19, Birmingham january 2013 1 - 18 Jan WSOP Circuit - Los Angeles, Los Angeles 5 - 14 Jan PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, Paradise Island 10 - 28 Jan Euro Finals of Poker, Aviation Club de France, Paris 11 Jan Pokus Bigstack-Series Lucky 7, Vienna 17 - 21 Jan UK & Ireland Poker Tour - Edinburgh, Edinburgh 17 Jan - 3 Feb 2013 Aussie Millions Poker Championship, Melbourne 26 - 27 Jan APAT - United Kingdom Team Poker Championship, Luton 30 Jan - 2 Feb 2012 France Poker Series - Final, Deauville 30 Jan - 9 Feb EPT Deauville, Deauville 31 Jan Fitzwilliam End of Month Event, Dublin