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Poker News Round-up: Week #41It’s less than three months since Jerry Yang recruited God to help him win the main event at this year’s World Series Of Poker but already dates have been announced for next year’s series. The 39th WSOP will take place from 30th May to 17th July and once again will be hosted by the Rio. Although the full schedule of events has not yet been released, organisers decided to give players and media as much time as possible to prepare by announcing the dates this week. The Amazon Room will be used to host two special events in the week before the WSOP starts, and players are encouraged to use that period to register in an effort to cut down on the long queues which were seen snaking down the corridors of the Rio this year. It will come as some relief for players in big events such as the WSOP that proposed rules that would have forced American casinos to withhold 25% of tournament winnings over $5,000 in tax have been scrapped. The new rule would have been implemented from March 2008 had it been rubber stamped but the IRS have abandoned the idea in favour of a more player-friendly method of tax collection. This is thought to be likely to involve a form on which winners would be required to declare their income. Players from countries with a tax treaty with the United States, such as Britain, would still be exempt from these taxes providing they apply for an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. The European Poker Tour events are coming thick and fast at the moment and the latest was held in the Austrian city of Baden. At 282 the number of runners was down on last year’s attendance, but as ever the field was packed with quality players. Winner of this year’s Barcelona EPT event Sander Lylloff made the early running and was chip leader after the first day. Interestingly Lylloff’s friend and circuit regular Mark Teltscher was nowhere to be seen at this event (and neither was his sister) leading to further speculation that he is the player under investigation by Pokerstars regarding the disputed win in the World Championship Of Online Poker main event.  Julian Thew The eight players who returned for the final table were evidence of what a global gathering these events have become as Switzerland, USA, Germany, Holland, Russia, Hungary and England were all represented. England have more EPT winners than any other country and Julian Thew was looking to extend that lead and build on some of his own good performances in the past twelve months. Having made a promise to his wife and kids that poker would pay off the mortgage before his fortieth birthday, Thew made good on his pledge and took first place for €671,000, beating Hungary’s Tamas Kalo heads up.  Ultimatebet Aruba Poker Classic Final Table In further live tournament news, the Ultimatebet Aruba Poker Classic has recently concluded in the Caribbean. In contrast to the shambles that was the WPT Turks and Caicos event the previous week, 548 players made the journey to Aruba including 11 time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, HORSE world champion Freddy Deeb and WSOPE main event winner Annette Obrestad. When down to six players the final table was set up outdoors, but as with the final table of the 1997 WSOP main event this proved to be a dubious decision as the wind threatened to blow the cards off the table. When the sun went down players were presented with a new challenge as the lighting rigs attracted swarms of insects buzzing round their heads. Travis Rice managed to maintain his focus throughout this and took down first place for $797,355, although he did see more than his fair share of favourable flops including winning the final hand all-in pre-flop with a dominated. The World Poker Tour makes its one European stop this week, and this year it’s Barcelona not Paris which will host the event. Following complications with France’s gaming laws, the WPT elected to move to Spain for season six where the final table will be held within a castle at Casino Peralada. Barny has made a good start and has above the average stack after day 1a. He will no doubt have been grateful not to have been seated at table 11 where Barry Greenstein, Alexander Kravchenko, Patrick Antonius, Jani Sointula and Steve Zolotow formed one of the toughest tournament tables imaginable. Joe and Ram were also playing but have busted on the first day, Ram’s aggressive style getting him into trouble on this occasion with a bluff that got called (or maybe he just wanted to double through or free up some time on Saturday to watch England). Ross is not playing this one so Barny is now the sole player representing the Mob going into day 2.
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