Poker News Round-up

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Poker News Round-up: Week #16

By Adam Noone, 18/04/2008

The Monte Carlo Bay Hotel & Casino

The opulent surroundings of Monte Carlo provide a fitting location for the climax of the European Poker Tour and there was certainly plenty of money changing hands this week as the best players in the world converged on the principality of Monaco. 842 entrants paying €10,000 apiece to enter the EPT grand final created the largest prize pool ever for a tournament held in Europe, with a huge sum waiting for whoever could end up with all 12.6 million chips sitting in front of them.

Fiery Joe Hachem

As the chips changed hands over the course of the first two days, players returned on day three with the bubble due to burst and the tension mounting. That tension spilled over early on at Joe Hachem’s table when a bluff on the river by the former world champion was called by Peter Traply. Hachem tapped the table in acknowledgement that he had lost and proceeded to muck his hand, at which point Woody Deck (who had not even been involved in the hand) decided that he wanted to see the cards Hachem was folding. Hachem was adamant that he didn’t have to show as the winning hand had already been shown, prompting Deck to accuse Hachem of angle shooting by not exposing his cards. If it was an attempt to tilt Hachem, it certainly seemed to work as the Australian furiously leapt up from his seat to confront Deck. Other players and security guards intervened to head off the very real threat of violence erupting at the table, and after plenty of verbals Hachem eventually headed outside to calm himself down.

Soon after the dust had settled hand for hand play was introduced but it took over three hours from that point to trim the field down to the 80 paid places. Surinder Sunar was the unlucky bubble victim when his pocket jacks lost a race to Q K, and finally normal play resumed. At least it was normal for most people, but Antonio Esfandiari became the victim of some most unusual play by Stig Rasmussen. Chip leader Esfandiari limped under the gun for 10,000 and after the small blind completed, Rasmussen moved all in from the big blind for 700,000. Esfandiari quickly called with his pocket queens, the small blind folded and Rasmussen tabled A 10 to much astonishment. Just as Rasmussen was starting to look rather foolish, an ace popped up on the turn and Esfandiari’s commanding position in the tournament was crushed. He did in fact stage something of a revival to make the final table, but could only maintain his tournament life sufficiently long to record eighth place (two places better than Rasmussen who bust out after announcing that he was all in out of turn.)

Glen Chorny

Chip leader going into the final table was Canadian Glen Chorny, who at one point became the shortest stack before once again taking charge of the table when he eliminated young internet star Isaac Baron (aka Mr. Menlo) in fourth place. When Chorny also saw off Maxime Villemure in third place with a bigger straight, his lead over Hungarian Denes Karlo was so imposing that heads up play lasted for just two hands. Karlo pushed it all in pre-flop with K Q and Chorny made the call with A 5 . A delighted Chorny saw another ace slide out on the flop and that was enough for him to take the EPT grand final title and win one of the biggest tournament prizes of all time – a massive €2,020,000.

Chorny had qualified for the tournament online, and as usual there were plenty of players who had made their way there via the internet. On the whole it hasn’t been a great week for the internet game though as another payment processor has been forced to withdraw from the US market. ePassporte have released a statement revealing that they will no longer offer a service between American customers and online poker sites. Whilst stating that they believe they have done nothing illegal, ePassporte say that the actions of the US Attorney’s Office have left them feeling that they have no option but to withdraw from the online gambling market. Given the problems encountered by Neteller –that is the arrest of founders Stephen Lawrence and John Lefebvre plus having their accounts frozen, it is unsurprising that ePassporte have chosen to play it safe and get out while they can. All of which means that with one less payment processor for US customers to use, the online game will suffer further until the UIGEA is overturned.

Brani Hawbaker

And finally, Brandi Hawbaker, noted for her “drama bombs” within the poker community has hit the headlines in spectacular fashion for one last time. A troubled soul who was regularly surrounded by controversy, Brandi has had run ins with players such as Captain Tom Franklin and Mark Newhouse which in turn have also sucked numerous others into the mix – Hawbaker even alleged that Doyle Brunson had tried to pay her off to keep quiet about the allegations she was making against Franklin. Her actions attracted few sympathisers and for her latest stunt is supposed to have emptied the house of a Vegas pit boss she was seeing after a falling out, which resulted in her selling the entire contents including war medals passed down from his grandfather.

It had been suggested that she was not well mentally, and whatever her demons were, they became too much for her this week when she took her own life. Such is the low esteem that many hold her in, it was proposed by some that this was nothing more than a publicity stunt at first. However various sources have confirmed that Brandi, also known as Naami Dea after a vain attempt to make a fresh start to her life, was not just attention seeking this time and has genuinely brought an end to her troubled life.

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