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Poker News Round-up: Week #07 First in to bat Patrick Antonius Probably the most eagerly anticipated internet games of all time appear to be close to kicking off this week with the addition of some new tables on Full Tilt Poker. Four “durrrr challenge” heads up pot limit Omaha tables have been added to the lobby with one seat reserved for Tom Dwan. The other seat is open although it is thought that it will be Patrick Antonius who will be the first player to face off against durrrr in a 50,000 hand challenge. Phil Galfond has specifically been excluded from these challenges by Dwan but that didn’t stop him cheekily taking the spare seat and plonking down over a million dollars across all four tables and calling for Dwan to stop running scared and play him. There has been no sign of Patrick Antonius yet but he has recently said that he is ready to get it on so the fireworks could begin this weekend.  Russ Hamilton has lost his tongue Since being named as the main culprit responsible for and benefiting from the cheating scandal at Ultimatebet, little has been seen or heard from former world champion Russ Hamilton. This week he has been seen but still not heard from after a reporter from a Las Vegas news website managed to catch up with him as he finished a round of golf. Upon his exit from the clubhouse rawvegas.tv was ready with a microphone to ask some questions of Mr Hamilton, but he was certainly not ready to provide any answers. Hamilton put on his best poker face as he endured one of the most awkward walks to his car he will ever have to make, refusing to say a word or even acknowledge the presence of the interviewer. Despite his attempts to simply not have to deal with the situation, you wouldn’t need to be an FBI interrogator to be able to spot that Hamilton is looking rather sheepish and uncomfortable. Fortunately an FBI interrogator has also seen this footage and has provided some extra insight into what Hamilton is saying without actually opening his mouth. Joe Navarro, author of the excellent Read’Em And Reap poker book, believes that there are several indicators in Hamilton’s behaviour which betray the fact that he feels threatened by the questions he is being asked and that he is able to answer but is having to suppress the truth. The video clip can be seen here. There are a couple of other points worth noting here, firstly that Hamilton is wearing a ClubUBT visor, suggesting that he hasn’t exactly cut all ties with Ultimatebet. If the site had turned over all the information they had on him which could lead to criminal charges it seems strange that he would still be prepared to wear promotional clothing for one of their partner sites. Also note how his playing partners scarper the moment the interviewer approaches, even before any questions are asked. They seem to know that this will not be good news if Russ Hamilton is being asked questions and quickly dissociate themselves from him. One of that foursome is Layne Flack, last seen disrupting the $50k HORSE final table and turning a high five into a pat on the back after being shunned by Erick Lindgren.  Francis McCormack The European Deepstack Championship made a return this week having changed location to Dublin and managed to pull a decent crowd despite falling foul of the weather a little. Snow caused disruption at Heathrow and Dublin airports meaning some players arrived late or simply weren’t able to make it at all, but 154 did manage to sit down for the main event which offers surely the deepest stacks in all of poker. 1,000 big blinds deep (compared to 200 in the WSOP main event,) two players still managed to get the whole lot in the middle inside fifteen minutes but then the Irish do tend to have a fair bit of gamble in them. After three days of play, the elimination of Englishan John Eames led to a deal between the two remaining Irish players Francis McCormack and Jason Thompkins. McCormack had slightly the bigger share and collected €52,500 plus the trophy for his efforts. Providing value and giving players what they want seems to be what the organizers of these events are all about as they are now following it up with another deep stacked event in June. Six handed tournaments are rare events, mostly because it is more cost effective for the venue to have nine or ten players to a table than six. However, all tournaments at the mini festival in June will be short handed, giving players something a little bit different from the usual offerings. Until then there are plenty of worthwhile offerings around the clubs elsewhere, such as the Dusk Till Dawn monthly deepstack events and the Broadway Festival in Birmingham. Alternatively there is still lots going on online with several bad beat jackpots looking rather juicy at the moment, reload bonuses being offered and the conclusion of FTOPS XI on Full Tilt approaching with a $5,000 two day event amongst others.
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