Poker News Round-upBrought to you every Friday |
Poker News Round-up: Week #17Party Poker has been in the news plenty recently and it’s been a busy week for them yet again, although one of contrasting fortunes. The non-prosecution agreement which Party effectively bought recently was hailed as being important to facilitate future funding for acquisitions and this week the speculation has been that such a move could be on the cards. The target of parent company Party Gaming is Gigamedia which is now in talks with Party after hiring Goldman Sachs to find a buyer for either its Everest poker site or Gigamedia as a whole. Everest Poker has established itself as one of the bigger sites in recent years despite not accepting US customers, notably securing a sponsorship deal with the World Series Of Poker to provide Everest branded felts for the tables. According to pokerscout.com it is ranked as the sixth biggest site in the world according to traffic, and as such would represent a significant acquisition if Party were to go ahead with this. On the down side, Party Poker has been stopped from running an advert in UK magazines after the Advertising Standards Agency decided that the content of the ad was misleading. The issue the ASA had stemmed from the use of the phrase “players win more at Party Poker” which made reference to a poll of 10,000 poker players who agreed that they found it easiest to win money at Party. The ASA decided that 10,000 poker players do not constitute a fair and representative cross section of society though, and the advert has now been pulled on the basis that it doesn’t reflect public opinion. Incidentally, the number of complaints received about this which led to the inquiry and subsequent banning was just one. Over in Italy it would appear that there is something of a mini poker boom taking place of late. When the EPT added San Remo to the itinerary last year it was instantly a big hit with only the Caribbean Adventure and Monte Carlo grand final drawing bigger fields than the 701 who played in the Italian leg. Despite the attraction of the WPT grand final in Las Vegas for many of the top players in Europe, this year’s attendance shattered last year’s figure thanks to the many locals who are now taking up the game. 1,178 paid the €5,000 to enter and according to tournament host Luca Pagano they had to turn more people away such was the popularity of the event. As days 1a and 1b trimmed the field down to the size of a regular EPT tournament Croatian Dragan Galic led the pack with a considerable chip lead. A remarkable run saw him also bag up as chip leader at the end of days two, three and four as well to lead the eight handed final table on day five. Once there he distributed his stack around the table with what was described as shocking play by the EPT commentators, and managed to finish in only fifth place. One of the main beneficiaries was Dutch player Constant Rijkenberg who according to fellow finalist Alexander Fitzgerald “is incredibly reckless, but he doesn’t really care which is pretty good in tournaments.” When a reckless player keeps hitting big hands there is only one way it’s going to end and after a short heads up battle with Kalle Niemi, Rijkenberg managed to get his pocket aces paid off to collect the €1,508,000 for the biggest tournament win ever by a Dutch player. That is nearly two and a half times as much as Rob Hollink got for winning the 2005 grand final event in Monte Carlo, which is where the EPT is headed next to bring an end to season five. The increasing popularity of poker in Italy has also caught the attention of the WPT which has added a €4,000 event in Venice for season eight, which will take place in May. If the addition of a tournament in Italy seems to make perfect sense, the other event which is now part of the tour is at the opposite end of the scale and can be described as a puzzling choice at best. The disputed territory of Northern Cyprus aka the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is scheduled to host a $10,000 WPT event in September but it’s hard to imagine that this is going to be any sort of success. Quite apart from the political implications of hosting a tournament in a region that has received diplomatic recognition only from the country that invaded it in 1983, simply getting there is a huge pain. There are no direct flights into Northern Cyprus except from Turkey or Azerbaijan and in a month when the WSOPE starts up in London and EPT Barcelona is often also taking place, are players really going to want to be hanging around for a connecting flight in Baku airport?  Praz Bans At Bellagio the Five Star World Poker Classic is headlined by the $25,000 WPT grand final which will be drawing to a conclusion soon, but there have also been a number of preliminary events that have seen considerable success for British players. There were two final tables and a satellite win to the main event for Liv Boeree but it was Praz Bansi who made the biggest impression. He also won a satellite and made three other final tables including victory in a $5,000 event for $133,380 where he had to see off the likes of Justin Bonomo, Jason Lester, Michael Binger and Scott Montgomery in the final stages. Praz has been recording good tournament finishes ever since he burst onto the scene in 2006 with his WSOP bracelet win, and he looks as good a prospect as any to be the first from this country to double up with another win at this summer’s series. There have been some further good results posted in the main event by players from these parts, including a couple of cashes from Hendon Mob members, but until the final results are in we’ll leave discussion of that event for next week’s round up.
|
 Be a Full Tilt VIP and get 27% RakeBack!  |
