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Poker News Round-up: Week #02The first tournament of 2009 might have come a little too soon for anyone who got stuck into the celebrations of both new year’s eve and the players’ party too much on consecutive nights but even so 255 players managed to make it to the Irish Poker Championship €2,000 main event in Galway. The cream of Ireland’s players were there to battle it out and they were joined by others from elsewhere in Europe and even the odd visitor from the USA to make this a strong field.  Rory Rees Brennan An unfortunate incident in which a significant amount of extra tournament chips were introduced into play was identified when down to the last three tables, and play had to be stopped whilst staff investigated. Although numerous pieces of circumstantial evidence pointed towards one particular player, there was insufficient concrete proof to take any action and play continued with no punishment. Rory Rees Brennan eventually took victory to ensure the biggest slice of the prize pool stayed in Ireland, and he went home €160,000 better of for his efforts. There was also much interest in the €750 side event which saw Dave Ulliott defeat Surinder Sunar heads up to record his first win of the year. A new year brings a new challenge for two of poker’s best known names as Tom Dwan and Daniel Negreanu have announced the ideas which they have come up with to test themselves in 2009. Negreanu’s is similar to the challenge which Chris Ferguson undertook in 2006-07 in that he plans to spin up $10 into $100,000 by starting at the micro stakes cash games and gradually moving up. Whereas Ferguson’s objective was to highlight the importance of good bankroll management, Negreanu is rather optimistic in that department as he is allowing himself to buy in for a fifth of his total roll for the challenge each time. Whatever the outcome, financially it will be of little consequence for him whereas Tom Dawn’s challenge is much more adventurous and could see him take some serious hits to his bank balance.  Brave or foolhardy? Tom Dwan Dwan has offered to take on anybody in the world at heads up cash games playing either no limit hold’em or pot limit Omaha, four tabling for a minimum of 50,000 hands. In addition to whatever money is won or lost over the course of these hands, the side bet is that Dwan’s opponent has to put up an extra $500,000 to Dwan’s $1,500,000 as the purse for victory. Shortly afterwards Dwan admitted that he was not willing to play against Phil Galfond but he seems confident against other big hitters who are more accustomed to live play than online multi-tabling. It was an invitation too good to refuse for some and already Phil Ivey, David Benyamine and Patrik Antonius have stepped up to the plate. As good as Dwan is, the odds he is laying are far too attractive for those who are bankrolled to take him on, but aside from the money there are some people who just wouldn’t back down from a challenge. As Phil Ivey says "I've never posted a challenge like this. I'm just assuming that everyone knows I'm going to play them. I'm going to play every game - I'll play anybody, at every game there is.” If it stands at three opponents then in all likelihood Dwan would have to record victory in all three to avoid making a loss in this venture, but if things don’t go his way he could be in the hole for multiple millions of dollars. It is still early days though and it’s possible that others could come forward yet. Given the opponents who have taken him up on it so far it looks like the games will be taking place on Full Tilt for all three match ups, but there could be some action on Pokerstars if someone like Daniel Negreanu decides he wants in on it.  Clonie Gowen And finally, there has been a small development in the court case between Clonie Gowen and Full Tilt Poker. The legal firm representing Full Tilt has filed a motion to have Gowen’s claim dismissed or at least “significantly clean up her almost random claims against the multiple defendants.” Thirteen Full Tilt pros have been cited in the case and whilst Clonie says that whilst she didn’t want to name those individuals as her dispute is with Tiltware LLC, she has been advised by her legal team that the likes of Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen et al are going to have to get involved in this.
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