Poker News Round-up

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Poker News Round-up: Week #14

By Adam Noone, 06/04/2007

For such a small principality Monte Carlo is remarkably famous the world over, mostly due to the vast quantities of cash that are known to change hands in its glamorous surroundings. This was most definitely the case this week as 706 of the world’s best poker players converged at the Monte Carlo Bay Hotel to contest the grand final event of the European Poker Tour. The main event was a 10,000 Euro buy in no limit hold’em event, making this the richest poker tournament ever held outside the US.

The increased field size meant that day one had to be split into two so some of the big names were out before other players had even touched a card. Notable exits on the first day were Phil Ivey, Gus Hansen, Roland de Wolfe and Joe Hachem who as with last year’s WSOP main event again busted with pocket aces. Whilst Andy Black was vacuuming up everybody else’s chips on day two, former world champions Phil Hellmuth, Chris Moneymaker and Greg Raymer all bit the bullet. However, only one of those three actually found the strength to point out “I ran circles around these guys for two days... that’s how well I was playing. Now I’m out of the tournament. It’s unbelievable.” Nicknames like Pokerbrat don’t just make themselves up.

As the field thinned, Hendon Mobsters Joe Beevers and Ram Vaswani were both still there when the bubble burst and 64 players made the money. Joe eventually exited in 35th place but Ram was still alive when eight players reconvened on day five for the final table. Ram and former chip leader Andy Black held the short stacks and were the first two to depart although by now both had already picked up sizeable additions to their bankrolls. By the time play was heads up American Gavin Griffin and Canadian Marc Karam were the two left battling for the first place worth the equivalent of over $2.4 million. A final flop of 2 3 4 rainbow looked as though it was unlikely to have helped either of the two hands given the pre-flop action but all the money went in nevertheless and Karam was ahead with top pair. Griffin however managed to river a bigger pair to win the EPT title and massive first prize. Griffin already owns a WSOP bracelet after winning a pot limit hold’em event in 2004 and in doing so he became the youngest player ever at that time to win a WSOP event. This week’s cash though was worth almost ten times as much and puts him top of the 2007 money list.

If there is one place in the world you might reasonably expect to find Texas hold’em being played, it would be the state that gave its name to the game. And whilst undoubtedly there are underground games being played extensively, Texas hold’em can not legally be played in public in Texas. That could be about to change though as a bill was submitted this week in an effort to get the Texas legislature changed. It is a case which in some respects is similar to the Gutshot club’s trial in that supporters of the bill say that poker is a game of skill, whilst opponents argue that it is a game of chance and should remain illegal. Some big names in poker such as Lyle Berman, Clonie Gowan and Crandell Addington were present at the hearing to help convince the committee that legalisation and regulation of the game would help to ensure fairness and safety amongst players who will be involved in games whatever the legal standpoint, as well as generating extra taxes for the state. Further public hearings have yet to be held but it seems that the initial hearing was received favourably for those seeking to legalise poker games.

So the European Poker Tour is now complete for another season and whilst there is the WPT Grand Prix de Paris to look forward to next month, the fact that there are 55 World Series Of Poker bracelets up for grabs starting in less than two months can surely not be far from players’ minds now.

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