Russ Bansen, Up Close and Very Personal
September 30, 2009
Russ Bansen the strategic genius behind the ground breaking poker strategy book ‘Every Hand is Revealed’ which UKPOKERINFO where fortunate enough to serialise (here, here and here) has kindly agreed to make time for a quick chat shortly after his elimination late on day two of the WSOPE main event.
As a poker journalist you get used to meeting the stars of the game, sometimes you find yourself disappointed with the person behind the hype and some times not, it’s just something you become accustomed too. So this complacency when in the presence of the great and the good of the game might explain my genuine surprise at the discovery I had nervous butterflies whilst I was waiting to be introduced to Russ at his UK base, a luxurious suite at the Lambeth Travel Lodge.
Eventually I’m ushered in to the lounge by one of Russ’s army of pretty young personal assistants and finally get to meet the great man. I find Russ relaxing upon an ornate chaise lounge dressed in a cherry red, silk kimono whilst eating a toffee apple. Nervously I begin;
UKPI: Russ, thank you so very much for taking the time to meet with us today, I know you’re a busy man.
RUSS: That’s fine; I like to make time for the little people, show’s the sponsors I’m still connected to the grass roots, although of course I’m now much better than all of you.
UKPI: How are you finding England?
RUSS: England’s shit, well the whole of the UK is really, but I love being here and thank all the people who have made me feel so welcome, I do feel though that my presence and also the likes of Phil and Doyle’s kind of upgrades the UK to being almost an acceptable place to be, our very presence is like a gift to the people of your country.
UKPI: Well on behalf of all the people of the UK, I thank you. So how did you get on at the EPO last week?
RUSS: I refused to play it, I’m a God fearing man and I shan’t ever be visiting anywhere named Dusk Till Dawn, Good Christians where killed by vampires in that place and I think it’s a sacrilege they use the name.
UKPI: Ummm, wasn’t that just a film?
RUSS: Well yeah, they made it into a film later, but it happened in real life, you really should have prepared better for this interview, you need to know the facts.
UKPI: Yeah, ummm, sorry, so what did you do instead? Did you play any poker?
RUSS: No, I took some time out and visited the sites of London.
UKPI: Good Idea, what did you see?
RUSS: I went to visit Buckingham palace, what a shit hole, no pool, no tennis courts, no games room! Call that a palace! You fucking Brits kill me and the London eye, what the fuck! Man it’s a just a big wheel!
UKPI: Did you visit the west end to see a show?
RUSS: Yeah I did, I wanted to see something typically British so was recommend a show called ‘The Bill – The Musical’ by Daniel Negreanu who had seen it the night before and loved it, and well Danny’s a big fan of musical theatre, all though he strenuously denies it! Danny made a great choice, it was very entertaining, have you seen it?
UKPI: Ummm, not yet
RUSS: Oh you just have too, its about a British female cop called June Ackland and her struggle to be accepted by the male dominated Sun Hill PD, Ackland was played by Kathleen Turner and Michal Crawford played the villain of the piece, a corrupt chauvinist cop named Reg Hollis, he was excellent, a real baddie.
UKPI: Sounds great, tell us about your WSOPE you seemed to accumulate chips from the start, how did it go?
RUSS: Oh yeah, people have read the book and obviously assumed I would be playing only premium hands, pocket twos or better you know. So I loosened right up.
UKPI: You seemed to be heading for the final table with a big stack and then the wheels came off; can you tell us about your exit, I understand there was some controversy?
RUSS: Yes, I got a terrible ruling from the TD and then just went on tilt.
UKPI: So what happened?
RUSS: Well Vicky Coren had just been moved to my table, well she’s a women so I’m gonna raise her blind every time. So I raised from under the gun and she called, flop came seven high and we both check, the turn brings an ace, she bets and I re-raise, she then starts talking and asks if I would be prepared to show her one of my cards, I say yeah if she show’s me one of her boobs, she looks shocked but then starts to giggle, I flash her the 3 of diamonds, she moves all in and I fold. I ask to see her tittie but she refuses, I summon the TD and then Jack Eifel but they both rule in her favour. Disgraceful decisions and as I said from then on I was just on total tilt.
UKPI: So what happened next?
RUSS: Well I was in the big blind with 100K behind at 1/2K so I was desperately short. Under the gun raised, got called by plus one and plus two, a guy in mid position min re-raised and the cut-off shoved his 130K stack and the button called and then so does the small blind, and fuck my luck! I only wake up in the big blind with ace ten suited, how can I pass here!
UKPI: Wow, just wow.
RUSS: Yeah and wouldn’t you know it one of them had aces!
UKPI: What are the odds!
RUSS: Exactly! I am sorry though for shouting at the little girl who knocked me out, I didn’t mean to make her cry.
UKPI: I thought it was Dario Mineri the male Italian pro that knocked you out?
RUSS: That little chick with the scarf was actually a boy! I patted his bottom on the way out!
UKPI: I have to ask the big question that everyone in poker is waiting eagerly for the answer too, are there any more books on the way?
RUSS: Well, I don’t want to give away too much but yes I can confirm there will be a new book published soon.
UKPI: Fantastic news, can you tell me the subject.
RUSS: No you’ll just have to wait, but I will serialise on UKPOKERINFO first as I like all you guy’s.
UKPI: Thank you Russ for your time, it’s been a real honour.
RUSS: Yes, I’m sure it has.
I can tell you after meeting the man I was not disappointed, there’s a real weight of intellect behind the public persona and his a real gent to boot who looks cool in a Kimono.
I’d hate to go pro
September 30, 2009
I had quite a good day at work the other day. I’d been feeling a bit stressed over recent months as I felt under too much pressure, had too much to do in the time I had, was under-appreciated, over worked, no-one understands me and all the other self-righteous bullshit that most people go through in their day to day job.
I knew deep, deep down though that this wasn’t really the case. The problem was me. When I was doing something tedious, I switched off and got distracted online. When I was doing something very difficult, I got distracted. When I was doing something simple, I got distracted. The bottom line was that I was doing anything but what I should be doing and as such; all my problems, stress and worries were caused by my own shortcomings which I was failing to address.
That night whilst playing online, when I was playing one table, two tables, or three tables I got distracted. Tournaments, Cash, NLHE, Omaha, whatever games I played, I was constantly looking for other stuff to do online, exactly as I do at work.
The thing that dawned on me is that at work; if I switch my internet off and actually do what I’m good at (work not poker obviously) I actually enjoy it and get a feeling of achievement that you simply can’t get from poker. I also make a lot more money. (Not that I’m rich, I just play micro stakes!!)
It struck me that I could never, ever be a poker player as there is no escape from the tedium. I bet there are a million people just like me who’ve had the same dreams and aspirations of being able to play poker rather than work the nine to five and I’m sure that, like me, all of these people haven’t a clue as to the hours, focus and dedication required. I’ve realized that I’m so much better to be doing what I’m doing and that ‘living the dream’, would be to live a nightmare. It’s human nature to always see the grass to be greener elsewhere, but if you think like, i used then have a serious think about whether you’re wasting valuable time ‘wondering’ that you could be using ‘doing’. I would have given anything to play poker rather than work, I’m so lucky to have not had the opportunity.
ITM At The WSOPE
September 30, 2009
Well day four has arrived and is being played out as I type, the bubble burst last night with the unfortunate player being John Tabatabai, leaving the rest of the field in the money for a min payout of over £20,000. And what a field it is btw, going into day 4 the field looks like this;
701500 3 5 Hawrilenko, Matthew
648000 4 5 Fung, Steven
471000 4 1 Bansi, Praz
469500 2 2 Mattern, Arnaud
452500 1 6 Shulman, Barry
448500 2 8 Kabbaj, John
409000 1 2 Gould, Peter
367500 2 5 Demjan, Sandor
330500 3 1 Hawkins, Keith
330500 1 8 Liu Eric
322000 4 8 Vaswani, Ram
314500 2 9 Negreanu, Daniel
306500 3 6 Bjorin, Chris
305000 3 8 Bichon, Thomas
285000 4 4 Timoshenko, Yevgeniy
273500 4 3 Wilf, Saar
272500 3 4 Sheringham, Teddy
272000 1 9 Akkari, Andre
266500 2 4 Pavlicek, Tommy
257000 2 1 Cousineau, Tony
246500 1 7 Brunson, Doyle
243000 3 9 Harder, Christian
232500 4 6 Burgess, Craig
202000 4 2 Saout, Antoine
200500 4 9 Fasco, Michael
193500 3 3 Lieu, liz
157000 2 7 Ristola, Markus
156500 2 3 Buecherl, Konstantin
156500 3 7 Zolotow, Steve
153500 2 6 Akenhead, James
140000 1 5 Kruel, Christian
125000 1 1 Mercier, Jason
113500 1 4 Riisem, Oyvind
80000 3 2 Ulliott, Dave
71500 4 7 Docherty, David
63000 1 3 NGuyen, Men
My tip of the day would be to see Praz Bansi take this baby down as this Hitsquadder’s game is fantastic IMO but how great to see another Hitsquad member up there for what would be a fantastic achievement if he makes the Final, yes James Akenhead is in with a shout of making history. Another November Niner is in with a shout, Antione Saout (remember the Frenchman that no one was interested in) making himself noticed.
The man on form and it is a remarkable achievement is another internet player 21 year old Ukrainian, Timoshenko, proving once again he has mastered the internet and live game at such an early age (mind you he has been a winning player online since the age of 15). Fresh from his WCOOP Main Event win last week for $1.7mill, this will not be his first live cash either as in April he took down a WPT for $2,149,960
There is also an old chap left in named Doyle!
But the player I would want to see win this more is Keith “The Camel” Hawkins, shoots from the hip, non sponsored and been off the scene for while.
COME ON THE BRITS!!!!!
Poker Grand Slam
September 30, 2009
Earlier this year Dusk Till Dawn started it’s one million pound guarantee series. This involved 3 competitions, two £1000 entries and a £2000 entry each with a hefty guarantee. These competitions were based on the best structures of Main Events, respectively the WSOP ME, Monte Carlo and the Bellagio.
Some of you may remember the furore of DTD having to add an overlay of over £70,000 (including sats) and the rumours that DTD would close, as according to some it couldn’t allegedly sustain the loss. Well 7 months later the second competition of this series will take place. Again the buy-in is £1000 + £90 and the guarantee is still £250,000!
On top of this, the structure has been amended to reflect the changes for this years event. The chip stack has been increased to 30,000 and the clock has altered slightly. The first day will have 60 minute blinds and on day 2 and 3 the blinds will be increased to 75 minutes. There is one more change too, the event is now capped at 270 instead of 405. This means that in the likelihood that it doesn’t reach the cap there will again be a huge overlay. . . . . . . don’t miss out on this chance to play a €10,000 structure for £1000!!
So put the 18th – 20th December in your diary and give yourself a nice early Christmas present, wouldn’t it be nice to pay off your mortgage if you win …….
Pokerstars set new world record.
September 29, 2009
Yesterday saw the Guinness book of records certify that Pokerstars had smashed the previous record for most players online at any one time.
On September 6th this year, there were 307,016 players online, these were sat at over 42000 tables.
Pokerstars already held the record, but managed to beat it by over 100,000 players.
Earlier this year, the online cardroom amassed 65000 players for the biggest online tournament ever held. Full Tilt had tried to beat PokerStars previous record of 35,000 buy offering a $5 MTT with an overlay of $250,000 details here Not to be outdone Pokerstars offered a similar tourny with $100,000 overlay for the princely sum of $1, yet again Full Tilt were in the Stars shadows.
So if you want to be part of the biggest site/tournaments available, you know where to go…
Poker Face
September 29, 2009
If you put a search into google for Poker news the chances are that Lady Gaga’s “Pokerface” will be up there near the top. It is quite infuriating to the point where usually I skip any image of her etc. So I nearly missed this gem. Apparently there is a break in her tour and Ladbrokes have invited herself and Kayne West over to Killarney so that she can show her Pokerface to all. It is not clear whether she has accepted the offer as of yet, but a definite confirmation for the €550 event is Boyzone’s Shane Lynch.
The €250,000 guaranteed tournie will be held at the Irish National Events Centre and is a major hit with the poker population, last year was a record seating in Europe of 832 players with the winner Jim McSweeney pocketing over €100,000. This year they expect to blow that record out of the water and have also included a couple of side events to boot. A two day €270 event on 3rd October and a one dayer €150 on the 4th October.
Of course UKPOKERINFO will be cheering on our very own forum members playing in this and it would be great to see our resident article writer who contributes so much to this site get some luck and cash big in this baby!! Good Luck Kev Stevens aka KVNSTV aka Devilmeat……….. rootin for ya bud!
UKPOKERINFO Advertising Feature – The DONK!
September 29, 2009
WOW! What a fantastic offer we have for UKPOKERINFO site members this month, we have been granted exclusive rights to a new product called the Digital ONlinepokerdecidenator Konnection or DONK for short.
You really do not want to miss out on this UKPOKERINFO special introductory offer that will see YOU become one of the first to own one the greatest thing to hit online poker since Italians learned how to log on to PokerStars!
The DONK is a sophisticated device that attaches to any computer via a standard USB connection. Once attached and installed the DONK will automatically be activated whenever an attempt is made to open a poker client and the registered owner will be prompted to place there finger on the sensor, subsequent hourly checks are performed for as long as the client is open.
The DONK will then scan the inserted finger to ensure it belongs to the registered owner of the poker client account* and then take a sample of sweat from the proffered digit and measure for drug, alcohol and stress levels to determine your fitness for the purpose of playing poker.
The sophisticated processor of the DONK will then identify your status and indicate its decision regarding your current poker capabilities** by displaying on the high tech colour display, the results and the consequences are listed in the Key below. The DONK will then configure the sites software to only enable you to see tables and tournament entries as determined by its earlier decision.
Experts are predicting this could save online poker players billions of pounds a year that is pissed away routinely during drunken or tilted sessions. So even at the RRP of $99.99 it’s a steal but given the 10% discount you will have to be literally dumber than that bloke who sold 163% of himself in an EPT that he subsequently went on to win to note pick up the phone this instant!
KEY
GREEN – Free to play
BLUE – You’re a bit stressed, play at mid/low stakes only, alternatively have a wank/nice cup of tea and try again later
YELLOW – You’re emotional/inebriated until your status is judged to have improved you will be limited to play at micro stakes only
RED – You’re so wankerd/angry you shouldn’t even play the micro’s, go and have a lie down
*So no plugging in your eight year old niece when you’re pissed up!
** KEVTEL industries and its subsidiary holdings in no way claim the DONK will improve your poker ability in anyway at all, if you’re shit, you’re shit.
The Degenerate Dealer
September 28, 2009
I had been dealing Poker for a couple of months before I got my first taste of a Dealers’ game. The club had been so busy, and so short staffed, during its opening period that we hardly had an opportunity to finish early or find time to spend our tips.
What you must understand about Poker Dealers is that the first thing on their mind when finishing work is ‘where can I go and play poker?’ If at all possible they will curtail their shift early to bring forward the start of the poker-playing. Our club must have known this well, for they installed many poker-playing terminals (otherwise known as PCs) within the building. The owners should be applauded for so generously accommodating the needs of their staff.
The internet facilitates individual poker-playing for the Dealer, but it really is just the pre-cursor to the real game. When a critical mass of four Dealers (or three if the need is high) has been achieved, the group will seek a live poker-playing venue to establish a game. This is because internet poker does not provide the array of gambling opportunties provided by a deck of 52 plastic cards. Also its more fun to play live.
Back in the day (eighteen months ago) we Dealers could be found in the 24hr Rileys in town. The nightworkers there were very accommodating of the Dealers’ needs, providing a poker table, chips and a blind eye. The club’s rules stated that no poker competition could take place in which the prize pool exceeded £200. Although the chips we used did not have numerical denominations, I’m sure the staff must have realised what was going on. Particularly when someone said “all-in for £120” or “I’m buying in for three hundred”. Management eventually barred us from Rileys after it became obvious the game was getting too big, around the same time that one session ended in a violent brawl.
How big was this game? 10p-10p Dealer’s Choice. Ten pence blinds with about a grand on (or under) the table. Wild Cards, multiple straddles, and the special kind of degeneracy found in the species known as The Dealer.
We just want to gamble… but as we are poker dealers, we gamble in the mistaken belief that we know what we are doing. We act first, and think of a reasoned explanation later.
How could you call?
“I had 18 outs.” – I have seven outs to the nuts and some chance of making a lower straight than the one my opponent already has.
“I knew he couldn’t have the nut flush” – My seven-high flush must be good because I’ve got three hearts in my hand.
“I had massive implied odds” – I can’t really fold a pair of threes preflop when I’m certain my opponent has aces. If I put two-thirds of my stack in i’m sure that he’ll pay me off when I flop a set.
“I like relaxing with friends after work” – I’ve got a chance of winning all the tips my friends have earned over the week, particularly if they haven’t played these games before. If they have no money left for food or bus fare i’ll lend them £20 until next Sunday.
I could go on and on. One interesting thing about this game is that if you play in it, even with a clear head, with every intention of ‘playing properly tonight’, you are sure to get drawn into the whirlpool of kippers, and sucked down the plughole of fishiness. With very low blinds, most players just toss in a chip before they’ve looked at their cards. Someone raises, five people call. Action comes back round to you. You look at your hand and find that these four or five cards, which just a moment ago seemed as unrelated and as far away from each other as Beijing, The North Pole, Chile and Uttoxeter, have become something quite different. Looking at them again, you see that they have great potential to flop a deceptive low-end wrap. Also, you could always flop quads. You find more reasons to call. The flop brings a gutshot and a backdoor six-high flush draw. You think about ‘making a move at the pot’ and then before you even realise what has happened you have called your entire stack off ‘for value’ after three people went all-in. You are now barracked for being a fish, and while a new hand is being dealt you conjure up a half-baked explanation of your actions. So it goes on.
I quit the game after it got turned over by some random thugs. Three of us were playing in Rileys one night when some lads asked to join the game. Naievely assuming a base level of trustworthiness and decency in strangers, I said yes. Even more naievely, and stupidly, I did not secrete the money in my pocket but left it under the table. Why did I think it was OK for three big lads under the influence of drink and drugs to play cards with us for money? Why did I assume that Rileys was a safe place to be, where members would be held accountable for their behaviour? Rileys – the meeting place for scumbags and desolates.
I wondered to myself about these things as hundreds of chips were sent flying across the room and the poker table crashed to the floor. I wondered about these things as one of the thugs held my arms behind my back and another grabbed the money. Another man kept repeating “How could I be beat?!” very loudly. “How could I be beaten?!! I had the nut flush!!! … The Ace High Flush! Is not beaten by a five high flush!!!!” (think about it).
The Rileys worker just looked on from behind the bar with a dumb look on his face. An even-more-dumb-than-usual look on his face. He politely buzzed the door open for the thugs as they made their way out on to the street with our money.
So the game was driven behind closed doors, where it continues to pop up on Sunday nights, or any night when enough Dealers can congregate. Be careful if you are invited, you will need steel to navigate your way through the cloud of cigarette smoke, the slew of nine-way flops, and the shower of bullshit characteristically brought forth by the species known as The Dealer.
by PoonJoe aka Joe Wrigley
Grosvenor Casino Host Wass Forum Annual Bash
September 28, 2009
The Grosvenor Casino this weekend hosted the Wass forum annual poker bash, and what a bash it was.
Poker players from all over the country got together for the annual tournament, that was held at the Grosvenor Casino in Stoke On Trent.
Over 100 players packed the card room on saturday that saw the £20 freeze-out fill the card room, the stage in the venue also saw 3 tables for Steve Capels birthday poker party , and in the top tier of the casino adjescent to the resteraunt, there were a further 3 tables for the weekly £10 semi freeze-out.
In total 16 tables of players all playing poker, the venue was rammed, and with 2 cash tables on the go as well it was a full weekend of none stop poker.
The forum owners of Wass actually admitted that in 4 days time the forum itself was to be sold to an Israeli firm who had already purchased the site for an undisclosed sum, having been going for almost 6 years the Nottingham based owner actually admitted that although there were 1000,s of members , there were only 100 or so active members at the moment and it was time to fold and let some-one with more time and energy and enthusiasm take over.
However this didnt stop the poker party going on until the early hours of Sunday morning.
When, Will I, Be Good At Poker?
September 28, 2009
I can’t answer; I can’t answer that, cue total confusion for any readers not old enough to remember Bros. Actually I’m going to try to answer this question, just when will I be good at poker! In his best selling book entitled ‘Outliers – The Story of Success’ author Malcolm Gladwell interviewed some of the most successful people in different fields, this included Bill Gates, Christopher Langan and many top sports performers. Gladwell spoke with them all with the one intention, to discover the defining factors that lead to their success.
During this process Gladwell noted that all of his subjects had spent abnormal amounts of time performing tasks that later became key developed skills and all these skills were all massive contributing factors to the success the achieved. Gladwell hypothesised that based on the information he had received from his subjects that the time required to master these skills was approximately 10,000 hours, this became known as the 10,000 hour rule.
Its pretty obvious that the longer you spend doing something the better your going to get, but its interesting that some one has tried to put an exact figure on it and from a poker perspective I wondered how long it’s going to take me to start playing good, as frankly I’m getting tired of being shit.
I’m married with a child so I play about 14 hours a week on average. Another factor to consider is that I like to multi table, but I’m not sure if this actually increases my ability to play poker as I honestly think playing two tables just increases my ability too multi table and not my overall poker ability. So I’ve decided discount this as factor, I’m pretty sure the 10,000 rule only counts the hours where your actually learning and improving and I don’t think multi tabling increases this.
I also like to play different games, now this has too be factor as 10,000 hours spent playing hold’em is not going to increase your Omaha or Stud skill level very much at all. I would say 80% of my time is now spent playing no limit hold’em so lets concentrate on that, my math’s worked it out as;
14 hours a week X 52 weeks in a year = 728 hours a year spent playing – 20% of time spent playing other games would mean, 728 – 147.6 = 580.4 hours a year playing No limit hold’em.
17 years and 3 months (17.4 in decimal) X 580.4 = 10,098.96 hours spent playing poker. Now deduct the five years I have already been playing and I’m warning you all, Tuesday 28th December, 2021 I going to start owning the whole damn poker world.
WSOPE day 1A report
September 27, 2009
WSOPE Day 1A
The £10000 buy in main event at the WSOPE got underway yesterday, attracting 156 entries who will play the six 90 minuite levels that will take place today.
From the start there was some big name exits, these include:- Jeff Madsen, Hoyt Corkins, Dario Alioto, Max Pescatori, Robert Mizrachi, Roland de Wolfe, Vanessa Rousso, David Pham, Huck Seed, Barny Boatman, Phil Ivey, Dario Minieri, and Andy Bloch.
After all these exits, 96 players remained..with the top 10 chip counts looking as follows..
1st Brian Powell 194,600
2nd Jason Mercier: 189,725
3rd Jonathan Aguiar: 156,400
4th Viktor Blom: 150,000
5th Tommy Pavlicek: 149,625
6th Sami Kelopuro: 142,000
7th Martin Hansen: 135,000
8th Alex Wice: 129,800
9th Sandor Demjan: 120,000
10th Peter Gould: 110,000
At the break, Jeoffery Pollock, President of the WSOP presented Jeffery Lisandro with the WSOP 2009 player of the year award. Jeffery had won 3 Bracelets at the WSOP in the summer this year, and means he will play the next three years F.O.C…..Very nice.
This was followed by a special ceremony for the most recent WSOPE bracelet winner, Jani Vilmunen, Winner of the £5000 PLO event yesterday….
GUKPT Natinal League playoff top 100
September 27, 2009
Tonight at 8pm will see the final of the GUKPT top 100 poker final on line.
UKPI forum member Dave johnson has already smashed the league and has his place in the grand final, and tonight 3 more of our forum members will try to go to the final too.
Craig Bickerton, Sue Pellington, and Sean Perry all take their seats in the top 100 final with guaranteed prize money already there for everyone who takes part.
Craig has already finished in the top 100 once this year as has Sue, for Sean it is his 3rd top 100 finish in 3 leagues that the GUKPT have held, here`s hoping that it is 3rd time lucky.
All the action starts on Blue Square poker at 8pm tonight , so any one wishing to rail the players please log in and feel free to do so .
Finally UKPI wish all the finalists the very best of luck.
Where Are The Online Poker Promotions That Make Sense?
September 27, 2009
Whilst fighting my way through the spam jungle that my mail box turns into each and every day and having then deleted the 100 plus correspondents that arrive of a sexual nature* I move more carefully onto the day’s intake of poker related communiqués. I usually delete the poker junk mail a little more carefully because you never know; there might be a little snippet of gold that can be used as an article.
Mostly though its just crap, you probable get the same stuff I do, reload bonuses, new promotions and daft new game formats, you know the stuff. Anyway I’m about half way through deleting the rubbish Lederer and Dukes minions have spent all night firing at me across the information super highway and something occurs to me, why are there no bonus offers or promotions aimed at bad players or at getting players to play worse?
It doesn’t make any sense to me at all as currently all the big rooms are constantly sending me information on how to play better? Why? Recruiting and keeping bad players or turning good players into bad players should be there priority as they are the best type of customer for an online poker room. Bad players have to deposit more thus increasing the sites liquidity and they attract good players to prey on them so why not introduce some promotions aimed directly at them or converting good players to play like bad players?
It would be quite easy to do and imagine the stimulus it could have on the poker economy if finally the online rooms targeted the correct customers, the shit players. I’m not talking about changing everything overnight, we should start off small by changing all the current bad beat jackpots to suck out jackpots, this would mean that a huge bonus would be awarded to any player who can manage to put a spectacular bad beat on someone, I mean two specific running cards at 45X44-1. Could you imagine the action on the table when this jackpot got big, people trying to get there money in at 1980-1 shots!
Slowly as players begin to play worse the rooms should start to make more changes, they could change the player loyalty systems to properly reward those playing really badly. Maybe introduce double reward points for any player who manages to crack aces all in pre-flop four times in one day, this sort of thing. I’m sure once the marketing focus is properly aimed at the worse players in the game more ideas will come flooding through so let’s get people playing badly; after all it’s for the good of the game.
*Mostly informing me I’m not satisfying my wife enough and that I need a bigger cock, there right of course but how do they know? Karen denies telling anyone but they must have got their information from somewhere.
Jani Vilmunen Wins £5000 PLO Bracelet at WSOPE
September 26, 2009
Jani Vilmunen Wins £5000 PLO Bracelet at WSOPE
154 players entered the £5000 Pot Limit Omaha event at the WSOPE in London today, which was won by Jani Vilmnen for a cool £204,048, and of course..the coverted bracelet.
The final tale looked more like a ‘who’s who’ of poker and consisted of:-
Robert Williamson III — 64,000
Ville Haavisto — 249,000
Howard Lederer — 320,000
Jeff Kimber — 133,000
Dan Hindin — 320,000
Aarno Kivelio — 608,000
Jani Vilmunen — 899,000
Roberto Romanello — 306,000
Ross Boatman — 180,000
The final result was as :-
9th Robert Williamson III £17772
8th Jeff Kimber £22,869
7th Roberto Romanello £39,193
6th Daniel Hindin £39,193
5th Ville Haavisto £51,890
4th Ross Boatman £69,030
3rd Aarno Kivelio £93,293
The heads up battle consisted of Jani Vilmunen and Howard Lederer, with Lederer slightly in front with 1,800,000 chips to Jani’s 1,250,000
On a flop of 8H 7D 6D, Lederer bet out 600,000 and Vilmunen announced all in..
Lederer showed AH QH 5C 4S for a straight, Vilmunen showed QS 10D 9H 7H for the higher straight.
Lederer was drawing dead when the river came AD and congratulated Vilmunen on His tournament winning hand.
Caesar Is Indeed European
September 26, 2009
Yesterday saw the Ryder Cup of poker at the Empire Casino in London and yes the Caesar’s Cup has come to a conclusion. I personally believed Europe would be victorious, but didn’t believe the result would have such a wide margin.
Team Europe:
Annette Obrestad (Captain)
John Harvey (Betfair Qualifier)
Patrik Antonius
Elky
Ziigmund
Dario Minieri
Gus Hanson
Peter Eastgate
Team America:
Daniel Negreanu
Phil Hellmuth
Phil Ivey
Jennifer Harman
Doyle Brunson
John Juanda
Barry Greenstein
Huck Seed
Just so you know how much of a mismatch this was supposed to be Team Europe have less than 5 Bracelets between them whilst Team America has well over 40.
Let me just quickly skip through how the tournament worked, players were divided into teams of 2 and played heads up against their opponents, each player would play a street then swap with their partner. So four games of this with a concluding heads up game making it the best of 5.
First Round
ziigmund and Antonius v Ivey and Seed result Europe win
ElkY and Harvey v Negreanu and Hellmuth result Europe win
Minieri and Obrestad v Brunson and Harman result America win
Hanson and Eastgate v Greenstein and Juanda result Europe win
Heads up game as between Annette Obrestad and Huck Seed result Europe win
So the final result was 4 – 1 Europe
Annette Obrestad (Captain Team Europe)
” They had no chance, we destroyed them”
Daniel Negreanu (Captain Team America)
“First of all, in all the key situations, whether it was an ace versus an ace or whatever, they won every one of those. A lot of the key hands we just got unlucky in.
Secondly, the specific format really didn’t allow players, like Phil Ivey for example, to exhibit his strengths. It was all-in poker.”
Congratulations from UKPOKERINFO as Europe sticks it up the Yanks 
DTD’s New Poker Schedule
September 26, 2009
Starting from the 30th September Dusk Till Dawn will be going back to a seven day schedule once again. Not only that but each comp is designed for every stage of poker player, starting with a £10 beginners upto the £300 regular monthly baby. Introducing Omaha to hold’em players with a round of each comp to an Omaha low stakes limited rebuy.
Rob Yong has gritted his teeth, and gone from rumours of closing to adding days, getting more staff and guaranteeing ALL comps. Like a true poker player aggression is always the best policy and he has certainly attacked the rumours with this new schedule. The struggling £75 comp has been axed but not to disappoint those players a £40 (max 2 rebuy) comp has replaced it on a Friday, so for the same amount of money using 1 rebuy you will get 3000 more chips than the original £75 freezeout, in theory you can use 12000 points on a 24 minute clock if you need your 2 rebuys, which will ensure a great game of poker once the rebuys have finished. The £50 freezeouts will now give you an extra 1000 points giving you a starting stack of 5000!
Couple all this with the 20/20 weekend and the Deepstack Weekend, is it missing anything???
New Weekly Schedule
MONDAYS
8:00pm £40 + £6 Double Chance Freezeout 4000+4000 Chips 24Min Clock £1500 GTD
8:15pm £15 + £5 No Limit Holdem Freezeout 3000 Chips 20Min Clock £500 GTDTUESDAYS
8:00pm £30 + £6 No Limit Unlimited Rebuy 3000 Chips 24Min Clock £2500 GTD
8:15pm £10 + £4 Beginners No Limit Holdem 2000 Chips 20Min Clock £500 GTDWEDNESDAY
8:00pm £20 + £6 Pot Limit Omaha 2 x Rebuys 3000 Chips 24Min Clock £1500 GTD
8:15pm £25 + £6 No Limit Holdem Freezeout 3000 Chips 24Min Clock £1500 GTDTHURSDAYS
8:00pm £50 + £6 No Limit Holdem Freezeout 5000 Chips 24Min Clock £2500 GTD
8:15pm £10 + £4 Beginners No Limit Holdem 2000 Chips 20Min Clock £500 GTDFRIDAYS
8:00pm £40 + £6 No Limit Holdem 2 x Rebuys 4000 Chips 24Min Clock £3000 GTD
8:15pm £25 + £6 No Limit Holdem Freezeout 3000 Chips 24Min Clock £1500 GTDSATURDAYS
8:00pm £50 + £6 No Limit Holdem Freezeout 5000 Chips 24Min Clock £2500 GTD
8:15pm £15 + £5 No Limit Holdem Freezeout 3000 Chips 20Min Clock £500 GTDSUNDAYS
8:00pm £40 + £6 PL ROE (Omaha & Holdem) 5000 Chips 24Min Clock £1500 GTD
8:15pm £25 + £6 No Limit Holdem Freezeout 3000 Chips 24Min Clock £1500 GTD
Admittedly the juice looks a bit high on the smaller comps, but if you take into consideration that you will be receiving the same treatment and using the same facilities as the biggest of tournaments then it is understandable IMO.
My only other possible gripe is that I don’t think any of the regular weekly comps need a guarantee, for those of you that don’t know me, my thoughts on easily achievable guarantees smacks of a desperate cardroom although I know it is not the case in this scenario.
Happy Pokering!!!
UKPOKERINFO’s Totally Made Up True Poker Facts 1-8
September 25, 2009
Number 1
It’s a little known fact that teen Norwegian poker sensation Annette Obrestad is not from Norway at all. Annette was actually born to Scottish parents, namely Janette and Ian Tough who are better known as the popular 1980’s light entertainment duo, The Krankies.
The couple were reportedly devastated when the infant Annette was snatched from their dressing room backstage during recording of the TV show ‘The Krankies Elektronik Komik’. The baby Annette was taken by an infamous gang of wandering Norwegian gypsies when she was momentarily left unattended by the couples nanny.
Parents and child remained separated until 2007 when by pure chance, Ian’s long time gym partner Gus Hansen invited Annette to make up the numbers when he was due to meet the couple for dinner at a posh London eatery. As Janette explains, “I knew straight away she was my little girl, there’s a bond between mother and daughter that can never be broken, Its fantastic to finally be reunited with our little angel, although she does speak awful funny and dresses like a boy, but she’s still my little girl” when asked how she felt to finally find her real parents Obrestad just smiled and said, “Fan’dabi’dozi”.
Number 2
Carly Simon’s 1973 hit song ‘Your So Vain” isn’t actually about Patrik Anonius at all, in fact Antonius wasn’t even born when the song was originally recorded.
Number 3
Amazingly Sammy Farha was originally cast as the voice of King Mufasa in the 1994 Disney animated classic, ‘The Lion King’. Farha was awarded the part after impressing the films director with his eloquence and flair for the dramatic when the two met at a high stakes card game at the los Angeles home of Larry Flint.
Eventually though Farha had to be replaced by film and television actor, James Earl Jones after it was discovered he could not physically prevent himself from book ending every sentence, the decision to axe high stakes ace Sammy was made following the recording of the following crucial scène,
SCENE TRANSCRIPT: The Lion King
“C’mon, look at the stars. The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars C’mon, R U Serious? .. C’mon, So whenever you feel alone, C’mon, just remember that those kings will always be there to guide you. And so will, C’mon, R U serious? C’mon….I, Raisey Daisy”
Number 4
The seminal poker movie ‘Rounders’ was originally written about high stakes bingo players struggling to survive on the famously tough New York Bingo circuit. The writers changed there mind and rewrote large portions of the film at the eleventh hour when they discovered that bingo went on for hours and was really boring and only played by old people. Some remnants of the films original premise remain though, one of the characters is named ‘Grama’ and this has only been slightly changed from it previous incarnation ‘Grandma’
Number 5
Doyle Brunson’s poker ‘Bible’ Super System sells approximately 57 copies every minute across the entire world; this is seven more copies then the actual bible manages to sell.
Number 6
The word ‘Flop’ is actually derived from the Latin word Laflopscia, which literally translates in English too ‘For fucks sake’.
Number 7
Only one out of every three people wash their hands when leaving a public bathroom, so at full table of poker players every 2nd person passing you their cards and chips didn’t wash their hands the last time they touched there cock, arse or fanny.
Number 8
From the age of thirty, humans gradually begin to shrink in size, Freedy Deeb will completely disappear sometime in the summer of 2011.
One’s actually true, can you spot it?
Paul Zimbler Breaks Poker Endurance Record!
September 25, 2009
Well it started with Doyle Brunson and ended with Mike Matusow. 74 hours 20 minutes and 21 seconds later a very disorientated Paul Zimbler rejoices after breaking the heads up endurance record! In total 183 games were played and remarkably “The Marbella Kid” won 102 of them. The minimum donation for each player was £10 although players filled up the bucket full of cash nicely, including a £5000 donation from betfair raising a staggering £35,000 for his charity SPARKS and Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Annette Obrestad, Mike Matusow, Ian Frazer in fact anyone who is anyone in poker got to participate. In the final stages against the Mouth the crowd cheered him on, and to be honest if it wasn’t for the direct support of Roberto Romanello I doubt he could have gone through with it.
The previous record was set by David Cain (Alpha666) and if you read the barriers that he had to go through here you can understand what mental and physical torture he must have been going through.
A few players have claimed that they have played longer but those sessions were not recorded properly as both these attempts had to be done with official time keepers, marshals and first aiders on hand. He was allowed 5 minute breaks after so many sessions for toilet breaks and to stretch his legs etc, but what makes it more remarkable is that he had accrued over 1hours worth of breaks on top.
After such an ordeal you would expect him to have slept for a week, but on his facebook status this morning it said “Paul Zimbler is up and about and off to play a cash game at 11!!”
Raving Nutter!!!
Congratulations from us here at UKPOKERINFO!
DTD New Schedule
September 24, 2009
I can’t go into details just yet as the schedule has not been confirmed, but after the October deepstack weekend Dusk Till Dawn will be going back to a seven day week. There will be a minimum of two comps per night and hopefully will cater for all tastes. What I will say is that I believe the members of UKPOKERINFO will be happy. I have seen a low entry limited rebuy pot limit Omaha on the books, low stakes rebuy hold’em comps running alongside a low stakes hold’em freezeout, and a few other gems. The £75 looks to have been axed with the highest entry competition being £50. The proposed schedule has ALL comps guaranteed too!! TBC
To cap it all, the dealers will now be able to play tournaments on their rota’d days off, although management have drawn the line at dealers playing cash games (which is probably sensible) Thank God I don’t live closer as my life would be spent wasting my hours and money in there as the staff are also allowed to play the automated roulette and fruities FML!
As soon as I have the full confirmed schedule I will post it here.
Ohh the Anticipation! Hellmuth, What’s it Going to Be!
September 24, 2009
Its now just two day’s from the start of the World Series of Poker Europe’s* Main Event and speculation about the nature of the grand entrance of the greatest poker player in the world (that’s Phil Hellmuth for any unenlightened philistines) here at UKPOKERINFO towers has reached absolute fever pitch.
Phil has garnered so much desperately needed publicity for the game by these annual dignified entrances and has also helped restore much of the games dignity whilst also providing us mere plebeians with selfless acts of entertainment. So seeing Phil do so much for the good of the game we felt compelled to offer up our creative input and have compiled a list for possible future use by the marketing geniuses of UltimateDebt .
Scenario 1
Keeping with a British theme is important to the overall flavour of the event so tapping into the rich history of the British Isles is key. We would suggest that Phil would mimic the legendary Icenian queen, Boudica. This would involve Phil arriving outside the casino driving a scythed chariot which ideally would be pulled by two celebrities who represent the nobility and greatness of the British Isles, we are thinking Paul Burrell and Sarah Ferguson here but at push anyone from Hollyoaks would probably do. Then in a scene to represent the great uprising against the Roman occupiers, Phil would drive down Oxford Street and cut the legs off from under Dario Mineri and that fat pirate bloke, Max something.
Scenario 2
Phil arrives dressed as Winston Churchill complete with fat man suit and bow tie and is being chauffeured by Prince Phillip in a vintage Roll’s Royce. He then proceeds to imprison Katja Thater who is dressed in long black leather SS style coat, stockings and suspenders and nothing else in a wooden stock located outside the Empire casino, Leicester Square. Phil then proceeds to spank her bottom with a cricket bat emblazoned with a union jack whilst Sir Richard Attenborough plays land of hope and glory on the recorder nearby.
Scenario 3
To commemorate Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson’s heroic victory at the battle of Trafalgar and the complete thrashing handed to the cowardly Spanish and French navies. Phil would arrive dressed resplendently in the full uniform of an Admiral of the Queens navy, he would then play David Benyamine and Carlos Mortensen in game of Battleships (TM Hasbro) but with one minor difference to a standard game, the Spanish and French only get to fire every 25 turns as there ships are so crap. Once Phil has sunk his opponents fleets Benyamine and Mortensen would be tarred and feathered by a group of Chelsea pensioners and paraded down Oxford Street.
* It pains me so much to write those words, Europe is in the world FFS!!!!