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It’s time for Twitter’s undertow to drag us under the high stakes seas in another episode of The Pinnacle, beginning down under at the Aussie Millions.

Jorryt van Hoof continues to impress in the live tournament scene after taking down the 59-entrant AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) for $322,551. Stephen Chidwick finished fifth, and Farid Jattin sneaked into the money in seventh. 

The series didn’t have time to blink before Jattin had turned a seventh into a first after the Colombian conquered the 169-entrant field in the AUD 25,000 NLHE Challenge. A whole mass of high rollers ventured deep in that one including George Wolff (2nd), Steve O’Dwyer (3rd), Sam Greenwood (4th) and Yake Wu (9th). 

Toby Lewis earned his second gold ring in three successive years. The man from Southampton in the UK won the Main Event in 2018, and the AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge in 2019. Last week, Lewis took down the 258-entrant AUD 2,500 NLHE Shot-Clock 6-Max event.

Finally, Michael Addamo showed no mercy in winning the AUD 50,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge, defeating a record 82-entrants to bank the $741,752 first prize. 

It wasn’t the only honour for Addamo last week. The Australian Poker Hall of Fame (APHoF) handed him the Young Achiever Award. Fellow high stakes battler, Kahle Burns, made it into the APHoF, as did the World Poker Tour (WPT) anchor, Lynn Gilmartin.

Australia continues to be a high stakes paradise with the AUD 100,000 NLHE Challenge scheduled for next week, as well as Poker Central’s Australian Poker Open and Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Australia.

Super High Roller Bowl Russia; MILLIONS Super High Roller Series; Yong $100k HU Challenge 

After Australia, Cary Katz and his team take the SHRB to Russia, for the wealthiest tournament in Russian poker history. 

The $250k buy-in event takes place as part of the inaugural partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series March 6 – 15, 2020, at the Casino Sochi.

The schedule is still under wraps, but we know the plan is for eight events ranging between $25,000 and $250,000, including a $100,000 Short-Deck event hosted by Triton.

One man who will be in Sochi; skis in hand, is Rob Yong. The partypoker associate was in a grand mood last week, promising the winner of partypoker’s $215 buy-in, $1m GTD MILLION, the opportunity to face him online or live in a head-up match with $100k going to his opponent if he or she can beat him. 

Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Player of the Year; GPI Short-Lists; I am High Stakes Poker

The next big series on the horizon is the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Jeju Feb 10-22, and last week Triton released plans to create a Player of the Year (PoY) leaderboard for the forthcoming season. 

Triton players earn points during 2020 events in Jeju, Montenegro, London, and a yet unspecified location, with the winner picking up an HKD 2m (USD 257,000) first prize – making it the richest PoY Leaderboard in history.

The Global Poker Index (GPI) has recognised Triton’s recent emergence as a poker powerhouse with several Triton related personnel and initiatives making the semi-finals of the 2019 Global Poker Awards shortlists.

Paul Phua: Industry Person of the Year
Lex Veldhuis: Broadcaster of the Year & Streamer of the Year
Luca Vivaldi: Tournament Director of the Year
I am High Stakes Poker: Media Content of the Year (Video)
Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity: Event of the Year

Bits & Bobs

Chance Kornuth leads the final six-players in the WPT Gardens Poker Championship. The final table is on hiatus until March 31, when it resumes at the HyperX Esports Arena in Las Vegas.

Here are the seat draw:

Seat 1: Straton Wilhelm – 435,000
Seat 2: Markus Gonsalves – 2,370,000
Seat 3: Qing Liu – 795,000
Seat 4: Tuan Pham – 2,070,000
Seat 5: Jonathan Cohen – 1,615,000
Seat 6: Chance Kornuth – 2,995,000

There is $554,495 and a seat in the $15,000 WPT Tournament of Champions up top. 

Former Triton Champion, Manig Loeser has teamed up with Aylar Lie and the legend, Viktor Blom, to do some promotional work with the real money social poker app, Pokio. 

Fans of interviews will love this lot.

Igor Kurganov on ‘I am High Stakes Poker.’

Fedor Holz on the ‘Chasing Poker Greatness’ podcast.

Sam Trickett in the LADbible – https://www.ladbible.com/community/celebrity-how-plumber-became-one-of-worlds-most-successful-poker-players-20200113

Alex ‘Kanupoker’ Millar on the Joey Ingram Podcast

We’ll leave you with two very different tactics when it comes to improving your high stakes nous. 

Right-handed Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates is going to try and use his left hand, in a bid to improve mental abilities associated with his right brain.

When it comes to bankroll management, Leon Tsoukernik does things a tad differently, winning €1.3m on the €1k per spin slot machines of an Austrian casino last week. 

And that’s a wrap for this week’s Pinnacle. 

Before the poker bus pulls up to Day 2 of the Aussie Millions, it’s traditional to stop at the stop called ‘The Australian Poker Hall of Fame.’

2020, right on cue, that’s what happened.

The Australian Poker Hall of Fame, or APHoF for people who have to type it out ten times in a 758-word article, first bust out the lingerie and high heels in 2009.

The creators called the first two inductees’ Legends’, and one of them – the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion, Joe Hachem – took to the stage at the Crown Casino in Melbourne to induct a pair of beauties.

Joining Hachem were fellow APHoF members David Gorr, Billy’ The Croc’ Argyros, Tony G and Grant Levy. A quick pout and selfie later, and Lynn Gilmartin joined them as the first inductee.

“I’ve known this little girl since she started working here at the Crown,” Hachem told the crowd. “She never walks around without a smile on her face. She loves poker, she loves people, and she’s just an amazing human being and a credit to us all in poker.”

Gilmartin’s poker career began at the Crown Casino where she worked in the marketing department before going on to work for PokerNews. It was during her tenure at PokerNews that Adam Pliska hired her to host the World Poker Tour (WPT) Alpha8 Super High Roller series, and it turned into a full-time job. Gilmartin currently acts as the anchor for the WPT TV show and is the second female to be inducted into the APHoF after Marsha Waggoner.

“My commitment has been to shine a spotlight on this industry, this game and the players within it,” Gilmartin said after receiving her accolade. “It’s been a privilege. I have so much admiration for this game and for all of you who either play this for a living or just for fun. To receive this award means the world to me, and I’m just so very grateful.”

The second person to receive that Superbowl Sunday feeling was an Australian currently enjoying his role as an End Boss.

“I’ve been playing with this young man for many years, and I can honestly say I’ve given him more bad beats than he’s given me,” Hachem said. “He plays PLO, he plays hold ’em and he travels the world. He’s been on a tear for the last three years and won two bracelets in Europe this year. Give it up for Kahle Burns.”

Burns has had an incredible 12-months, earning $4.4m in 2019 alone, including wins in Melbourne, partypoker MILLIONS, The Poker Masters and two WSOP bracelets. Burns earned those slivers of gold in Rozvadov, during the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE), winning the €2,500 Short-Deck and €25,500 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLHE) events.

“I start playing poker at 18 years old,” said Burns. “I was just out of high school, and this is the room where it all started. I dropped out {of school} at 20 years old to take it seriously, and it’s been a fun ride for 12 years. I spent the first half mostly in this room grinding cash, and it’s been cool to see the poker room grow since then.”

Burns needs a trip to Ikea to buy a trophy cabinet. Earlier this year, the Global Poker Index (GPI) anointed him with the title: 2019 GPI Australian PoY.

Michael Addamo Wins The Young Achiever Award

The APHoF also likes to recognise young talent, and this year, the two-time WSOP bracelet winner, Michael Addamo got the nod – and the timing was perfect.

Addamo’s decision to shun the path of least resistance for the poker life bore fruit when in 2018 he won the $2,620 buy-in, 1,637-entrant NLHE Marathon for $653,581, before travelling to Rozvadov for the WSOPE, taking down the €25,500 NLHE High Roller for a further $973,630.

A few days ago, Addamo defeated a record field of 82-entrants to earn his first Aussie Million gold ring in the AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge for $741,752 and lies third in the All-Time Australian Money List behind Joe Hachem and Kahle Burns.

The Australian Poker Hall of Fame

Joe Hachem
Jeff Lisandro
Billy Argyros
Lee Nelson
Gary Benson
Mel Judah
Tony G
Maurie Pears
Marsha Waggoner
Leo Boxell
Danny McDonagh
David Gorr
Jason Gray
Graeme Putt
Van Marcus
Joe Cabret
Manny Stavropoulos
Grant Levy
Jonathan Karamalikis
Lynn Gilmartin
Kahle Burns

It’s been a long road to get there for the Melbourne man, but get there he did.

Michael Addamo began racking up live tournament scores in 2012, and he earned his first 17 in the money (ITM) finishes playing in the Crown Casino in Melbourne, including his first-ever win: a 36-entrant AUD 20 NLHE event for AUD 640 in 2013.

Two years later, and Addamo made a deep run in the Aussie Millions Main Event, finishing 21/648, securing a record AUD 40,000 score. Another two years passed, before Addamo made another impression at the Crown, finishing 3/15656 in the AUD 1,200 NLHE Opening Event for AUD 117,910, and winning a 31-entrant AUD 5,000 at the Crown Poker Championships for AUD 58,900.

A year later, and Addamo, went one step further in the Aussie Millions Opening Event finishing runner-up to Benedikt Eberle in the 1,538-entrant AUD 1,200 NLHE Opening Event for AUD 194,690.

And now this.

Addamo has just defeated Cary Katz in heads-up action to take the title and $741,752 first prize in the AUD 50,000 No-Limit Hold ’em (NLH) Challenge.

A ring, at last.

The Nutshell Action

Day 1

It was a record-breaking Day 1, with 67-entrants surpassing the previous record set in 2019 when Toby Lewis defeated 62-entrants. 39-players waded through a moat of treacle to make it to Day 2, and with late registration and unlimited re-entry available until the end of the first level on Day 2, the attendance figure would rise.

The 2019 Global Poker Index (GPI) Australian Player of the Year (PoY), Kahle Burns, led the field. Former AUD 50,000 winners Mikita Badziakouski and Sam Greenwood ended the day in the Top 10. Addamo settled for a berth in the middle of the pack

Day 2

The day began with three new entrants, as Sosia Jiang, Jorryt van Hoof, and Cary Katz hoped their new bullets weren’t rubber.

By the end of the first level, and a series of sugared-up re-entries, the final attendance was 82-entrants, with 44-players left to battle for the $738,000 first prize.

Addamo took the chip lead in Level 11, after eliminating Sam Grafton when pocket tens outstripped AK during a five-card sprint. Then we lost the starting day chip leader when Elio Fox’s AdJc beat Burns’ QhJh after an all-in and call in the same level.

The Global Poker Index (GPI) World #1 would fall in Level 12 when Alex Foxen’s AdKh faced Rainer Kempe’s pocket tens in a hip-hop dance-off, did a headspin and broke its neck.

Ten would earn a buck, and Michael Soyza was the last person not to. With blinds at 2,500k/5,000/5,000, Soyza limped into the action from the small blind, holding Ac7c, and called when Addamo raised to 20,000, holding Qh8h. The flop of AhKh8d contained a bit of something for both players, and Soyza check-called a 30,000 Addamo bet. The Js hit the turn, keeping Soyza in the lead, and he once again check-called, this time for an overbet of 105,000. Addamo hit his flush on the river when the 7h decided the myopic lifestyle of the deck was not for him. Soyza checked, Addamo moved all-in, and after using 3 of his 4-time extension chips, Soyza made the fatal call.

The first player to exit with a few AUD in her purse was Kristen Bicknell. The 2019 GPI Female Player of the Year lost a race versus Cary Katz when pocket fives failed to dodge the landmines that aided AhKc.

Yong Wang felt the sharp sting of the Poker Gods wrath when he got it in with pocket kings versus the pocket tens of Erik Seidel, only for the New Yorker to hit his two-outer on the flop to send Wang home with a bang.

The next time Seidel came up against pocket kings, the Poker Gods deserted him. Seidel got it in on 9s8s6h chasing a flush draw with As5s in a single raised pot against Katz, holding KsKd. The flush flirted with an appearance but decided against it, and Katz extended his chip lead, leaving Seidel feeling more styrofoam cup than China.

Sharpshooter, Sam Greenwood, took out two in a single shot to keep his hopes of a second AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge win alive. Rainer Kempe moved all-in for 142,000 from midfield, Greenwood was all-in from the button, and Timothy Adams called all-in from the big blind. Adams had the lead with pocket jacks versus the pocket nines of Greenwood, and KcQc of Kempe, but a 9s hit the turn to give Greenwood trips and the triple up.

Addamo replaced Katz as the chip leader with four remaining after eliminating the short-stacked Ben Lamb. The cash game star made a move holding 8c2c for the flush draw on 7c5h4c, and Addamo called and won with pocket jacks.

Then Greenwood’s voyage hit the rocks in fourth-place.

With blinds at 5,000/10,000/10,000, Addamo opened to 22,000, holding pocket aces in the first position, Katz called on the button with an unknown hand and Greenwood three-bet to 105,000 from the big blind. Addamo four-bet to 230,000, Katz moved out of the way, Greenwood jammed for more than 800,000, and Addamo called. Greenwood did flop the nut flush draw, but the turn and river were as red as Greenwood’s jumper, and the Canadian was out.

Chip Counts

Michael Addamo – 2,450,000
Cary Katz – 1,250,000
Orpen Kisacikoglu – 375,000

Kisacikoglu had a mountain to climb, and he didn’t climb it.

With blinds at 6,000/12,000/12,000, Kisacikoglu bet 12,000 on a flop of 4s3d3c, and Addamo made the call. Kisacikoglu held Kd4d for two-pair, and Addamo held Qh3s for trips. The turn card was a cooler when the Kh improved Kisacikoglu’s hand even further. The London-based entrepreneur checked from his seat in the small blind, Addamo bet 45,000 from the big, and the call came. The final card was the 5s, and Addamo moved all-in prompting a call from Kisacikoglu, and heads-up play moved over the horizon.

Heads-Up

Michael Addamo – 2,815,000
Cary Katz – 1,285,000

In what turned out to be a bit of a battle, Katz would double-up once, but never take the lead from Addamo throughout the duration. The final hand came with blinds at 10,000/20,000/20,000, when Addamo limped into the action holding pocket sixes, and Katz made a sneaky check with AhJs. The Jh6d2d flop would have had all the poker TV junkies on the edge of their seats like trained monkeys watching a cocaine bottle refill. Of course, the money went in, and the set for Addamo held to deliver him his 10th title. Last years AUD 100,000 Challenge winner, had to settle for second place.

Previous AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge Winners

2017 Mikita Badziakouski beat six entrants
2018 Sam Greenwood beat four entrants
2019 Toby Lewis beat 62-entrants

AUD 50,000 NLHE Challenge ITM Results

  1. Michael Addamo – $741,752
  2. Cary Katz – $494,501
  3. Orpen Kisacikoglu – $329,668
  4. Sam Greenwood – $274,723
  5. Ben Lamb – $219,778
  6. Timothy Adams – $192,306
  7. Rainer Kempe – $164,834
  8. Erik Seidel – $137,362
  9. Yong Wang – $109,889
  10. Kristen Bicknell – $82,417
Leon Tsoukerik

Have you ever wondered how you win a one million euro/dollar/sterling/gold/brass buttons, slot machine jackpot?

One way I don’t recommend, is to play for €1k per spin. 

That’s the Leon Tsoukernik way, and like a Cassowaries, in a cockfight, the King’s Resort owner has just reaped the big rewards.

Tsoukernik was at the Casino Seefeld in Austria during the CAPT Seefeld Festival. According to reports, the casino owner, and high stakes star, busted from the €5,400 No Limit-Hold’em High Roller and won the €1,372,500 jackpot while blowing off steam on the €1,000 per spin Novostar II slot machine.

Putting his slots win into perspective, it’s higher than 15 of this 16 live tournament results. Only his 4/56 finish in the 2017 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) in Las Vegas for $1.8m puts it into the shade. 

Who knows why Tsoukernik was in town. 

Business?

High stakes cash games?

Nostalgia?

In 2011, Tsoukernik finished runner-up to Willi Fuhrer in the €2,000 NLHE Main Event at the CAPT Innsbruck, and in 2018, he won a €25,750 NLHE event, beating Manig Loeser, heads-up, for the €370,000 first prize.

CAPT Seefeld runs from 9-19 Jan, with a €2,160 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Main Event.

Prague Business

In November, Tsoukernik gave an interview to PokerStars after purchasing the Casino Atrium at the Hilton Hotel in Prague where he said the previous owners were too focused on ‘slot revenue, rather than live cash poker revenue.’

Ironic.

Tsoukernik acquired the Prague casino because he had ‘nothing to do’ while there with his family. He bought it ahead of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague and got involved in operations immediately.

Tsoukernik has big plans for the casino, aiming to make it as mighty as the King’s Resort in Rozvadov, but it seems like PokerStars are not part of those plans. The online poker giant recently announced 21 live events for 2020, and EPT Prague is not one of them.

Only 3 of the 21 events are EPT events, incredible considering how this live tournament series once held the industry by the scruff of its neck. Prague has been an ever-present on the EPT schedule since Arnaud Mattern won the Main Event in Season 4 (2007). Other stars who have made a name for themselves in the Czech capital include Roberto Romanello (Season 7), Martin Finger (Season 8), Hossein Ensan (Season 12).

And it’s not as if EPT Prague struggled for numbers.

In 2019, Mikalai Pobal beat 1154 entrants to win the €1,005,600 first prize, becoming only the second player to win two EPT Main Events after Victoria Coren-Mitchell.

EPT Prague also has a place in Tsoukernik’s heart. The casino owner beat Charlie Carrel, heads-up, to win the €50,000 NLHE High Roller in Season 6 for €741,100, only the second win of his career at the time.

It’s blown over now, but a month ago, there was a little storm blowing up in our Twitter snow globe, after Daniel Negreanu declared his intention to boycott re-entry events. After a few strums of his guitar, Kid Poker decided it was -EV to stick to his guns, but his points about the value of re-entry tournaments pressed on, as did the rebuttals.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) heard those jungle drums.

The last time the WSOP went to press on the 2020 schedule, it was to notify us of the $10,000 Championship events and associated leaderboard. Today, we get to see the glossy cover of the other bookend, and once again, Negreanu and his supporters will be pleased.

Between May 26 and July 15, the WSOP will schedule a $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Freezeout, including the first event of the series, beginning at 11 am on Wednesday, May 27.

The new events bring the total of the $1,000 buy-in or below pricepoints to 25, and all but one of utilises the Freezeout format, or allow single re-entry or single re-entry per flight stipulations. The only event cobbled in that batch of 25 is the Little One for One Drop, which maintains the re-entry clause to raise more money for Guy Laliberte’s charity.

The red cape holders have called these events the ‘Value Menu,’ and explain that it’s a “concerted effort by the WSOP in 2020,” to offer low buy-in live tournaments. Stats show the bulls will stampede. It’s a nice compromise given how lucrative multiple re-entry events are for tournament organisers.

WSOP Vice-President, Jack Effel, said these events are crucial to meeting the mandate of attracting new players to the series, and if that’s the case then it’s a win, win, win, win, win.

“The WSOP is committed to keeping a significant portion of the schedule utilising the freezeout format.”

Of the 25 events with a $1k or lower buy-in, 15 were previously unreleased, and with the WSOP Online events still to come, you can guarantee that we will see even more games of a low buy-in nature.

We wait with bated breath on news of the $25k+ events, including the confirmation, or not, of the $1m Big One for One Drop.

Here is the ‘Value Menu.’

May 27 – $1,000 NLHE Freezeout
May 27 – $500 NLHE Casino Employee
May 28-31 – $500 NLHE BIG 50
Jun 1 – $600 NLHE DeepStack
Jun 2 – $1,000 NLHE Super Turbo Bounty
Jun 7 – $1,000 NLHE Forty-Stack
Jun 8 – $600 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) DeepStack
Jun 10 – $1,000 PLO 8-Handed
Jun 14 – $800 NLHE DeepStack
Jun 15 – $500 NLHE Freezeout
Jun 16 – $600 Mixed NLHE/PLO
Jun 17 – $1,000 Ladies NLHE
Jun 18 – $1,000 Seniors NLHE Championship
Jun 19-20 – $1,000 NLHE Double-Stack
Jun 21 – $800 NLHE DeepStack
Jun 22 – $1,000 Super Seniors NLHE
Jun 22 – $1000/Team Tag Team NLHE
Jun 23 – $600 NLHE DeepStack Championship
Jun 24-25 – $400 NLHE COLOSSUS
Jun 26-27 – $888 NLHE Crazy Eights
Jun 29 – $1,000 Mini Main Event
Jun 30 – $500 FINAL 500 Salute to Warriors NLHE
Jul 4-6 – $1,1111 NLHE Little One for One Drop
Jul 12 – $800 NLHE DeepStack
Jul 13 – $1,000 NLHE Super Turbo

A decade ago, nobody in poker was more rock n roll than Viktor Blom. Competing under the alias’ Isildur1′, the Swedish star blew a whistle into the eardrum of every high stakes player on the planet, and a few still have tinnitus to this day. 

PokerStars was the first company to recognise Blom’s brand-ability. In 2011, the giant of the online poker world placed him on top of a mountain of mattresses, and he felt the pea. 

Poker’s prince had a face.

Stars’ relationship with Blom lasted a year, but he had barely stepped back into the shadows when Full Tilt partnered him with Tom Dwan and Gus Hansen to spearhead their reemergence as an online poker powerhouse.

What looked like red liquorice on paper turned out, in reality, to be Brussel sprouts. Full Tilt entered the maze of forgotten greats, and Blom quietly slipped away like heavy eyelids.

The poker press has spotted him, occasionally. Like last year when he turned up at the King’s Resort in Rozvadov and took down the 927-entrant partypoker MILLIONS Germany for $1m, but a teenager with a parentally locked I-Pad is likelier to find porn than the poker community is to find Blom. 

He’s like a ghost. 

Well, the man Phil Galfond recently confessed, was his fiercest rival back in the day, is back, with his head popping up above the unlikeliest of parapets: Pokio.

Pokio and Blom

I know what you’re thinking, “why is one of online poker’s fiercest ever competitors affiliated with The Super Mario Brothers.” I get the confusion, I do. However, I’m not talking about the pokios that live in Mario World’s seaside kingdom.

Pokio’s unique selling proposition is declaring they are the first real money social poker experience to receive a license from the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA).

Last year, Pokio donned their fatigues and entered the war for attention in poker’s ecosystem when they partnered with the Cash Game Festival (CGF), the Portomaso Casino and the Malta Poker Festival (MPF) a triumvirate of activities centred around their H.Q.

But this is something else.

Blom is not the terror he once was, but his name still makes some quarters of the poker community go weak at the knees. If you wish to compete with Blom and have a natter about the good old days, then sign-up, join his club.

Qufan Internet Technology Ltd owns Pokio. In Nov 2016, the Chinese online sports lottery outfit 500.com acquired a 51% stake in the company for the not too shabby sum of $16m.

The app offers all the standard games, and formats, including Open-Face Chinese (OFC), and a Swedish game called Sviten Special, branded as Drawmaha. 

Blom is not the only professional poker player with links to Pokio. The former European Poker Tour (EPT) Champion, and High Stakes Poker contestant, Andreas Hoivold, also has a club on the app. 

If you were playing poker on the Playstation, and you were Latin American, then Farid Jattin would be one of your hot character picks. The 31-year-old from Barranquilla, Colombia, had his best year on the live tournament circuit in 2019, recognised by the Global Poker Index (GPI) awarding him the Latin American Player of the Year (PoY) title.

The weatherman has spoken, and you can expect nothing but heat for the Colombian in the near future.

A year after finishing runner-up to Anton Morgenstern in the AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO), and a lost train ticket away from finishing 7/59 in the same tournament, Jattin finally has an Aussie Millions gold ring.

Jattin brought the field of 169-entrants to its knees in the AUD 25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) Challenge beneath the poisonous skies of Melbourne to collect the second most significant score of his career ($678,900).

To reach the summit, Colombia’s All-Time #1 Live Tournament Money Earner had to beat George Wolff in heads-up action, but not before the pair agreed upon a heads-up deal.

Like Jattin, 2019 was Wolff’s best year for live tournament consistency, earning a record $1.6m. He won a £10k PLO event at the British Poker Open (BPO) in September, but it’s been his consistency at the top end of these things that’s impressive with five runner-up finishes. A tad more luck on the occasional flop, turn or river, and Wolff would have had more toasts.

Wolff came into this one in fine fettle, finishing 3/37 in a $25k NLHE during the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic, and 3/160 in a $3k event at the Venetian, both in December.

It was a final table brimming with quality, making it challenging not to be verbose when it comes to their accomplishments.

I’ll make it short and sweet.

Steve O’Dwyer followed up his 5/37 finish in the $25k NLHE at the MILLIONS UK in Nottingham with a third-place finish here. The GPI Canadian PoY, Sam Greenwood, finished fourth. The former WPT Jeju Champ, Masato Yokosawa finished fifth, the former World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) Main Event winner, Jack Sinclair was sixth, and former Aussie Millions ring winner, Kenney Hallaert, finished seventh.

It’s the second successive calendar year that Jattin has propelled himself out of the starting blocks like a phantom. He finished 7/1039 at the $25,000 NLHE PokerStars Players’ Championship (PSPC) in the Bahamas for $746,000, before a decent outing in Melbourne.

Here are the final table results in full.

Final Table Results

  1. Farid Jattin – $678,900*
  2. George Wolff – $566,832*
  3. Steve O’Dwyer – $322,501
  4. Sam Greenwood – $238,371
  5. Masato Yokosawa – $168,262
  6. Jack Sinclair – $119,185
  7. Kenny Hallaert – $91,142

*Indicates a heads-up deal.

When the shortlists for the 2018 Global Poker Awards (GPA) arrived in our’ inbox’, social graces went awry, as people, angry at the omissions coming from a faulty voting system, spat dummies at the Global Poker Index (GPI) like shells shot from a Sherman.

The GPI’s leader, Eric Danis, reacted with humility, taking the flagpoles to the chin, and issuing a statement promising a ‘concerted effort’ to ‘improve the voting process’ from 2019 and beyond.

Danis has lived up to his part of the bargain.

The GPA returns live and direct from the PokerGO Studios in Las Vegas, March 6. If you have a PokerGo subscription, then you can put the kettle on, grab the homemade date and almond granola, and watch the whole thing live. If not, then outside, foraging for acorns it is then.

The Changes

The broad-spectrum nomination panel turned out to be as popular as turning off your laptop. In the bin, it went, as did the people gathered in a phone booth to make the final decisions – the jury also gets an axe to the head.

As expected, an expert panel takes charge on a category-by-category basis, so, for example, people who listen to podcasts vote for the ‘Podcast of the Year’ award.

The GPI team put together a preliminary list for each category, and that then flies into the hands of the expert panel. During the ‘Preliminary Voting Round,’ each member of the group selects five they believe should make the shortlist. The GPI then use a formula similar to the Oscars to create ‘Official Ballots’ for each category.

During the ‘Final Voting Round’, voting panel members choose three people they believe should finish 1st, 2nd and 3rd, with 5, 3 and 1 points allocated to each pick. The fans also get a say, with a fan vote (that acts as one voting panel vote) calculated in the same fashion.

The GPI team then tally up the scores and announce the final four in each category in January with the winners announced in March.

Here is the nitty-gritty.

Categories

There are 25 categories, with eight appearing for the first time.

Poker ICON replaces the Lifetime Achievement award.

Final Table Performance Award replaces the Tournament Performance Award.

The Hendon Mob (THM) Award returns with the GPI team choosing someone who has ‘done something exceptional on the THM database during the 2019 poker season’.

There is also a change to the GPI Breakout Player of the Year with only players never to be ranked inside the GPI POY Top 500 until 2019, eligible.

The members of the GPI100 will select their nomination for ‘Players Choice for Toughest Opponent.’ Fans can vote for ‘People’s Choice for Hand of the Year,’ and ‘Poker Personality.’ There is a new award for ‘Twitter Personality of the Year’, the ‘Media Content Award’ expands into ‘Video,’ ‘Written’ and ‘Photo.’ Finally, as there is no jury, the GPI Award of Merit replaces the ‘Jury Prize’ award.

Here are the awards in full.

Awards Determined by Voting Panel

  • GPI Breakout Player of the Year
  • Final Table Performance
  • Streamer
  • Vlogger
  • Twitter Personality
  • Industry Person
  • Tournament Director
  • Event of the Year
  • Mid-Major/Circuit
  • Journalist
  • Broadcaster
  • Podcast
  • Media Content: Written
  • Media Content: Video
  • Media Content: Photo

Awards Determined by the Fans

  • People’s Choice: Poker Personality
  • People’s Choice: Hand of the Year

Selected by the GPI’s Top 100 Ranked Players

  • Players Choice: Toughest Opponent of 2019

Selected by the GPI Rankings/Awards Team

  • GPI Poker Player of the Year (Alex Foxen)
  • GPI Female Player of the Year (Kristen Bicknell)
  • Poker ICON
  • THM Award
  • PocketFives Legacy Award (with PocketFives)
  • Charitable Initiative
  • GPI Award of Merit

We’re not about to carve his head into the granite of poker’s Mount Rushmore, but Jorryt van Hoof seems to have the oomph needed to traverse from the darkness of high stakes cash games to the bright lights of high stakes live tournaments.

Van Hoof appeared under poker Pentagon’s radar in 2014, finishing third in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $3.8m, but while that year is all about the glitz and the glamour, 2019’s wrap sheet looks more like the grind.

It was the Dutchman’s best live tournament return on gross earnings outside of that remarkable run in 2014. All told, van Hoof earned $858,805. In late November, he won a 45-entrant €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) High Roller at the Master Classic of Poker (MCOP) in Amsterdam for $181,102. He then finished runner-up to Chin Wei Lim in a 50-entrant €25,000 NLHE event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Prague earning another $303,100.

Now he has an Aussie Millions ring.

Van Hoof won the 59-entrant, Event #11: AUD 25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha, defeating three Australians while four-handed to add $322,400 to his bank account.

It’s van Hoof’s first cash at the Aussie Millions, and the third live tournament win of his career.

Here is the nutshell action.

The Nutshell Action

Of the 59-entrants, only seven players would receive a return on investment, and Miroslav Sheynin was the last to see that hope vanish like the silt on a mantlepiece against the brush of a cleaner when Hun Lee sent him packing after flopping the nut flush against a straight.

Van Hoof doubled through Farid Jattin after a flush arrived on the river to beat the Colombian’s flopped two-pair hand, and Lee eliminated Jattin not long after.

Lee continued to be the punk amongst mods, eliminating his third player at the final table. Fabian Brandes went for it on a Td5s3h flop holding AhAd7h3c, only for Lee to river a two-pair hand to send the Austrian packing.

Van Hoof doubled again, this time through Lee, before taking out the dangerous Stephen Chidwick when AsQs8c6c rivered a two-pair hand to beat the KcKsTs5c of the man from the UK.

Chip Counts

Hun Lee – 1,474,000
Jorryt van Hoof – 771,000
Martin Kozlov – 472,000
Najeem Ajez – 237,000

Martin Kozlov fell first when Lee found aces and nines to beat the AhKdQcJc of Kozlov before Najeem Ajez took the lead after doubling twice through Lee.

Lee gained revenge, doubling through Ajez twice, before van Hoof took the chip lead for the first time at the final table, eliminating Ajez when Ah8h8s5c beat Jc7h5h5d when all-in pre and the eights held.

Heads-Up

Jorryt van Hoof – 1,825,000
Hun Lee – 1,130,000

Van Hoof extended his lead winning the first few pots before Lee doubled back into contention when KcKsQc9h beat AsJs9c4d. Despite, Lee knocking on the door, it never opened. The final twist in this plot saw all the money go in on a flop of Tc6h4s in a limped pot. It was Lee’s 9c8d7s3h versus the JsThTd5d of van Hoof, for a set versus a wrap, and the Dutchman scored a full house on the turn to signify the end of the contest.

Final Table Results

  1. Jorryt van Hoof – $322,400
  2. Hun Lee – $205,164
  3. Najeem Ajez – $136,776
  4. Martin Kozlov – $107,467
  5. Fabian Brandes – $68,388
  6. Farid Jattin – $58,618

Some 12,000 years ago, the men and women of this great planet of ours, riled God in such a bad way that he pulled the plug from his bathtub drowning 99.9% of all life. The only people who escaped God’s wrath were those permitted to trot, slither and hop onto Noah’s Ark. 

If there is a God, then surely there’s another flood on its way. Adolf Hitler aside, there hasn’t been a time in the past 12,000 years when humanity has been so thoroughly annoying. 

With so many crazies having fingers and thumbs on the nuclear weapon launch buttons, it’s time to start the two-by-two process all over again. I proposed that Sam Soverel and Ali Imsirovic keep the live tournament poker bloodline going.

The 2018 and 2019 Poker Masters recently reached the final table of the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) High Roller at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Gardens Poker Championship in California. 

There was only one table.

When Soverel and Imsirovic reached the punchline, they decided to split the prize money according to chip stacks, with Soverel’s $122,000 slightly meatier than the $103,000 of Imsirovic. With a trophy, title and #1 stamp in the Hendon Mob to play for the pair were in no mood to create some poker poetry, choosing to flip.

Imsirovic won the flip, and he’ll be hoping the title, albeit against a paltry field, will give him the moonshine kick of confidence that all poker players covet. The win comes on the back of Imsirovic’s most successful year on the live felt, winning $5.2m. The Bosnian star won seven titles, made 26 final tables, and finished in the top 3 spots 58% of the time. 

The Bosnian warmed up for this one by winning the 30-entrant $50,000 NLHE Bellagio High Roller during the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December. 

Despite winning the most cash, the stats will show Soverel’s run ended in the #2 position, and that’s ok with him. Soverel also had his best year to date in 2019. He won $5.8m in total, including taking down the British Poker Open (BPO), the Poker Masters, and defending his Poker Central Player of the Year (PoY) title. Of his 28 final tables, Soverel finished in the top 3 spots an incredible 71% of the time, winning eight of them.  

Not this one.

Jim Collopy Also Bags a Win

Despite only nine players turning up for the $25,000 buy-in event, the WPT and the Gardens Casino put on a second event, and Jim Collopy stuck around to win it.

Like Imsirovic and Soverel, Collopy also enjoyed his richest year in 2019 with $590,796 in prize money. The win is his second cash in the Gardens Casino after his deep run in the 2019 WPT Gardens Poker Championship ended in 26th place.

Amongst Collopy’s seven titles sits a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet victory after winning a 172-entrant AUD 1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha contest during the 2013 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (WSOP-APAC). 

It’s rare to see Collopy playing at these stakes, and his $245,000 purse is the second-best of his life behind the $274,924 he collected for finishing runner-up to Gus Hansen in a £10,350 NLHE Heads-Up High Roller at the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) in London.

Collopy is more likely to step on a big ladder than slide down the throat of a giraffe. He warmed up for this one by winning the 16-entrant $10,000 NLHE High Roller at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) at The Bike at the beginning of December.