Author: admin

Percy Bysshe Shelley once said, “A poet is a nightingale, who sits in darkness and sings to cheer its own solitude with sweet sounds.”

There is nothing sweet about the Pinnacle.

It’s more magpie than nightingale with every single story stolen from the tumultuous land of Twitter.

We begin in the live realm.

The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is on the horizon, and one of the favourites for the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year (POY) has been busy.

In the summer, Daniel Negreanu surprised his fans by selling a percentage of his WSOP action with no markup. Gremlins turned the sale into a farce when a glitch led to Negreanu overselling, but Kid Poker promised to make amends.

Negreanu is heading to Rozvadov, and 984 backers will have a sweat after buying $400,000 worth of the two-time WSOP POY winner’s action. If anyone missed out for a second time, have some patience, you’ll get your chance, sooner or later.

Negreanu will compete in 15 events at the WSOPE as he tries to beat Robert Campbell and Shaun Deeb in pursuit of an unprecedented third title. In Vegas, Negreanu paid $760,000 to compete in 58-events and secured a $2,042,752.92 gross profit for his investors (an ROI of 168.78%). His WSOPE investors hope for more of the same.

The WSOPE comes at you live from the King’s Resort in Rozvadov: 13 October – 4 November.

Here is the WSOP POY Top 5.

  1. Robert Campbell – 3,418.78
  2. Shaun Deeb – 3,280.13
  3. Daniel Negreanu – 3,166.24
  4. Daniel Zack – 3,126.13
  5. Phillip Hui – 2,881.67

One man who will be competing at the WSOPE is Tony G. Since stepping down from his position as a Member of European Parliament (MEP), G has found more time to compete in high stakes action. In August, he won the €25,000 Short-Deck event at the partypoker MILLIONS Europe in Rozvadov.

Ahead of the WSOPE, the G-Meister General is calling on the ‘old boys’ to form poker’s equivalent of The Avengers, with the new GTO guard taking the form of Thanos and his cronies.

From one arm of the World Series of Poker to another, and Brian Hastings has taken down Event #7: $1,125 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) at the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) at Seminole Coconut Creek.

Hastings created a sepulchre for 45-entrants on his way to his $16,248 score. Despite winning four gold bracelets, and earning more than $2.7m in WSOP earnings, this is his first gold ring.

Before we leave the live tournament news space and step into the shadows of online poker, we leave you with two interesting videos. Both come from Triton Poker’s impressive library of high stakes poker action.

The first two hands feature Xuan Tan. China’s top export prompted Triton commentator, Lex Veldhuis, to label Tan as one of the best live No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) players in the world.

In both hands, Tan lays down trips when facing a full house. What’s interesting about the first hand, is Dietrich Fast’s view on Twitter, that folding Hand #1 is a mistake.

What do you think?

The third and final video sees the Triton Champion, Rui Cao, talking about his $400k bluff with ten-high during a cash game in Triton Jeju.

Online News: Talal Shakerchi Comes Close to WCOOP Win

Talal Shakerchi believes one of the critical criteria to life success is luck. Seneca once said that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” When it comes to major online poker series, Shakerchi is prepared and ready to take the opportunities that come his way.

The 55-year-old, hedge fund manager from London, recently finished third in the $5,200 World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) on PokerStars. Shakerchi collected $846,528.35 for his troubles. Had he won, he would have become the first player to win Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and WCOOP Main Events.

It wasn’t to be, but it once again underlines, Shakerchi’s incredible talents at the poker table, live or online. The high stakes non-professional wading through 2,236-entrants before slipping through the rungs of the ladder two steps from the summit.

Shakerchi was the last person to exit without a seven-figure score. The biggest pile of cash, $1,665,962.04 went to the high stakes cash game player, ‘BigBlindBets’, and Brazil’s, Danilo “dans170′” de Lima Demetrio, earned $1,187,553.01 for finishing as the runner-up.

Life Outside of Poker: JC Alvarado Retiring

The high stakes poker world is down by one after JC Alvarado declared his intention to step down from his position as a professional poker player. Alvarado made the declaration on Twitter after busting the WCOOP Main Event.

The Mexican star became a revelation both online and live thanks to his fearless gambling style. In 2009, Alvarado won the SCOOP Main Event for $502,086, after outlasting a field of 3,198-entrants.

Alvarado has also won more than $4.7m playing live tournaments, including a near million dollar score for finishing second in a €50,000 Super High Roller at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Barcelona, in 2012.

Alvarado is keeping his powder dry on what comes next and is not ruling out a return to poker.

The Debate: Stockfish v Poker

High stakes poker players remain fresh by making sure they have something else to fill the gaps in between games. For a select few, chess fits that mould.

Dan Smith, Daniel Negreanu and Bill Perkins are three high stakes players who like a game of chess. This week, the latter laid out an open challenge to poker’s hierarchy.

After nobody took up Perkins’ freeroll, the hedge fund manager threw in ten hours of private jet time.

Still, nobody stood up, so Mike “Timex” McDonald bumped the reward up even higher.

Perkins and McDonald’s confidence is well-founded. Stockfish is a chess AI from the womb of another chess AI called Glaurung. Glaurung is a fearful dragon from Tolkien’s Middle Earth, and it seems likelier for a human to defeat a fire-breathing dragon than beat Stockfish.

The Beef: Perkins v The Clown

It all began when Perkins sent this Elon Musk related tweet into the universe.

Next, a Twitter user, ‘@keegold305,’ branded the man he chose to follow with the following statement.

“Bro, you’re so out of touch with real people. I’m done following this moron. Daddy gave him money. He thinks he knows shit.”

Perkins retaliated.

And did his ‘Daddy’ give Perkins all of his money?

The Poll: Angels v Aliens and Another Shot at God;

Two Twitter polls emerged from the fingertips of our high stakes brethren, and both came from Daniel Negreanu’s whorls.

Last week, Doug Polk polled his followers on their religious beliefs, with 36% being agnostic, 33% atheist and only 15% religious. This week, Negreanu ran a similar poll, and 41% of the 9,222 who voted are atheist as opposed to 17% believing in God.

Poker players tend not to be religious.

If there is no God, then there are no angels.

Does that mean that sightings of angels are merely aliens?

Quote(s) of the Week

We leave you with three quotes of the week.

Did you know that it was illegal to give or receive a blowjob in Virginia back in the day?

You do now.

The author, Ryan Holiday, has a new book called ‘Stillness is the Key.’ In a recent guest post on the Tim Ferriss blog, Holiday lays out ’28 Ways to Find The Stillness You Need to Thrive and be Happy.’ Haralabos Voulgaris liked two in particular.

Here is that article.

28 Ways to Find the Stillness You Need to Thrive
https://twitter.com/haralabob/status/1177307477051731969?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Finally, have you ever wondered how Patrik Leonard behaves after firing five bullets before dinner break?

Now you know.

Or where Erik Seidel got his dance moves?

Now, you know that too.

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

Gagging sounds replace the echoes of ankle chains clanking against computer tables as the oesophagus becomes reacquainted with food.

PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) is over.

The $5,200 WCOOP Main Event attracted 2,236-entrants (inc. 599 re-entries), and would you Adam and Eve it, Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi, led the final nine as temperatures soared to boiling point.

Fountains pens belonging to poker poets bled black ink as Shakerchi attempted to become the first player to win both Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) and WCOOP Main Event titles.

The hedge fund manager from the land of Jack the Ripper didn’t make it, but his sojourn was more chrysanthemums than cacti, finishing a respectable third place, for $846,528.35.

After Shakerchi fell in third, the heads-up action pitted ‘BigBlindBets’ against Brazil’s Danilo ‘dans170’ Demetrio. The former had a huge chip lead and quickly banished the Brazilian to the rail. Both players earned seven-figure scores with Demetrio winning $1,187,553.01, and ‘BigBlindBets’ banking $1,665,962.04.

According to an ‘About Me’ page on the PokerMarket.com forum, ‘BigBlindBets’, is a high stakes cash game player on PokerStars, and has played poker since 2010.

Final Table Results

1 – BigBlindBets (UK) – $1,665,962.04
2 – Danilo “dans170′” de Lima Demetrio (Brazil) – $1,187,553.01
3 – Talal “raidalot” Shakerchi (UK) – $846,528.35
4 – NeedBeat (Estonia) – $603,434.91
5 – 19Pistike93 (Hungary) – $403,148.26
6 – XMorphineX (Belgium) – $306,624.91
7 – Leitnant (Estonia) – $218,572.35
8 – moglimiranda (Germany) – $155,805.59
9 – TheMakrill7 (Sweden) – $111,063.23

WCOOP Stats

Events: 219
Entries: 1,219,969
Prize pools: $104,733,898.76
First prizes so far: $15,765,054.94
In-the-money finishers: 173,364

Russia won the most titles with 28, and Brazil took second place with 23.

Here are the individual leaderboards.

High buy-in:

1 – Rui ‘RuiNF’ Ferreira Netherlands 705 — $7,500 plus trophy
2 – Felipe ‘Zagazaur’ Oliveira Netherlands 700
3 – Jussi ‘calvin7v’ Nevanlinna Finland 675
4 – Joao ‘Naza114’ Vieira UK 600
5 – Yuri ‘theNERDguy’ Martins Brazil 495

Overall:

1 – Jussi “calvin7v” Nevanlinna Finland 1,400 – $20,000 plus trophy
2 – Felipe ‘Zagazaur’ Oliveira Netherlands 1,345
3 – Rui ‘RuiNF’ Ferreira Netherlands 1,280
4 – Timothy ‘TruthBeTold7’ Rutherford Canada 1,205
5 – Shaun ‘shaundeeb’ Deeb Mexico 1,150
6 – Konstantin ‘krakukra’ Maslek Russia 1,050
7 – Dimitry ‘Colisea’ Urbanovich Latvia 1,040
8 – Mike ‘goleafsgoeh’ Leah Canada 955
9 – FONBET_RULIT Russia 880
10 – WTFOMFGOAO Russia 845

Weekend High Roller Winners

Igor Kurganov enjoyed another productive weekend, online.

The PokerStars Ambassador topped a field of 100 entrants (inc, 39 re-entries) in the $2,100 Sunday High Roller on PokerStars. Kurganov won $46,086.94 after conquering a final table that included Michael Addamo (6th), Dominik Nitsche (4th), Jorryt van Hoof (7th) and Ole Schemion (9th). Kurganov beat Luke Reeves, heads-up, for the title.

Addamo then followed up his sixth place with a victory in the $2,100 Sunday Cooldown Turbo PKO for $68,301.12. Addamo, who plays from Thailand, also won a WCOOP title during the most recent series, for $259k.

Another high roller on point this weekend was Michael Soyza. The Triton Champion took down a 52-entrant, $25,000 buy-in event on his native GGPoker for $486,858, a week after finishing third in a similar event for $249,993.

Here is the PocketFives World Rankings #2

PocketFives World Rankings

  1. Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro – 10,207
  2. Patrick “pleno1” Leonard – 9,323
  3. Andras “probirs” Nemeth – 9,177
  4. Niklas “lena900” Astedt – 9.012
  5. Johannes “Greenstone25” Korsar – 8,622

The author Pierce Brown once told a tale of a man who chased an impala through the savannah, hunting knife in hand. The impala outran the man, but the man didn’t stop running. The following morning, the man returned to camp with the impala over his shoulders.

“How did you catch that?” Asked his hunting partners.

“All beasts have to stop for water. I carry mine.”

That man is Rob Yong.

Remember those ‘Most Influential People in Poker’ polls that some magazine or other would run when human beings used to buy such things at the newsagents along with their 20 Malboro Lights and a copy of ‘The Pink’? If they were still in circulation, Yong would be looking down at everyone else. 

Twitter can stink like Shrek’s swamp, but some good comes out of it. Never before in the history of our species have we been so close to the thoughts and opinions of the leaders of industry, art, and whatever else I should use in that triumvirate if I were a smarter man. 

Take Yong as an example.

The man has always had poker in his veins. He’s always been a prominent member of the community, but rather than sitting on the barrel of the tank; you would more likely find him minding his business inside the thing. 

Not these days.

Barely a few months ago, Yong opened a Twitter account, and that barrel started blasting. It’s still steaming hot today. In no time, Yong has amassed more than 21,000 followers, all interested in his open and candid views on life and poker. 

Yong is one of the perfect foils for poker, because not only does he play in the highest stakes cash games in the world, his heart remains in the grassroots of the game – a place he spends most of his gardening time, planting seeds, and showering them with water. 

New York! New York!

In the past few days, Yong appeared on Joey Ingram’s ‘The Poker Life Podcast’, where the pair spoke for two-hours. Thanks to David Huber at PartTimePoker, we know that one of the discussion topics was partypoker’s future in the U.S.

Yong told Ingram that he had received numerous private messages on Twitter from U.S based citizens eager to know what he was doing to help create a change in online poker legislation.

The short answer is ‘nothing.’

From the interview:

“They {Twitter followers} don’t realise I’ve nothing to do with the U.S,” said Yong. “I’m just focusing on helping our dot-com. Well, they’re like, ‘Why aren’t you working on the U.S? Why is partypoker not doing anything?’ So it just kind of stimulated me to take a peek.”

After running the following poll, Yong jumped on a jet plane and headed to the East Coast.

It didn’t take long for him to see the silliness for himself.

💪

On Meeting Adelson

One of the main impediments to online poker legislation in more U.S states is Sheldon Adelson. The founder of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. once called online poker a ‘cancer.’ If you’re going to win the hearts and minds, then one mind that needs changing is Adelson’s.

Through his contacts, Yong has managed to request fifteen minutes of Adelson’s time, in which he will try and convince him that online poker is not cancer and that if wielding effectively it could be a weapon used for good.

“I want to explain the difference in poker compared to other gaming like casino and sports. And there are 23 million people in America that play poker.” Said Yong.

Yong also plans to empathise with Adelson by playing the age card. 

“He’ll probably never meet me, but I’ve actually managed to network through to try at least request just to meet the guy for a cappuccino and try and explain to him how much of a community activity poker is,” said Yong. “I always say about my dad… he’s eighty-two years old. He’d probably be like, not even coherent now if he wasn’t playing poker every night in my casino. It’s just such a good community and social activity. I think poker — as long as you play within your limits — is like really good for people. It’s one of the things you can play at any age; any sex. Anybody can sit down at a table together and get to know new people. So I’m like really pro poker as an activity for human beings.”

What if partypoker does return to the U.S in a big way?

Yong believes great things will happen. 

At the time, partypoker decided to leave the U.S; they were the market share leader. PokerStars stayed, and took that crown in a market devoid of the most significant player. 

Yong believes karma is around the corner.

Once again, speaking to Ingram:

“partypoker pulled out of the U.S. market. Did the right thing. Listened to the government. Yeah? PokerStars and some other companies stayed in. Ten years later, partypoker is being looked upon a lot more favorably in the U.S. market when it goes back in, in terms of regulation, in terms of the players. Players know that partypoker does the right thing. So karma might come back. And I am absolutely sure that if the U.S. does open up in the future that partypoker would be the number-one online site because of what they did ten years ago by holding their hands up and saying, ‘Okay, we’ll do what you say, Mr. U.S. Government.’”

You can catch the entire two-hours right here.

If you’re still hungry for more Rob Yong action, then check out our latest interview with him in our series ‘I am High Stakes Poker.’

Talal Shakerchi

What happens in the nest of the winner of a major online poker tournament the moments after you’ve won? If you live in the U.K, and you take the last chip as the nightcrawlers come out to play, everyone’s in bed. Do you put the mouse down, lean back, exhale deeply, and scream an internal “Yeah!!!” 

nine players are within a shout of deliberating that thought, as the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Final Table prepares to play out. 

The lion in this hunt is Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi. 

The 55-year-old, hedge fund manager from London, begins with a sizeable chip lead, after ripping 2,236-entrants limb from limb in the $5,200 buy-in extravaganza. 

If Shakerchi becomes the only remaining player standing beneath the lemonlight, he would have rewritten history. In the Spring, Gianluca “Tankanza” Speranza became the first person to successfully defend the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) Main Event. Nobody has ever won both SCOOP and WCOOP Main Event titles. 

Shakerchi won the $10,300 SCOOP Main Event back in 2016 for $1.46m. That watering hole contained a few more ruffians than this with both Sean Winter and Scott Seiver making the final table. 

Looking through the hunters in this one, only ‘XMorphineX’ leaps into the poker conscious as a player who could put the other eight to sleep after an overdose of run good. As soon as WCOOP opened the front door, the Belgian waltzed in and won the $530 Sunday Million special for $202,420.81. 

Outside of that beast, the other names remain unrecognisable, and that’s not to say there isn’t a monster lurking beneath the pseudonyms. But Shakerchi is used to battling monsters both in the business world and poker. 

Shakerchi has earned more than $7.6m playing live tournaments. He has eight titles to his name including winning a 137-entrant £10,300 High Roller at the European Poker Tour (EPT) London in 2013. He finished fourth in the Super High Roller Bowl in December. In short, he’s one of the best non-professionals prowling around the circuit, and he’s not afraid to take a contract out on anyone and in any format. 

Here is the final table layout.

The action concludes Wed 25 Sep.

Final Table

  1. Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi (UK) 122,626,562
  2. XMorphineX (Belgium) 82,023,949
  3. Danilo ‘dans170’ de Lima Demetrio (Brazil) – 81,843,549
  4. BigBlindBets (UK) – 68,825,817
  5. NeadBeat (Estonia) – 56,071,362
  6. Leitnant (Estonia) – 44,901,942
  7. TheMakrill7 (Sweden) – 42,717,905
  8. 10Pistike93 (Hungary) – 31,260,220
  9. Moglimiranda (Germany) – 28,728,694

Payouts

  1. $1,665,962.04
  2. $1,187,553.01
  3. $846,528.35
  4. $603,434.91
  5. $403,148.26
  6. $306,624.91
  7. $218,572.35
  8. $155,80559
  9. $111,063.23

Silence. 

Tongues of steel, please.

I know you have the Pinnacle burned into the back of your eyelids, so find a groove, close your eyes, and we’ll get going.

Last week, we opened with the British Poker Open (BPO), and a rather flat Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) London. This week the current takes us to the shores of PokerStars and the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).

Before the last WCOOP, Shaun Deeb stood alone as the undisputed king, with six wins. Then Denis ‘aDreNalin710’ Strebkov got the bit between his teeth, pulled hard on the leash, and won five in little over a week, to take the crown with ten wins. 

In our previous Pinnacle, we told you that Deeb had closed the gap after beating Strebkov, heads-up, to win his seventh title. This week the gap is narrower after Deeb became the first double WCOOP champ of the series with a victory in Event #37: $530 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max. Deeb made 599-entrants his slave on his way to collecting the $52,371 first prize. 

Another player who earned his second WCOOP title of the series is Joao “Naza114’ Vieira. The Winamax pro turned a single into a couple after winning Event #52 (H) $530 No-Limit Hold’em Midweek Freeze for $86,876.70. 

Adrian Mateos conquered a field of 326-entrants to win the $130,468.21 first prize in Event #50 (H) $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em PKO for $130,468.21. Alex Foxen also made the final table. It was Mateos’s second WCOOP career title.

Bartlomiej “bartek901” Machon also won his second career title after beating 573-entrants to collect the $101,148 first prize in Event #31: (H) $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em. The former Triton Poker commentator, Celina Lin, finished ninth.

Michael ‘mczhang’ Zhang remains as locked into the high stakes orbit as Venus is to the Earth. The UK-based star vanquished 175-entrants to win Event #48 (H) $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller for $253,810.

Like Zhang, Thomas Boivin has also enjoyed recent success in live high rollers, and the Belgian translated that good fortune into the online surf. Boivin won Event #48: (M) $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em Super Tuesday, banishing 1,112-entrants to the rail on the way to collecting his $178,331 bounty.

Dario Sammartino is another high roller having the year of his life. The Italian finished runner-up to Hossain Ensan in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $6m. Not that he needs the money, but another $371,186.76 joins the band after Sammartino took down the 148-entrant Event #57 (H) $10,300 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max PKO High Roller. The final table housed David ‘dpeters17” Peters, and Steve “Mr. Tim Caum” O’Dwyer.

It’s WCOOP’s 18th year of war.

It’s never been bloodier. 

Live News: Doyle on Dead People; Ivey & Borgata Latest; Antonius Heading to Malta

Twitter can be a weary place, but not when you play ‘I Spy’ along the drainpipe of Doyle Brunson’s Twitter feed. We know that Doyle is the Godfather of Poker, we know he likes his guns, and this week we learned he also likes watching a spot of TV. 

So what’s on Doyle’s box?

Brian Koppelman’s ‘Billions’ is on his watchlist as are old reruns of Dallas.

Your read it right.

Doyle saw a guy get shot at the poker table. 

Why?

What happened?

I thought so.

From guns to chums, and this week it transpired that Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates had been helping his buddy Phil Ivey in the wake of his baccarat problems. Cates and Ilya Trincher backed Ivey into the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championships (PPC) at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Ivey finished eighth, but the money went to the U.S. Marshall’s Office, and not the pockets of Cates and Trincher. 

You can read about the whole sorry mess, right here. 

Phil Ivey v The Borgata Update: Trincher & Cates Join The Cast

Another good friend of Ivey’s is Patrik Antonius, and if you’re a fan of the iceman, and you live in Malta – you’re in luck. Antonius will star at the Battle of Malta in October. The Fin will host and play in a special €300 (unlimited rebuys) No-Limit Hold’em tournament christened the Patrik Antonius Poker Challenge (PAPC) Pop-Up Cup. Antonius is joining forces with the Battle of Malta to market his app: First Land of Poker (FLOP). The event takes place over two days: Fri 18 & Sat 19 Oct.

Finally, if you’ve been feeling like you’re stuck on a raft without any oars waiting for the next instalment of the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Montenegro Short-Deck Cash Game action, you’re in luck.

Here is Episode #4.

It’s time to get on bended knee.

It’s time for the beef.

The Beef: Polk v Venetian; Deeb v Identity Theft; Yong v NYC Poker Rules

Dinner is served, and there is a lashing of irony as Doug Polk refuses to dine with The Venetian Poker Room. 

The live poker room, situated on the Las Vegas Strip, belongs to Sheldon Adelson, one of the men responsible for the stunted growth of legal and regulated online poker in the not so United States of America. 

Given the villain operates a live poker room, you would think that the live pros would have boycotted the gaff a long time ago. Not so. But this week, Doug Polk has led the charge for a boycott, this time because of a tournament format designed to bleed poker players dry. 

The $225,000 GTD Lucky Shot Poker Series runs Oct 21-27, and the highlight is a $250 buy-in, $150,000 GTD No-Limit Hold’em event. The fine print dictates that irrespective of the final headcount, all funds above $150k go to the poker room, and not disseminated to the players as is standard in all tournament formats. 

Polk is not happy.

One of the few states that don’t treat online poker players like law officials treat people suffering from erotonophonophilia is New Jersey. A skipping stone’s throw away is New York City, but you can’t play online poker in the Big Apple because it’s illegal. 

Here is partypoker’s Rob Yong highlighting the stupidity.

💪

Rob Yong was our guest on ‘I am High Stakes Poker’ this week. His mother wasn’t happy and gave him a telling off for saying his parents never said ‘well done’ when he was a kid. 

Before U.S online poker laws became so rigid, Shaun Deeb used to crush the New York scene. At the top of the article, we described how Deeb had won his eighth WCOOP title. It could be his last if PokerStars doesn’t do something to halt the agony of stalling in the high stakes limit games.

Deeb also has a beef with partypoker.

During the recent whitewash of player identities, Deeb was a little slow off the mark in reclaiming the name that has made him such a legend (the imaginatively titled ‘shaundeeb’). Someone grabbed it though, and it’s ruining Deeb’s image. 

The Debate: Greenwood v GTO Haters; Staples v Polk

The sky is blue, and that’s how a portion of the poker community feel when watching high stakes poker players deploying Game Theory Optimal (GTO) strategy during live tournaments. 

Erik Seidel leapt to GTO’s defence after hailing Stephen Chidwick as a GTO operational genius during the BPO. Sam Greenwood backed the legend by breaking down a hand between Chidwick and Christoph Vogelsang. 

It’s a fabulous read, and it starts here.

After Polk’s ‘Boycott The Venetian’ march, he debated Jaime Staples. The matter at hand was starting bankroll for a poker pro. Polk believes that figure is $100,000; Staples, thinks it’s a lot lower – here are the two debating the issue.

The Business: It’s Fedor Holz Again

When it comes to bankrolls, few have built one as quickly as Fedor Holz has, earning $32m in five-years. 

Holz rarely plays these days, preferring to spend his time public speaking and building products. His current project is called The Poker Code.

Here he is talking to Robbie Strazynski at Cardplayer Lifestyle about the new project (https://cardplayerlifestyle.com/an-in-depth-interview-with-fedor-holz-about-pokercode-and-impacting-the-future/), and he found time to set up a YouTube Q&A.

Check it out.

Life Outside of Poker: DNegs Wants Rounders 2; Voulgaris on Holiday.

‘Hope for Prisoners’ is a foundation helping prepare the incarcerated to re-enter a fast evolving life without bars. This week, Daniel Negreanu appeared as a guest speaker at one of their events. 

Negreanu also found the time to watch ‘Rounders’ for the billionth time. Desperate, Kid Poker wrote to Brian Koppelman demanding a sequel, and the Koppelman gave poker fans hope with his response.

Ryan Holiday has a new read called ‘Stillness is the Key’. A free copy ended up on the desk of the recent Triton Million London competitor, Haralabos Voulgaris. Holiday is the author of ‘The Obstacle is the Way’, ‘Ego is the Enemy’, and ‘The Daily Stoic’ – books that seem to go down well in poker circles.

The Polls: Polk on Religion, and Negreanu on the Man With The White-Glove

Two polls this week to give you a flavour of the poker community’s belief systems. 

Doug Polk on religion.

Daniel Negreanu on Michael Jackson.

The Quote of the Week

Michael was scheduled too moonwalk us over the finishing line with a sterling rendition of ‘Man in the Mirror.’ After that poll, I will hand the honours to Tim Gallwey courtesy of David Benefield.

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

One suspects Joao “Naza114” Vieira is unsure whether he is awake or asleep? Online poker can be a slippery stone of a beast, but this week, the London-based Portuguese star has never felt such firm footing. 

There are no trembling legs in Vieira’s household.

The Winamax ambassador has been stowing away World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) titles like a squirrel with his nuts. Yesterday, I waxed lyrical on Vieira’s second WCOOP title of the series, after he banked the win and $86,876.70, in a No-Limit Hold’em event. Last night, he added the perfect cherry.

Vieira outlasted 193 horses, heels and heroes in Event #71 (H) $10,300 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) 6-Max Main Event to collect his first trophy and a whopping $384,947.88 first prize. Ben “Ben86” Tollerene, finished second, Timofey ‘Trueteller’ Kuznetsov finished tenth, and Shaun Deeb finished in 13th place. 

It’s been a stunning fortnight for Portuguese players. Both Vieira and Filipe “zagazaur” Oliveira have won three WCOOP titles. Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira, is also staring at the ceiling with a log like smile etched into his mush.

Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira Close to Second Series Win

Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira is the third Portuguese star operating in a slightly higher orbit than the rest of the WCOOP bunch. Ferreira won his seventh COOP title earlier in the series when he beat a 97-entrant field in a $1,050 Limit Hold’em event for $23,896.

Last night, he very nearly made it title #2. 

After wading through a murder of 80-strong crows, Ferreira made it to the heads-up phase of Event #66 (H) $10,300 8-Game High Roller. Standing in his way was Belgium’s ‘merla888’. The pair agreed upon a deal that saw them both collect $170,000, and the Belgian went on to lock up the additional $20,000 and change. Talal ‘raidalot’ Shakerchi finished third for $112,000.

The win was ‘merla888’s’ second of the series. He also won two Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) titles in the Spring. 

WCOOP in Numbers

The $5,200 buy-in Main Event attracted 2,236-entrants (inc. 599 re-entries), and there are currently 86-players fighting in the pit for the $1.6m first prize (the runner-up also receives a million bucks). The $55 buy-in (L) Main Event, pulled in a monstrous 24,477-entrants (inc. 12,588 re-entries), and 16 players vie for the $180,656.41 first place. 

Here are the final numbers courtesy of the PokerStars Blog.

Final Numbers

Events: 291
Entries: 1,172,858
Prize pools: $104,735,857
First prizes: $13,969,057.78*
In-the-money finishers: 173,364*
*Does not include Main Events, where players may yet do deals.

The promised to drop a bomb.

It certainly detonated.

Joao Vieira wcoop
Image by PokerStars

Silence is supposed to be golden, and yet there is nothing hushed about Portugal right now. Prime Minister, António Costa, told the Financial Times that’s he expected a ‘storm’, as he prepares for the October 6 general election. And the Portuguese national football team who won the UEFA Nations League recently slammed nine past Serbia and Lithuania. 

Then you have Joao “Naza114” Vieira. An outcast, forced to take his war elephant galavanting around Europe in search of a laptop, Internet connection and laws that allow him to play online poker with the best in the world. Vieira is also making a racket.

The Winamax pro, earned his first World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) title earlier in PokerStars premier online series when he took down a $530+R Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Max for $87k. Vieira won that title playing out of The Netherlands. 

The rider and the elephant then landed with a thump in London. It’s from this base that Vieira defeated a field of 1,064-entrants to win the $86,876.70 first prize in Event #52: (H) $530 No-Limit Hold’em ‘Midweek Freeze.’ He nearly made it title #3 on the same night, falling at the final hurdle to ’sprocketsAA’, heads-up, for the $1,050 Fixed Limit Omaha Hi/Lo title.

But as surely as the water heaves in and out of the Thames, you can be assured that Vieira will be back winning titles, and making more of a racket in the weeks and months to come. 

Dario “Secret_M0d3” Sammartino Retains The Roll

Dario “Secret_M0d3” Sammartino is the jewel of Italian poker. He has the looks, all of the librarian’s best books, and the hooks to keep you deeply embedded in his 2019 biopic. 

Sammartino has had a year that he will never forget. 

He sits 11th in the 2019 Money List, bolstered by his runner-up finish in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event where he collected $6m for his troubles.

Now the Austrian-based Italian has made it to the top of the world in the event that makes learning to speak Polish a more manageable mountain to climb. Sammartino defeated 148-entrants, to win the $371,186.76 (inc. bounties) first prize in Event #57 (H) $10,300 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Max PKO High Roller. Titans forced to surrender to the sheer brute force of the Italian at the final table included David ‘dpeters17” Peters, and Steve “Mr. Tim Caum” O’Dwyer.

It won’t surprise you to learn that Sammartino also has a Spring Championship of Online (SCOOP) title sitting somewhere on an overstuffed mantelpiece.

Earlier this year, Sammartino told the press that he had semi-retired.

The bombs keep falling from his sky.

Image by pokercentral

The award-winning Pinnacle is back. Apologies, to our thousands of ravenous fans. I know we pulled the needle from your compass by drifting off into hypersleep. 

Ah, the impermanence of fame.

Here we go.

Two titans of the world of poker have cleaved the high stakes poker community right through the chest cavity, with an up and comer also taking a chunk of Shylock’s flesh. 

We begin in the realm of the real.

Poker Central’s attempts to indoctrinate the British poker viewing public is over, and methinks, the splash was more big toe than full-on elephant bellyflop. 

Field sizes at the British Poker Open (BPO) were small but more alarming for the organisers was the lack of non-pros in the field.

Sam Soverel was the star, making money in half of the events, including two wins, and earning close to £800,000 in gross earnings. The win also inches Soverel closer to a successful defence of his Poker Central High Roller of the Year title. 

Towards the end of the BPO, headcounts began to fall as PokerStars, and the GGPoker Network launched the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and the GGSeries III. With $125m in guaranteed prize money hanging lower than the fruit consumed earlier in the week, the last £25k event, the £50k event, and the £100k event, all failed to register high on the attendance scales. 

That spelt bad news for the Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) London, with only 18-entrants turning up for the shebang (The previous outing outside of Las Vegas saw 75-entrants compete in Macau).

The man who created the SHRB won it. Cary Katz went on a double-up heater that seemed almost illusory, to take the £2.1m first prize after beating Ali Imsirovic, heads-up, for the title. 

Will it return?

We hope so.

In the meantime, if you’re craving some live action, check out the Triton Poker YouTube Channel. We’re currently in the process of publishing some juicy Short-Deck cash game action from Montenegro. 

Online News: Shaun Deeb and Timofey Kuznetsov Headline.

It wasn’t that long ago that Shaun Deeb was the undisputed king of WCOOP. The man had so much passion for online poker’s premier event that three years ago, he chose to play over the birth of his child. 

Then last year, Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov, stuck a stepladder next to Deeb, climbed to the highest rung, and kicked his crown into touch. Five wins propelled the Russian to the top of the WCOOP Event Winning Leaderboard with nine. 

Deeb wants his crown back.

Within the first week of WCOOP, Deeb has moved up to seven victories, and he did so after beating Strebkov, heads-up, for the title and $25,375 in Event #9 (H) $1,050 No-Limit 5-Card Draw PKO.

The biggest winner of the opening week of WCOOP was Timofey “trueteller” Kuznetsov. The Russian won the $527,458.43 first prize after topping a final table in Event #25 (H) $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight-Max High Roller. Stars who went deep in that one included Jordi Urlings (2nd), Justin Bonomo (3rd), Dominik Nitsche (5th), Mustapha Kanit (6th), and Timothy Adams (8th). 

Michael “imluckbox” Addamo, won a WCOOP title after beating a field of 272-entrants to win Event #13 (H) $5,200 Sunday Million High Roller. The Aussie beat Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden, heads-up, to take the $258,952.34 first prize. 

And two of Portugal’s most excellent also booked WCOOP wins. 

Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira won his seventh COOP title after vanquishing a 97-entrant field in Event #21 (H) $1,050 Limit Hold’em 6-Max for $23,896. Joao “Naza114” Vieira topped a 213-entrant field to win the $88,846 first prize in Event #26 (H) $530+R Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) 6-Max. Vieira won his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in the summer.

For once, WCOOP isn’t the place to be for high rollers looking for the juiciest games. The GGPoker Network slapped 14 $25,000 buy-ins onto the schedule of the GGPoker Series III with the nonchalance of an operator destined for greater things. 

There were two $25,000 buy-in events on the opening weekend. ‘Omar Bingo’ collected $344,893 after beating a 33-entrant field in the first one, and the man who won the only $25,000 event of GGSeries II, Andras “PokerBluff1” Nemeth, took down the second one for $226,237 (Nemeth also finished second in a $10k for $104,848, and won the PokerStars Sunday High Roller). 

Bryn Kenney is the face of GGPoker, but it’s been interesting to see a few of his high rolling buddies joining him to promote the event. Mike “Timex” McDonald is streaming some of his action during the GGSeries, and Jason Mercier is also advertising the series via his Twitter channels. 

The Beef: Bill Perkins v Alcohol

Every story has to have a cracking villain; this week, ours is alcohol. Triton Million London 6th place finisher, Bill Perkins, posted a Bloomberg article entitled: “Europe Needs to Cut Back on the Booze.”

The piece came from the World Health Organisation (WHO)’s publication of their “Status report on alcohol consumption, harm and policy responses in 30 European countries 2019.”

In a nutshell:

Alcohol killed 291k people in 30 European countries in 2016, more than ten times the number of deaths caused by traffic accidents. In comparison, the US opioid epidemic kills a quarter of that number.

Expanding further than Europe, the 2014 WHO report on the global state of alcoholism showed that more than 3.3 million people died from alcohol-related deaths, more than war, murder and homicide combined. 

The cognitive dissonance within the thread was palpable.

Here it is.

The Debate: How Much Money Does a Pro Need?

The most interesting debate on Twitter’s hight stakes circles this week once again came from the fingertips of Perkins. 

“What Bankroll do you think is necessary to start a decent career and cover your living expenses as an online cash and tournament poker player. Assume rent is covered?”

More than 7k people voted in the poll, with “$50kish” the most popular answer. It wasn’t an answer that met with universal acceptance in the high stakes realm, with most comments suggesting the figure should be much lower.

Chris Kruk believes the amount should be ‘way less’, stating that he started with $2k.

“You can grind a better hourly than minimum wage at 0.25/0.5 w/ that. Especially if you play soft sites etc. there’s really no reason to mess it up w/ 2k. You just put in a lot of hours and move up/down aggressively.”

Joseph Cheong also did it on the cheap, although he doesn’t believe people can repeat the feat these days.

“Went broke multiple times and grinded freerolls on every site. Then saved up $500 to grind $3mtts. So $500. Not possible these days, though.”

Ditto Scott Seiver.

“If rent is covered and no dependents 5k or less for sure if you’re making >$15 / hour at low enough variance for online multitabling .25-.50.”

What are your thoughts?

The Business: Dominik Nitsche Releases DTO Poker App

On the business front, Dominik Nitsche released his highly anticipated poker training app ‘DTO Poker’. Based, on the Game Theory Optimal (GTO) approach, the app allows you to test a broad range of different scenarios, with the AI rating you on your decision-making. You can find the app across all of the app stores, and we will be having Nitsche as a guest to talk about his new app soon. 

GTO Poker has its detractors, and Erik Seidel is not one of them. Check out this buddy hug for Stephen Chidwick.

Life Outside of Poker: Dan Smith on Meditation, Zang & Charity; Holz on Stage, Sontheimer on Coaching; Rast on Bitcoin

A quickfire catch up on the rest of the week’s social media highlights and Dan Smith suggests using the Calm Meditation app, particular the cool ‘Walking Meditation App’ feature. In a recent article, I wrote on the 7 Habits of Highly Effective Poker Players, meditation was in the Top 7, so it’s worth a punt. 

You may recall that Aaron Zang collected £13.8m for winning the Triton Million London event. The event accrued £2.7m for charity, but the actual figure is much more. One example emerged on Twitter this week when Bill Perkins announced that Zang had donated to the hurricane ravaged Bahamas.

Fedor Holz also played in the Triton Million, and this week, Holz posted a shot of himself on stage speaking at ‘Entrepreneurship Avenue’. Holz said a change in mindset was crucial to his advancement in the game. Check it out.

🔑

Holz is an ambassador for No-Limit Gaming (NLG), an Esports and Poker streaming/training company spearheaded by Stefan Schillhabel and Steffen Sontheimer. This week, Sontheimer announced plans to turn some of their Esports stars into poker pros. You can check out the live coaching on the NLG Twitch Stream.

Finally, if you are interested in learning more about Bitcoin, then the former SHRB winner, Brian Rast, penned a long-form blog post on the topic. Check it out.

The Quote of the Week:

We picked up this little beauty from a Bill Perkins retweet.

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

When Phil Ivey created IveyPoker you had to prise people’s butts from their seats with a cattle prod such was the allure of blowing smoke up the arse of arguably the most gifted poker player the world had ever seen. 

Then Ivey did a Lord Lucan. 

Instead, of spending countless hours playing on the site, and creating unique content for his training arm, he hired a squadron of the world’s best poker players to do that for him. 

On one level, that’s smart, right. Time is our most precious asset, and we can’t be everywhere at once. Except, when it comes to launching an online poker room that has your name above the door, there is an expectation that you will show up behind the bar, so to speak.  

Phil Galfond is one of the few poker players who conjures up the same frenetic energy within the poker community as Ivey. When he declared his intentions to create Run It Once Poker even the condensation stopped drying up enough to pay attention. 

Most recently, Galfond received approval to play on the site he created. It may turn out to be the blood transfusion Run It Once Poker needed. Galfond has told people that the poker room is not even close to turning a profit. But since Mr Sweets hopped onto the site, dishing out candy, left, right and centre, headcount has swollen with a peak of 300 concurrent cash game players on the site during the 40-hours he spent live streaming his action up and down the buy-in levels. 

The Value

Galfond told PokerNews that the time spent on the felt helped him partake in some much-needed reconnaisance. The data that Galfond has collected both through playing, and his community’s Discourse channel, is the games are very soft. Galfond also believes that this time next year, Run It Once will have the best software in the business.

Software is key. 

Full Tilt grew a large following because of it. So did PokerStars. partypoker and 888Poker receive criticism because of it — however, the players of today value more than software. 

Full Tilt used to say, “Come and play with the pros,” or something like that. Phil Galfond is saying, “Come and play with me.” As well as duelling with him on the felt, Galfond is also offering you the chance to speak to him personally. 

I think this is a wise strategy.

Lex Veldhuis had 20,000 people watching his recent silver medal finish in a World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) event on PokerStars. Veldhuis created that tribe, by putting up a ladder, so people could climb and interact with him on a personable level.

Galfond is doing the same thing at Run It Once Poker, and long may it continue. By spending time at the coalface, Galfond can understand what THIS customer wants, and THAT customer wants. He will see who is loyal customers are, and then take steps to ensure they choose him over anyone else now and in the future.

Cash games and tournaments now. 

Sit n Go’s by year-end.

As his cradle to grave customers watch him weave flops, turns and rivers with more moves than dotorimuk-muchim, they realise that Galfond is Leonidas, and they desperately want to be his phalanx.

The sweat on the bulldog steams under the morning sun as it positions for a poo. Doggie bag in hand, you wonder what Tom Cruise, The Queen of England or Phil Ivey is doing in that exact moment?

FIve years ago, had the poker community decided to put on a play of the old Greek Gods, Ivey would have been a shoo-in for the role of Zeus. There wasn’t a poker player alive who would argue that Ivey didn’t have an anaconda grip on the game, both live and online. The man was a battering ram, and the doors he broke down contained millions of dollars. 

Then one day, Ivey’s interest turned to Baccarat. 

At some point in time, Cheng Yin Sun walked into Ivey’s life with the idea of using edge-sorting tactics to fleece the world’s swankiest casinos for millions of dollars. It was a sure-fire way to make a fast buck, and best of all, they were doing nothing wrong. 

Then it all went to shit. 

After a spree in London where the dynamic duo gnawed away at Crockford’s Casino to the tune of £8m, the security team grew suspicious. After an internal investigation Ivey’s money remained in Crockfords, the casino took him to court, and won, successfully arguing that edge-sorting is not a legal tactic. 

3.5k miles away, and a smile emerged on the faces of the higher-ups working at The Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa. Ivey had won $9.6m playing baccarat at their gaff. A second legal assault began, and once again the result was akin to a spider being set upon by a bunsen burner. 

Crockford’s debacle was one thing. The Mayfair casino never gave Ivey the money, so he never spent it. The Borgata beating was a different kettle of fish. Ivey is a gambler, and at the stakes he plays, $9.6m comes and goes like beads of sweat on a bulldog’s brow as it nestled down for a poo under the searing heat of the sun. 

Ivey was in trouble.

The Return of the King

If you’re Phil Ivey, what’s the best way to earn $10.1m to repay the Borgata?

You do what you do best. 

In the summer, Ivey made his return to the spotlight of live tournament poker when he competed at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). There were no confetti or winners photos. But he did run deep in the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship (PPC), coming into the final day with the chip lead. 

Ivey would ultimately bust in eighth place for $124,410, but he never got to see any of that money. The Borgata legal team led by their attorney, Jeremy Klausner, successfully organised for the WSOP to hold onto Ivey’s winnings.

The Backers

On August 30, Ilya Trincher and Daniel ‘Jungleman’ Cates, hired an eloquent legal speaker to file an objection to the Borgata’s seizure of Ivey’s PPC funds. The central premise of the opposition: most of those funds didn’t belong to Ivey.

Some time ahead of the PPC, Trincher, Cates and the man who poker fans over the world have marble busts of his face in their hallways, agreed upon a backing deal. Should Ivey make money, then the $50,000 would return to Trincher and Cates, with 50% of what’s left heading in the same direction. Ivey earned $124,410 – $50,000 = $74,410/2 = $37,205. 

With Ivey earning $37,205, Trincher and Cates should have received $87,205, but instead, it sits next to a large amount of cocaine in a vault somewhere in the U.S.Marshalls Office. 

Salute to Haley Hintze here, because poker’s legal expert has since learned that Ivey’s legal team has filed a supplement to the Trincher/Cates’ objection. The supplement asserts that all of the money should return to Ivey and his backers. Klausner is not licensed to practice law in New Jersey, and he didn’t receive the proper court permission to file the writ of execution served upon the WSOP.

The case continues.

Disembodied voices shout, “Ivey! Ivey! Ivey!”

The mightiest man on Mount Olympus once earned millions of dollars playing cards – someone please throw him a deck.