Category: My news, views and fun facts

There was a time when Sam Trickett was to live tournament players what otters are to crabs. But then Trickett packed his bags, headed off to the realm of the live cash games, and the tournament world rarely heard from him again. 

Well a few days ago, Trickett turned back time to win the 58-entrant Event #2: $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) event at the partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, Russia. 

It’s Trickett’s first live tournament victory since 2013 when he earned £10,000 for winning a partypoker event at Old Trafford, Manchester (Trickett donated the entirety of his winnings to charity), and his all-time live tournaments winnings edge closer to the $22m mark.

Chalk and cheese.

Let’s see how he took it down.

The Nutshell Results

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Chin Wei Lim – 295,000
Seat 2: Timothy Adams – 480,000
Seat 3: Adrian Mateos – 750,000
Seat 4: Ivan Leow – 2,830,000
Seat 5: Paul Phua – 405,000
Seat 6: Phil Ivey – 475,000
Seat 7: Sam Trickett – 1,250,000
Seat 8: Artur Martirosyan – 705,000
Seat 9: Matthias Eibinger – 435,000

The action on this vivacious looking table was immediate and effective for the prodigious talents of Matthias Eibinger. The Austrian doubled through Artur Martirosyan when his pocket nines outpaced the AsQs of the Russian. 

Chin Wei Lim was the first player pushed into a quagmire from which he never returned. Phil Ivey did the pushing when he called a shove from Lim and AJo, holding KsQs. Ivey rivered the nut straight.

Then we lost the recently crowned Global Poker Awards (GPA) Industry Person of the Year. 

Eibinger opened to 70,000 from the hijack seat, and both blinds made the call with Ivan Leow in the little with KsJh, and Paul Phua in the large with Jd3d. Proving the dealer wasn’t a librarian, the action-filled flop of Jc9h7d hit the felt, and Leow called when Phua moved all-in (Eibinger folded), and his king-kicker made all the difference.

Adrian Mateos doubled through chip leader, Leow, when pocket tens beat AK.

Then Ivey hit the rail.

The one-time undisputed master of poker opened with queens, and then called when Eibinger moved all-in holding KdTd. A ten on the flop improved Eibinger’s hand, and a king on the turn improved it even further. Ivey found zero solaces on the river and left the competition with the only saving grace; he didn’t have to take a winner’s photo.

The only Russian at the final table exited next. 

Martirosyan got his final 180,000 into the middle holding JcTc, and Sam Trickett called and won with Ad4h. Ace-high, good. 

Timothy Adams doubled when pocket tens dodged kings, sevens, and diamonds to beat the Kd7d of Leow. Then Leow exacted revenge of the worst kind when he opened with 6c5c, and Adams defended his big blind with Kd7s. The flop of Ks8d6s fell out of the deck to give Adams top pair, and Leow bottom pair. Both players checked. Then Leow turned two-pairs when the 5d hit the turn, by which time all of the chips went into the middle, and Adams never saw them again.

Then we lost the incredible talents of Adrian Mateos. 

The Spaniard first doubled through Eibinger when AQ beat jack-trash and then handed all of those chips to Trickett when he defended his big blind against a Trickett raised, hit top pair with king-trash only to run into a pair of aces. 

Trickett would take a 4,030,000 v 3,225,000 chip lead into heads-up against Leow after eliminating Eibinger in the third position. It was a blind on blind battle with Trickett holding JhTh and Eibinger with Kh4h. Eibinger maintained his lead when they both flopped top pair, but the ace on the turn and queen on the river gave Trickett a straight.

The heads-up play saw Leow take the lead before Trickett snatched it back. 

Then this happened.

With blinds at 40,000/80,000, Leow opened to 250,000, on the button holding AhQh, and then called when Trickett ripped it in with Ad4s. Bad shape for Trickett, but he caught up quickly adding a flush draw to his arsenal with two cards to come. The Td didn’t help Trickett, but the 6s did, and Trickett, not Leow, earned the Event #2 title.

ITM Results

  1. Sam Trickett – $435,000
  2. Ivan Leow – $290,000
  3. Matthias Eibinger – $203,000
  4. Adrian Mateos – $145,000
  5. Timothy Adams – $116,000
  6. Artur Martirosyan – $87,000
  7. Phil Ivey – $72,500
  8. Paul Phua – $58,000
  9. Chin Wei Lim – $43,500

If you want to avoid the Coronavirus (COVID-19), then you could choose worse places than Russia to set up a tent. The Eastern European powerhouse has had zero cases of COVID-19, and for the next week, that’s where partypoker is setting up camp.

It began as a chat between good friends desperate for a spot of snowboarding and poker and ended with a new brand for partypoker and an opening event that contained a healthy 42-entrants.

The inaugural partypoker MILLIONS Super High Roller Series in Sochi, Russia opened with a $25,000 Short-Deck event, a frenzied format that can turn into a pantomime that the fans lap up.

Six players received a paycheck.

Five curtseyed before the final curtain dropped. 

Let’s check out the nutshell action.

The Nutshell Action

Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Wai Leong Chan – 3,480,000
Seat 2: Cary Katz – 805,000
Seat 3: John Cynn – 940,000
Seat 4: Stephen Chidwick – 1,840,000
Seat 5: Aaron Van Blarcum – 2,725,000
Seat 6: Jiang Xia He – 2,810,000

John Cynn began the final table with the second shortest stack in the room, a fact that didn’t last long after he doubled through Zia He Jiang after AcTc hit a straight against the dominating AsJs.

Next to double was the shortest stack in the room, after Cary Katz and his pocket queens out flopped, turned and rivered the AKo of Aaron Van Blarcum. 

The net result?

Cary Katz still had the shortest stack in the room.

He was next to double when his AcJs beat the pocket queens of Van Blarcum after rivering a short-deck straight, and then our first competitor limped out of the competition.

Stephen Chidwick has begun 2020 as well as any of his peers, making four final tables, including a victory at the Australian Poker Open, and his run in this one ended in another impressive sixth place. 

Chidwick got it in with pocket queens, only for Van Blarcum to send him to the ringmaster enquiring on the whereabouts of the cash desk when AKo gave them a good spanking, after flopping an ace.

Katz then doubled through Cynn when A9o beat pocket kings, and He also doubled for the second time when AQo beat the JcTc of Van Blarcum before we lost our second player.

Wai Leong Chan is one of the best in the business and came into this one in good form after winning back-to-back $25,000 events at partypoker MILLIONS World in the Bahamas. Had he won the following pot, he would have been in fantastic shape to add another tick in the win column – but he didn’t.

Chan got it in good with AK v the KJo of He in a four-million chip pot only for He to river a full-house to beat Chan’s straight, sending him to the rail, and He to the summit of this competition with four players remaining.

Katz went the way of Chan shortly after.

He moved all-in with KQo, and Katz called for his tournament life holding pocket jacks. A king on the flop, and another on the river for good measure, sent the Poker Central founder for an earlier than planned shower.

Within a minute, the cash desk teller went from having nothing to do to asking for his buddy to put away his pet beetles and help.

Van Blarcum moved all-in holding JTo, and He made the covering call with KTs and promptly flopped a flush to send the impressive Van Blarcum to his hotel room with another remarkable result.

Heads-Up

Not much to write home about during the heads-up play.

Cynn, who only had 550,000 chips compared to He’s multi-millions, jammed it in with K9s, and He called with JsTc. Befitting to a competition that He eventually dominated from five players in, he would win with a Royal Flush.

It’s He’s second win of his career, in only his fifth cash, all coming in 2019, so it’s safe to say that playing live tournaments is a new thing for the man. His previous win was equally impressive, winning a 2,472 entrant $1,100 No-Limit Hold ’em event at the Wynn Summer Classic for $332,037.

Here are the ITM results.

ITM Results

  1. Xia He Jiang – $378,000
  2. John Cynn – $252,000
  3. Aaron Van Blarcum – $168,000
  4. Cary Katz – $105,000
  5. Wai Leong Chan – $84,000
  6. Stephen Chidwick – $63,300



Every great game hinges on four defining traits.

A game needs goals orientated meaningful work and play. Rules that place limitations on how people achieve those goals. Voluntary participation born out of natural curiosity and drive towards enjoyment, and in some cases, mastery. Finally, a feedback system that tells people how close they are to achieving their goal, motivating them to keep on playing, and for the poker industry to thrive, we need certain people to keep on playing.

On Friday night, poker honoured a deluge of different denizens at the Global Poker Awards (GPA) in Las Vegas. PokerGO captured the celebrations, beaming them into the living rooms of subscribers, and the results once again underlined the impact that the high stakes stratum has on the ecosystem. 

Never before has high stakes poker had the capability to transcend the game like it does, today. It began with Alex Dreyfus adding a sheen of professionalism to one of the bastion feedback systems in poker – the Global Poker Index (GPI). It has continued with the likes of Triton and Poker Central, creating frameworks and production systems resulting in world-class stages for world-class players. 

And, it’s for this reason that it was positive for poker when Paul Phua won the Industry Person of the Year Award, last night.

Phua began playing poker in his 40s, by which time, he had already achieved the level of financial freedom that only exists in most people’s prayers. Phua didn’t create Triton to increase his wealth. He created Triton because he loves poker.

Along with his co-founder, Richard Yong, Phua has spent the past few years building a poker tour with a difference. Reducing suffering through philanthropy, creating a world-class product for the community, and a safe, secure and fun environment for those fortunate and smart enough to rise through the ranks are the goals that have gelled into a masterpiece.

Triton Poker takes a game that for so many years was played in the darkest corners of the room, slaps the most incredible Gladrags on, and rolls out the red carpet. Triton Poker is a world-class, nostalgic tour de force, and on Friday night, the poker world recognised that, and that feedback is priceless.

The Right Feedback Produces The Right Engagement

The feedback cycle has changed significantly thanks to the advent of a social media shit show that flew from the guts of advanced technology like a Ridley Scott idea bursting through a rack of ribs. 

When you compete for a living in a game where you lose more than you win, you have to develop a callused heel heart. Still, if you’re focusing in the wrong place for feedback, those calluses can chill and crumble in even the most cement-like blood pumpers.

That’s why poker awards are of value to the poker industry. 

Voters recognised the Triton brand in numerous categories, coming short in all but one (Phua’s Industry Person of the Year Award). Phua’s vision of showcasing poker to the world is slowly unravelling, but the tail is still nowhere in sight. 

Triton Million gave the world a glimpse into the vision.

If you hit this short-list or like Phua, were lucky enough to win, then your contribution to poker is likely to intensify thanks to the emotional Nutribullet of winning one, and missing out on others. It’s not the titles that matter. It’s the creation of engagement those titles and near misses create where the real gold lies. 

That’s fantastic news for everyone who calls poker our ‘job,’ because we must remember that one of the defining traits of this beautiful game, on the table, and off it, is voluntary participation. I don’t know about you, but this writer hopes the likes of Phua voluntarily participate in this game in the way that he does for many years to come. 

GPA Awards: The Results in Full

GPI Breakout Player of the Year

Robert Campbell (Winner)
Ramón Collilas
Ben Farrell
George Wolff

Final Table Performance of the Year

Phillip Hui – $50k Poker Player’s Championship (Winner)
Hossein Ensan – WSOP Main Event
Alex Foxen – WPT Five Diamond
Bryn Kenney – Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, Montenegro

Twitter Personality 

Jamie Kerstetter (Winner)
Barny Boatman
Kitty Kuo
Kevin Mathers

Toughest Opponent

Stephen Chidwick (Winner)
Michael Addamo
Kahle Burns
Ali Imsirovic

Streamer of the Year

Lex Veldhuis (Winner)
Hristivoje Pavlovic
Ben Spragg
Matt Staples

Vlogger of the Year

Andrew Neeme (Winner)
Jaman Burton
Daniel Negreanu
Brad Owen

Podcast of the Year

The Grid by Jennifer Shahade (Winner)
DAT Poker Podcast
Poker Life Podcast
The Fives

Industry Person of the Year

Paul Phua (Winner)
Phil Galfond
Cary Katz
Matt Savage

Tournament Director of the Year

Matt Savage (Winner)
Jack Effel
Paul Campbell
Tony Burns

Event of the Year

PokerStars Players Championships (Winner)
Triton Million
WSOP Main Event
WSOP BIG 50

Mid-Major Tour/Circuit

RUNGOOD Poker Series (Winner)
WPTDeepStacks
Road to the PSPC
WSOPC

Journalist of the Year

Joey Ingram (Winner)
Lance Bradley
Haley Hintze
Nick Jones

Broadcaster of the Year

Nick Schulman (Winner)
Joe Stapleton
Jeff Platt
Jamie Kerstetter

Media Content (Written)

Poker and Pop Culture by Martin Harris (Winner)
A Fight for Fatherhood by Lance Bradley
Kevin Roster Spread Sarcoma Awareness by Aleeyah Jadavji
The Unabridged Story of the Hendon Mob by Paul Seaton

Media Content (Photo)

Drew Amato (Winner) – Dario Sammartino at the WSOP
Antonio Abrego – Ryan Laplante
Joe Giron – Frank Stepuchin
Hayley Hochstetler – Doyle Brunson and Jack Binion

Media Content (Video)

Investigating Mike Postle – Joe Ingram (Winner)
Legends of the Game Stu Ungar – PokerGO
The Big Blind with Jeff Platt
Who Makes Money From Professional Poker – Sam Rega for CNBC

Poker Personality of the Year

Jonathan Little (Winner)
Joey Ingram
Ryan DePaulo
Lex Veldhuis

Hand of the Year

Ryan Riess Makes 10-High Call at EPT Monte Carlo (Winner)
Bryce Yockey v Josh Arieh
Sam Trickett v Stephen Chidwick
Thi Xoa Nguyen v Athanasios Polychronopoulos

Poker ICON Award

Johnny Chan (winner)

The Hendon Mob Award

John Cernuto

As the high rollers breeze into Sochi, Russia for a spot of snowboarding and high stakes gambling, the rest of the poker community is not faring as well.

Casino Malta by Olympic Casino has cancelled ‘The Siege of Malta.’ The festival would have taken place April 15 – 20, with a €450 buy-in, €500k GTD Main Event now left swinging in the breeze. The Malta Poker Championships due to take place in May live from the Portomaso Casino in St Julians is also dead in the water.

October’s Battle of Malta remains unaffected.

The continued spread of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) is the culprit, and it’s not only poker tournaments in Malta that are affected. The Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju became the first to cancel an event because of the spread of COVID-19. And the World Poker Tour (WPT) cancelled events in Vietnam and Taiwan.

The King’s Casino in Rozvadov removed some events from their calendar along with a formal ban issued against Italians from playing at the casino or staying at the hotel. Czech health authorities declared that two out of five people diagnosed with COVID-19 in the Czech Republic had previously visited Italy.

King’s have targeted the Italians because as from March 5, the land of the boot has the second-highest fatality rate (107), and third-highest casualty rate (3,089). Triton cancelled their Jeju event because South Korea has the fourth-highest fatality rate (35), and second-highest casualty rate (5,766).

World Series of Poker

The world of sport and gaming will suffer as a result of the outbreak. Dark clouds hover over the Tokyo Olympics and Euro 2020, the World Athletics Indoor Championships in Nanjing have been cancelled, the Winter X-Games in China has been postponed, and the 2020 League of Legends LPL Spring tournament has also gone the same way.

What then, The World Series of Poker (WSOP)?

According to a quote from Seth Palansky that popped up in a PokerNews article, the WSOP is still on course to hand out 61 bracelets in the summer, while still ‘monitoring the situation’, and leaning on ‘experts in this field for guidance.’

Even if the event goes ahead, with people due to fly in from all over the globe, and the ever-pressing fear of ‘large gatherings’ of people, then attendance figures could drop for the first time in years.

Coronavirus in the USA

Congress recently approved $8.3 billion in emergency aid to fight the Coronavirus after 159 people in the US became afflicted with 11 deaths (almost exclusively in the Seattle area). At the time of writing, California has received its first death, with a cruise ship quarantined off the Californian coast.

Coronavirus Casualty and fatality Rate as Per March 5

95,315 cases.

3,282 fatalities.

Fatalities

China – 3,014
Italy – 107
Iran – 92
Korea – 35
USA – 11

Confirmed Cases

China – 80,524
Korea – 5,766
Italy – 3,089
Iran – 2,922
Japan – 317
France – 285
Germany – 262
Spain – 200
USA – 159

Ironically, subscriptions to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History went through the roof, as people fearing a third World War began creating contingency plans, when all along, we should have been fearing a pandemic.

Sorry, Dan, it’s time for us to stop listening to tales of blood and guts, and instead find more information on what to do when our throat runs dry, and violent gurgulations of the stomach starts waking up the cat.

The bell is ringing.

We haven’t even finished Round 1, and Coronavirus is giving the poker industry and the world at large a right good kick-in.

MILLIONS World is back, and for the sake of partypoker’s continued mission to be the market leader, let’s hope it’s here to stay.

Ther $25,500, $10m GTD MILLIONS World takes place Nov 13-17 as part of partypoker’s Caribbean Poker Party (CPP) taking place at the Baha Mar Resort in Nassau, Bahamas Nov 13-17. 

In a bid to apply some rhythmic motion into the promotion, Rob Yong declared on Twitter his intention to hand a $5,300 buy-in, $5m GTD CPP Main Event seat to the first 100 MILLIONS World online qualifiers. 

Satellites start on March 15.

partypoker designed MILLIONS World in 2018, and at the time it seemed like a strong reaction to the birth of the $25,000 PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold ’em Championship (PSPC).

Ever since John Duffy took over as President of partypoker LIVE, his goals and vision have been laid out for all to see. Duffy wants to be the best and to be the best you have to beat the best, and in 2018 the best carried the logo of a Red Spade.

Both events were successful, but with PokerStars attracting 1,039-entrants, and Ramón Colillas picking up $5m and change, there was only one clear winner. 

In contrast, Roger Teska beat a 394-entrant field to win the MILLIONS World title and $2m first prize in the Bahamas. The following year, the event made way for a high-stakes frenzy that saw Daniel Dvoress, Wai Leong Chan and Adrian Mateos sweep all before them.

Who Has The Upper Hand?

Rob Yong has 25.3k Twitter followers, and you can bet a boiled egg, that plenty of them are fervent partypoker fans. Still, when Yong polled his tribe to see what the most prestigious European poker title was, 38% voted for the European Poker Tour (EPT), with the MILLIONS brand collecting 18.6% of the votes, third-place behind the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) with 28.3%.

It shows that PokerStars is still the one to beat. PokerStars was always a model of par excellence and consistency, and it’s safe to say that the surgeon began carving that up when they rebranded to the PokerStars Championships in the wake of their move to go public. 

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) became an essential aspect of the Red Spade’s marketing muscle, proving the annual adventure to the Bahamas is a crucial piece of the live poker puzzle.

With PokerStars shelving the PCA it allows partypoker to fill that void. Still, if they are to do it effectively, then there needs to be consistency. 

Caribbean Poker Party (CPP).

MILLIONS World.

What is it?

In the same way, it never felt right for the PCA to be a part of the EPT; it doesn’t feel right for the CPP to be a part of the MILLIONS brand. ‘MILLIONS’ evokes power and prestige, whereas CPP feels cheap and small. 

For Yong’s followers to one day select ‘MILLIONS’ ahead of an EPT title, I think these branding and marketing decisions are crucial, as is the consistency of having the same competition, with the same title, at the same time, year-in-year-out. 

Ther Manchester Metaphor

The handbags at ten paces that we see with PokerStars and partypoker reminds me of the nascent of Manchester City and the demise of Manchester United.

Like United, PokerStars spent many years building a company that became an online poker institution. At the same time, partypoker played the City role, appearing in the headlines with less frequency than a mophead sees life in a college dorm room. 

Then came City’s turn to shine with new ownership, an injection in cash, and a bigger vision. Simultaneously, United fell into a haphazard nosedive after their beloved leader, Sir Alex Ferguson, decided to call time on his illustrious career. 

City is still a better team than United, but they’re not a bigger club.

For City to garrotte that honour, and hang the Red Devils from ceiling meathooks, the Citizens are going to have to imbue patience. City’s legacy will be built, trophy by trophy, until all there remains in the trophy cabinet in the red half of Manchester are more cobwebs and tales of a once glorious past. 

The timing of partypoker’s POWERFEST couldn’t be more propitious.

The United States House of Representatives has given the green light to release $8.3 billion of emergency funding in preparation for the spread of COVID-19. Other nations with healthy bank accounts or ever-increasing debt loads coupled with a ‘couldn’t give a damn attitude’ will surely follow suit.

And that’s why the buzz around partypoker’s $20m GTD POWERFEST has the whiskers of all poker’s top cats reverberating at a full itchiness rate. 

The 488-event spectacular runs between March 15-29. Buy-ins range between $0.55 – $25,500, and 6-Max, Mix-Max, 6-4, Freezeout and progressive Knockout (PKO) fill the menu.

If you want a front-row ticket and have a bankroll containing more soot than money, then you’re in luck; partypoker has one of the best online satellite qualification systems in the business.

Main Events

There are four Main Events, all of which are No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE), and on March 29, kicking-off @ 20:30 (CET).

Here are the details.

$2,100 buy-in, $500k GTD.

$320 buy-in, $500k GTD.

$55 buy-in, $250k GTD.

$5.50 buy-in, $20k GTD.

High Roller Action

There is only one event with a buy-in higher than $10,000, and that’s the $25,500 buy-in, $2m GTD NLHE Super High Roller taking place 26 March at 20:30 (CET).

Previous $25k Winners

In April 2019, intrepid explorer ‘PhileasFogg’ navigated his way through 105-entrants to bank the $643,125 first prize, with Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom finishing fourth.

Rewind 12 months, beyond that date, and Steve ‘eet_smakelijk’ O’Dwyer won $896,610 after topping a final table that housed the likes of Orpen ‘orpenkk’ Kisacikoglu, Michael ‘mczhang’ Zhang, Jon ‘sordykrd’ Van Fleet, and Jason Koon.

Koon is so f**king cool; his name is his nickname.

And rewind 12-months further, and Ben ‘Coweyed’ Tollerene topped a 127-entrant field in the $3m GTD version. Blom featured once again, finishing second. Tollerene banked $846,722.

With the Coronavirus already delivering a knockout blow to the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Jeju, the high stakes poker seam needed a worthy competitor to step into the ring, and POWERFEST is one of those beasts that steps over the top ropes. 

More News From The Virtual Rail

Phil Galfond returned from his self-imposed hiatus to continue his heads-up challenge with “VeniVidi1993”, and promptly booked his most significant win of the punch-up thus far.

The pair of online hedgehogs pricked each other in their never regions over 574-hands, before calling time with Galfond €183,481.38 in the net winnings column, not bad for a man who said he won while playing his B+ game.

There’s still no time for smiling.

Galfond is in the basement with €716,758.79 in losses over 10,501 hands.

There are 35 confirmed cases of Coronavirus in Sweden. Still, judging by the ever-present racking of results from these three Swedish stars, one doubts they will be in danger of joining the count.

Johannes “Greenstone25” Korsar defeated his compatriot Simon “C.Darwin2” Mattsson, heads-up, in the $2,100 Sunday High Roller on PokerStars. The pair of online poker prophets hammered out a deal that saw Korsar bank $37,595, with $31,768 going to Mattsson. Dominik “Bounatirou” Nitsche finished third, and Anatoly “NL_Profit” Filatov finished in fifth.

Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt also flew the Swedish flag high after booking the win in the $1,050 Sunday Warm-Up on Stars. The PocketFives World #1 overcame a field of 161-entrants to win the first prize of $29,317 after cutting a deal with Alex ‘steakaddict’ Papazian (who banked $28,255). 

Here are the current PocketFives World Rankings.

PocketFive World Rankings

1. Niklas “Lena900” Åstedt

2. Johannes “Greenstone25” Korsar 

3. DeathbyQuads 

4. Sam “€urop€an” Vousden

5. Simon “C.Darwin2” Mattsson

It’s that time of year when privileged persons of the poker community get to wear a tuxedo or low-cut dress, crack out the cane, and even stuff a lop-eared white bunny under the arm.

Red carpets were made for walking.

On Friday 6 March, the Global Poker Index (GPI) and PokerGO Studios, Aria Las Vegas, host the Global Poker Awards (GPA) ceremony, and the high roller contingent feature prominently.

There are 25 trophies to hand out, coupled to 25 associated speeches that will find their way into the PokerGo Studios air-conditioning ducts, and PokerGO is showcasing the whole shebang, live.

Maria Ho and Drea Renee will co-emcee the event. Both of these mighty fine females featured last year with Renee co-hosting with Ali Nejad, and Ho picking up the award for Broadcaster of the Year. 

Let’s have a look at how the high stakes stratum fits into this one.

Player of the Year Awards

High Stakes players dominated the 2019 Player of the Year (PoY) rankings. For the second successive year, power-couple Alex Foxen and Kristen Bicknell earned the GPI PoY titles for the overall and female distinctions. 

Here is a roll-call on the rest of the high stakes winners.

Player of the Year Awards (Region/Country)

Stephen Chidwick – Europe

Danny Tang – Asia

Farid Jattin – Latin America

Yake Wu – China

Juha Helppi – Finland

Tsugunari Toma – Japan

Dario Sammartino – Italy

Ali Imsirovic – Bosnia

Sam Greenwood – Canada

Kahle Burns – Australia

Chin Wei Lim – Malaysia

Rainer Kempe – Germany

Pete Chen – Taiwan

Orpen Kisacikoglu – Turkey

Adrian Mateos – Spain

Joao Vieira – Portugal

People’s Choice For Hand of the Year

The Triton Super High Roller Series features in the ‘People’s Choice for Hand of the Year’, with Sam Trickett’s ballsy bluff against Stephen Chidwick at the Triton Million event, one of the favourites. 

Here is the short-list.

Bryce Yockey takes a historic hit against Josh Arieh in the WSOP Poker Players Championship

Ryan Riess makes a 10-high all-in call at EPT Monte Carlo final table

Sam Trickett makes Stephen Chidwick fold the best hand at Triton London 1M event

Thi Xoa Nguyen folds full house to Athanasios Polychronopoulos at PSPC

GPI Breakout Player of the Year

Aaron Van Blarcum and George Wolff have had tremendous success in high stakes live tournaments in 2019, and they feature on the short-list for the ‘GPI Breakout Player of the Year.’

Final Table Performance of the Year

Bryn Kenney appears in the short-list, twice, thanks to his win at the Aussie Millions Main Event, and his second-place at Triton Million London. Alex Foxen is in the mix thanks to his victory at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Philip Hui is in with a shout for his victory at the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and Chino Rheem’s win at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event also features.

Twitter Personality

Daniel Negreanu is the sole high stakes player in the running for the ‘Twitter Personality of the Year’, and given his high-level of output, he has to be one of the favourites.

Vlogger of the Year

Negreanu is also a favourite to land the ‘Vlogger of the Year’ award, although Brad Owen and Andrew Neeme will run him close.

Industry Person of the Year

Triton co-founder, Paul Phua, is in the running for ‘Industry Person of the Year,’ thanks to his sterling work in the high stakes scene. Cary Katz receives a nomination for the same reason, thanks to his work with Poker Central. Phil Galfond makes the shortlist for his work with Run It Once, and so does Rob Yong for all the work he is doing in front and behind the scenes of the poker industry.

Event of the Year

Finally, The Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity is one of the favourites to take the title so commonly handed out to the WSOP Main Event. 

In the New York Times Bestseller, ‘Reality is Broken’, author Jane McGonigal talks about the four core elements every game must possess for it to become as sticky as a wren’s nest. 

A motivating feedback system is one of them.

Some believe awards ceremonies are for the people who peel their back from the gym wall last, but without the Global Poker Awards (GPA), and the other institutions that create motivational feedback, all poker has is the macabre, menacing, mayhem of Twitter.

Poker is a game, but so is life.

Part-time business mastermind, part-time high stakes poker player, Orpen Kisacikoglu. Doesn’t want his good ship poker crashing on the Coronavirus rocks. 

In a recent tweet, the London-based Turkish delight implored live poker tours to provide more information and tools to help protect the poker community from the COVID-19 outbreak. 

Amongst Kisacikoglu’s ideas are:

 – Touch-free toilets

– Hand sanitiser

– Masks for people with a cough

– Hand hygiene/cough etiquette

– Chips and table cleaning

– Top-class air circulation

One poker tour sure to be ‘liking’ Kisacikoglu’s tweet for further analysis and application is Triton Poker. Still, they won’t implement a strategy during Jeju 2020, because there won’t be a Jeju, 2020.

From Postponement to Cancellation

Scheduled to run in late February, Triton Poker took the unprecedented step of postponing the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series due to COVID-19.

Triton hoped, as did the whole world that the ‘world’ would come up with a solution, the situation would resolve itself; donkeys would go on braying, lovers would continue to prick fingers on rosebushes, and people would play poker.

Not so.

The virus is spreading.

On top of more than 80,000 cases and 2,912 deaths in China (ground-zero), South Korea has developed the second-highest affliction rate globally with more than 4,300 confirmed cases and over 20 deaths.

The decision to cancel a poker tournament held on a South Korean island, while upsetting, turned out to be an obvious one. 

There are currently no plans to reinstate Jeju this side of 2020 because the Triton calendar gets busy.

The Future of the Triton Tour in 2020

With governments urging people to ‘stay-put’, it puts mounting pressure on those who rely on the live poker circuit to pay the bills. With some countries slapping bans on gatherings of large contingents of people, the entire poker industry will be affected.

The next Triton Poker event is the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro. Scheduled for May 4 – 19, the plan, for now, is to see how things develop. 

As of March 2, there have been 2,199 confirmed cases, and 38 deaths, with Italy leading the way with 1,689 cases, and 35 deaths. There have been no confirmed cases in Montenegro. 

There have been 36 confirmed cases in the UK. If you’re ever fortunate to travel to the UK then check out Loch Ness. Just make sure you pack a sturdy pair of hiking boots if you want to traverse the entire water mass as it’s 81 miles. 

That’s plenty of time to look out for the Loch Ness Monster, a beast with an eerie similarity to a plesiosaur, first sighted in February 1933 when Hugh Gray took what would become an iconic photograph of the legendary monster. 

All of that is folklore.

What’s not folklore is the unhygienic practices that are present in poker rooms around the world, and both the poker room owners, tournament organisers, and players have a responsibility to observe Matthew’s, Golden Rule.

“In everything, then, do to others as you would have them do to you.”

The entire industry and some people’s livelihoods depend on it. 

Imagine winning $1,352,267.97 playing online poker from a stake of $530. The rush of feelings, thoughts and emotions like you’ve stepped on a conductor rail.

Imagine never receiving the money, because the online poker room believes something fishy is going on.

An investigation ensues.

Imagine the gavel coming down on the final verdict.

You will not see a penny of it.

That’s what happened to the winner of the 2018 World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event this week.

It seems something fishy was going on; not goldfish bowl fishy, but Atlantis fishy.

PokerStars has stripped a Dutch-based player using the pseudonym, ‘Wann2play’, of his 2018 WCOOP Main Event title and $1,352,267.97.

The additional additional funds will be redistributed to the remaining in the money (ITM) finishers.

‘Wann2play’ overcame a final table containing some of the best players in the business. The story becomes even more memorable when you learn that he won his seat in the $10,000 via a $530 online satellite.

Look at this list of tough guys.

2018 WCOOP Main Event Final Table Results

  1. Wann2play – $1,352,967
  2. Ezequiel “Ez88888’ Waigel – $1,257,203
  3. Linus “LlinusLLove’ Loeliger – $764,501
  4. Robert ‘PlayaPlz’ Lipkin – $540,584
  5. Michael ‘mczhang’ Zhang – $382,252
  6. Noah ‘Exclusive’ Boeken – $270,293

The Lie

The only news out of PokerStars Towers is that ‘Wann2play’ violated their Terms and Conditions (TOCs). Gossip amongst the poker community is rife as to the exact reasons behind the fallen axe with multi-accounting and ghosting appearing as the two likeliest reasons.

With ‘Wann2play’ now a ghost, PokerStars raised the arm of Ezequiel “Ez88888′ Waigel aloft. Waigel finished second for $1,257,203 after agreeing upon a heads-up deal with ‘Wann2play,’ and now receives an additional $272,000, after PokerStars awarded him with the original first prize of $1,529,000.

The news is not a surprise for Waigel who told PocketFives that he suspected something towards the later stages of the tournament, and has exchanged numerous emails with the online poker giant throughout the past 18-months.

YouTube Mutiny

The decision has reignited the debate over multi-accounting and ghosting in the multi-table tournament (MTT) scene, with one pro, Rob Tinnion, creating a YouTube video accusing the 2017 WCOOP Main Event winner, Steven van Zadelhoff, of also breaching PokerStars TOCs.

In the video, Tinnion tells his audience that ghosting and multi-accounting is a ‘common occurrence in the poker world,’ before going on to point the finger at the Dutch star.

“He was ghosted by somebody whom I am not sure I want to name,” said Tinnion. “But there are cryptic messages on Twitter if you want to work it out.”

Tinnion proceeded to show a graph of van Zadelhoff’s lifetime online MTT winnings, calling him a ‘losing player’ over 60,000 games.

“The reason this guy {Vamn Zadelhoff} has gotten away with it is that he is a nice guy.” Said Tinnion before declaring that everyone has a ‘dark side’ to them and a little bit of ‘scumminess.’

“I have no proof of this,” said Tinnion. “I have a source; I am unwilling to disclose. But I know that source is 100% true.”

Van Zadelhoff reacted instantly stating that he is ‘too proud’ to give up control of his mouse or ‘I might actually be a winning player on paper, and not stupid enough to multi-account.’

“I probably shouldn’t be making these videos,” said Tinnion, “But f*ck it, it’s a bit of fun isn’t it.”

I don’t think van Zadelhoff concurs.

On March 14, 1968, Martin Luther King delivered a speech called ‘The Other America’ to the predominantly all-white Grosse Pointe High School in Detroit. Embedded in that speech were the words, “No lie can live forever.”

In the case of the former 2018 WCOOP Champion of the World, King’s words have come to life, but I wonder if this incident will prevent similar lies woven in the future.

Ego.

Status.

Money.

Power.

A heady cocktail if there ever was one.

Ahead of the Phil Galfond Challenge, I asked him who had been his fiercest competitor. The first name that fell out of Galfond’s mouth was Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom. The Swedish star who rocked the high stakes boat like no man had ever done, or has ever done since.

Galfond once won $1.6m against Blom in a war spanning multiple tables of $300/$600 & $500/$1000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO). It remains Galfond’s largest winning day ever. Blom was ‘learning’ the game at the time (Blom would also win a million in a day from Galfond during their battles).

Today, Galfond prepares to resume his €100/€200 PLO heads-up challenge against VeniVidi1993. In parallel, Blom’s just won the Battle Royale freeroll at the Unibet Open in Dublin, where he’s appearing as a ‘friend’ of Unibet.

Galfond is down a million euros.

Blom’s just won €1,500.

In a revealing blog post penned by Galfond circa 2012, he spoke highly of Blom as a player and a person, stating that the Swede had more raw talent, and therefore the ability to rule the world should he want to.

You can read it here.

In that same blog post, we learned how much Blom loves the game, and how competing with the best in the business, and having fun, are the two primary reasons that he contends.

“It’s just money,” said Blom, when questioned by Galfond about a leak in his game.

How amazing would it be to see Blom competing in the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series, both in tournaments and the cash games? I’ve seen him in the shadows, but so far, he’s not found the courage/fuel/network (delete as appropriate) to take a pew.

If you want to have fun, playing poker, against the best, then the Triton Poker Super High Roller series is where you need to be. Still, you can have all of the natural talents in the world. Without the right forms of nurture, it’s going to be challenging to create a legacy. We will always remember Blom for the way he ripped the game apart during that halcyon period. But man, how incredible would it be to see him chop through whatever weedy paths are preventing him from doing it all again.

From a laptop in the San Fernando Valley, I can’t say why Blom is playing at the Unibet Open, and not the Triton Poker Series, but the smart money is that Blom doesn’t have the fuel to light on fire at the highest levels.

Given that the high stakes poker stratum is still on an uncharted path laden with more treasure than ever before let’s hope that someone does an Abba, and takes a chance on him. Let’s also hope that if he does take this chance, it doesn’t stop him from competing in Battle Royale freerolls. He’s a tall lad. Let the poker world all have a piece of him.

Here are those Battle Royale results.

Results

  1. Viktor Blom – €1,500
  2. David Vanderheyden – €1,000
  3. Espen Uhlen Jørstad – €500
  4. Dara O’Kearney
  5. David Lappin
  6. Jorma Vuoksenmaa
  7. Alexandre Reard
  8. Monica Vaka
  9. Dehlia de Jong

Niall Farrell & Max Silver Cash in High Roller

Blom isn’t the only player with high stakes experience, currently trying to put players in a Bonnington Hotel tomb.

The Triple Crown winner, Niall Farrell, and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, Max Silver, are also in the Emerald Isle. Both cashed in the €2,200 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) High Roller (results below).

Silver is also in a decent position to make a deep run in the €1,100 Unibet Open Dublin NLHE Main Event finishing 2/24 from a field of 83-entrants on Day 1A.

High Roller Results

  1. Tarek Qunber – €11,170*
  2. Niall Farrell – €10,000*
  3. Robbie Toan – €10,000*
  4. Max Silver – €4,830

*Indicates a threeway deal