It’s that time again when we try to index the happenings and the handbags of the high stakes poker scene, this time the stories that landed between 26 Jan and 1 Feb, beginning with the live tournament scene.
With the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) going the way of the song inside the bird that lies between the fangs of a cat, Poker Central found their way through the smoke and the flames to take up their spot, albeit for the high roller brethren.
Here are the results.
Event #1: AUD 10,000 No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) – Mike Watson
Event #2: AUD 10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) – Andras Nemeth
Event #3: AUD 25,000 NLHE – Timothy Adams
Event #4: AUD 25,000 PLO – Farid Jattin
Event #5: AUD 25,000 NLHE – Stephen Chidwick
Event #6: AUD 50,000 NLHE – Luk Greenwood
Event #7: AUD 100,000 NLHE – Michael Addamo
Heading into Event #7, five players had garnered enough points for the potential lump in the throat moment that accompanies being a champion. Andras Nemeth, led, and would have won had the Hungarian not failed to make the money, allowing Stephen Chidwick to take the honours, once Kahle Burns bubbled. Chidwick collected an additional AUD 50,000 for the win, his second Open Championship after winning the US Poker Open in 2018.
With the APO in the rearview mirror, Poker Central rolled out the red carpet for the AUD 250,000 Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) Australia. It was a bit of a letdown with only 16-entrants, but Timothy Adams wasn’t bothered superimposing the win over his APO victory, sending him into Jeju in fine form.
Wait, there is no Jeju!
Due to the Coronavirus outbreak in China, Triton Poker officials had no option but to postpone the Triton Poker Super High Roller in Jeju pending more news on the potential pandemic. You can expect a further announcement on Feb 10.
The problem with postponing the event is when to reinstate. The high stakes scene is getting pretty hectic these days, and two more live tournament series announced more games this week.
partypoker announced their MILLIONS events for 2020/21, and there were a few surprises. Dusk till Dawn (DTD), The King’s Resort, The Playground Club, and anywhere in South America is off the list. Taking their place are events in Cyprus, Prague and London.
The London event ties in with the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. It takes place at the Hilton Park Lane and is an innovative new scheme with the £5,300 buy-in NLHE Main Event limited to online satellite qualifiers and VIPs, with at least one VIP per table when the event begins.
The only nitty-gritty we have comes from the MILLIONS Cyprus schedule. The Merit Crystal Cove Hotel & Casino in Kyrenia hosts and there is plenty for the high rollers to look forward to with a $15,500 NLHE event, a $25,000 NLHE event, a $25,000 Short-Deck (SD) event, a $50,000 NLHE event, and the $5,300, $5m GTD NLHE Main Event.
Finally, the live tournament series that’s been around as long as cave paintings released its high roller schedule last week.
Here is the World Series of Poker (WSOP) High Roller schedule.
May 29 – $25,000 NLHE
May 31 – $25,000 NLHE Heads-Up
Jun 5 – $50,000 NLHE
Jun 17 – $25,000 PLO
Jun 22 – $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship
Jun 27 – $250,000 NLHE
Jul 7 – $50,000 PLO
Jul 9 – $50,000 NLHE
Jul 11 – $100,000 NLHE
There will also be a standalone High Roller Leaderboard, although details are as elusive as a jellyfish’s throat.
Online Poker
Only one story to bring you from the land of online poker, and that’s an update on the Phil Galfond Challenge.
As the weekend drew to a close, Galfond was down €553,516.95 after ten days of heads-up PLO versus VeniVidi1993. Galfond has only won one of the ten sessions the paired has played, and that was a small win. In contrast, VeniVidi1993 has been the Hulk Hogan of the pairing. With more than 18,000 hands still to whizz through, many people in the poker community are beginning to worry about the three-time WSOP bracelet winner.
Galfond, however, is not one of them.
Interviews
Kahle Burns is one of the hottest poker players on the planet right now, and the recent Australian Poker Hall of Fame inductee appeared on the ‘Podker’ podcast facing the host, WSOP Player of the Year, Robert Campbell.
JC Alvarado may have retired from poker, but he hasn’t retired from appearing on poker podcasts. The Mexican star appeared on Olivier Busquets’ ‘Two Lives With Olivier’.
Check it out.
Finally, he doesn’t play in many $25k+ buy-in events, but he has in the past, and given that I am the host, I will also give a shout out to Martin Jacobson’s appearance on RunItOnce’s Hero’s Journey podcast.
Check it out.
Life Outside of Poker
Former high stakes star, Brian Hastings, had a baby. Well, I guess his wife did most of the work. Audrey Hart Hastings is now part of the poker world.
Sorel Mizzi nearly had a baby when he had to change his Top 10 Movie Rankings for the first time in five-years. The Korean epic ‘Parasite,’ of which Scott Seiver has also been singing its virtues, comes in at #7.
The death of Kobe Bryant was one of the major talking points on social media this week, and Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald had some interesting thoughts on celebrity deaths, which led to him sharing his reflections on the end of Anthony Bourdain.
Check them out.
The Poll of the Week
High stakes cash game player and partypoker consultant, Rob Yong, asked the community how they would feel if he implemented facial recognition software on the online site. The proposed move is to prevent cheaters/bots/multi-accounting/ghosting, and the results were overwhelmingly in favour of the idea. However, the results from those commenting were mixed. It’s an interesting thread and worth checking it.
Tweet of the Week
During a recent interview with Phil Hellmuth Jr., he told me that the high stakes tournament pros are a school of imitating fish, while he does his own thing on the side.
This is what his ‘own thing’ looks like, followed by some sound advice from the WPT Champions Club member, Dietrich Fast.