The Australian Poker Hall of Fame Adds a T.D.
Casino Grand Lisboa, Macau, China

Danny McDonagh

At the commencement of the Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon, it was announced that Danny McDonagh had been inducted into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame.

Ok, so he didn’t win big bucks in a grueling tournament, but being the the first non-player to be inducted into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame is a big win in my book. McDonagh is considered the leading Tournament Director authority in the Asia-Pacific region and works officially as the PokerStars Director of Live Operations. This man makes it happen and is credited for having one hell of an impact on poker tournaments worldwide. What has he done, you ask? Just the biggest events in the region, including the Aussie Millions, Asia Pacific Poker Tour, and Macau Poker Cup series at PokerStars Macau. Well played, Sir.

Operation USA Scores $53,800 in an Epic Show of Generosity
Epic Poker Charity Event – The Palms Las Vegas, Las Vegas NV

On August 7th, Epic Poker held its first charity poker tournament as part of its Inaugural Event. While Andy Frankenberger mowed down the likes of Gavin Griffin, Dwyte Pilgrim, Justin Young, and Mike McDonald, the big winner of the evening was Operation USA, through whom 100% of the $53,800 raised will benefit the victims of the tornadoes that devastated Joplin, Missouri.

While I’m not really sure exactly how many people played in the charitable event, I have it on pretty good information (I read it on the Epic Poker website) that the total funds raised included all of the $200 buy-ins and rebuys and an additional $2,000 that Frankenberger donated to the the cause out of his $2,500 First Place prize money. Way to raise the bar, Andy!!! I hope others follow the example you have set. Frankenberger didn’t walk away empty handed though, he was the first person to ever receive the Epic Poker Champion’s bracelet and Champion’s Ring.

You again!!! Crane Ships it at Borgata a Second Time
$300K Guaranteed Deep Stack Double Play- Borgata, Atlantic City NJ

Russell Crane - March 30, 2011 | Photo by Jay WhoJedi Newnum

Borgata’s Deep Stack Double Play was a scheduled 4-day No Limit Hold’em poker tournament that began on August 7, 2011. Even in these lean times, Borgata managed to attract 400 players to pay the $1,650 buy-in during the course of the double day entry period for a shot at the $300,000 guarantee, doubling the prize pool to a whopping $600,000.

Russell Crane AKA “rcrane082985″ beat out 399 poker players to secure a repeat shoutout here on Pokerati and, in doing so, made a little extra pocket change to the tune of $148,704. This 23 year old is on a serious heater. This latest score marks his third 1st place finish in a row since winning $37,308 in $1,000 NLH Deepstack at the Foxwoods Poker Classic on March 30th. Keep an eye out for this one… I’m willing to lay odds that he on route to Connecticut.

Saucedo Gets Max EV for Pocket 3s in the Mega Millions
Legends of Poker Mega Millions Event – The Bicycle Casino, Bell Gardens CA

Fausto Saucedo | Photo by Marie-Lizette C. Acoba

The Bicycle Casino kicked off its annual Legends of Poker signature series with a $1,000,000 Guarantee for the mind-blowingly low buy-in of $250 (plus an $100 optional rebuy). It took 20-flights spread over ten days, but when all was said and done, a total of 7,239 players, including Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, Cuong (Soi) Nguyen, Scott Clements, Frankie O’Dell, and Brent Carter took a shot (or two, or three, or more) at the guaranteed $300K for first.

With a record number of entries, bested only by the WSOP, and 5,939 rebuys, the prize pool bloated to an astronomical $1,453,811 (that’s a lotta bank for your buck). Former WSOPC Ladies Event Champ, Greg Sessler (invested for nine bullets) found himself heads-up against admitted Moneymaker Effect protégé Fausto Saucedo, and was poised for the biggest cash of his poker career. However, it was not meant to be. After a 4-hour long heads-up rollercoaster ride, Saucedo claimed the Wild Bill Hickok trophy and $340,191 worth of bragging rights when his pocket 3s bested Sessler’s A/J off, all-in pre.

Season One – Tournament Series One Goes to Chino Rheem
Epic Poker League Main Event – The Palms Las Vegas, Las Vegas NV

If you don’t know that David “Chino” Rheem won a Million Dollars in the 6-Max Epic Poker Inaugural Event, you may want to crawl out from under the rock you’re living under. If you didn’t follow along on Twitter, Facebook, or EpicPoker.com, poker-trivia whiz Kevin Mathers recapped the 4-day event from “Way Outside” right here on Pokerati.com.

David "Chino" Rheem | Photo by Marie-Lizette C. Acoba

The exclusive No Limit Hold’em tournament was only open only to Epic Poker League members and 9 Pro/Am Qualifier Main Event seat winners, but still drew an impressive 137 players to pay the $20,000 “no-rake” buy-in. Although it was disclosed that $400 from each buy-in would go to pay the dealers, the $400,000 added to the prize pool negated the expense guaranteeing that 18 finalists would get a minimum 5-figure piece of $3,085,200.

The star-studded final table began on Friday, August 12th with Hasan Habib in the lead, Erik Seidel, Chino Rheem, Gavin Smith, Jason Mercier, and short-stack Huck Seed rounded out the final 6. Seed did what he could to rally from behind, and after a third of the total final table hands had been dealt, he was back in the game until Mercier sent him packing in 6th place, followed by crowd favorite Smith in 5th. Early in the match Rheem crippled Habib’s stack, then dealt the final blow sending Habib to the rail in 4th place. Seidel, having won several high-roller events this year got Mercier out of the way and it was heads-up: Rheem vs. Seidel. The two traded the lead on more than one occasion, and both the grand-stand sweaters and twitter rail were kept on the edge of their seats while the button past back and forth like a ping-pong for 50 some-odd hands. Both Seidel and Rheem made exceptional showings, but in the end the $1,000,000 and Championship ring went to Rheem (and his eager creditors).

The Second Time is a Charm at Foxwoods
Mega Stack Challenge Poker – Foxwoods Resort & Casino, Mashantucket, CT

Sal Morello | Photo by Jay WhoJedi Newnum

Salvatore Morello redeemed himself on August 14th, after coming in second place in the Foxwoods Spring into Summer Mega Poker Championship last month, by claiming first place in the Foxwoods $600 Mega Stack Challenge event. Morello beatout 499 players, and single-handedly eliminated 5 of the 9 final tableists (including runner-up Ronnie Pease, who maintained the chiplead for the majority of the 2-day event) to claim the trophy and the first place prize of $60,202.

Across the Pond, Fintan Gavin Won the UKIPT Edinburgh
UK & Ireland Tour – Edinburgh Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, GB

Fintan Gavin, Winner's Photo

The last, but not least of this week’s Big Winners, Fintan Gavin is the first Irish champion of the 2nd Season of the PokerStars UK & Ireland Tour. The UKIPT attracted a field of 519 poker players in the £500 Main Event, creating a prize pool of £251,715.

When it got down to heads-up, I suspect people had their money on Gavin. A veteran at the felt, Gavin showed Hawksby (playing his first live tournament) how it’s done, grabbing the title and £61,500 in prize money. With $1.2 million in live cashes, Gavin is an old hand and is one of the organisers of Irish Poker Championships.

It was a slightly less crazy week on the tournament trail, but there was still plenty of poker played throughout the world. Two different $1,500 events attracted strong crowds in Atlantic City, while a couple of prominent tournaments that were in no way whatsoever affiliated with PokerStars went down in LA, and that wasn’t all.

Victor Ramdin Does Not Pass Sugar, Does Collect $500k at The Big Event
The Bicycle Casino, Bell Gardens, California
The Not-NAPT tournament at the Bike last week still managed to mysteriously draw in numerous amounts of qualifiers and Team PokerStars players, with over 400 players ponying up $5,000 for a $2 million prize pool and a half-million dollar first prize. N-NAPT LA was nearly canceled by state gaming officials over its ties to the online poker site, who withdrew its sponsorship and left the tournament to simply be called “The Big Event”.

While a number of Team PokerStars pros populated the field, only two of them made the final table. To the delight of poker fans, Victor Ramdin and Joe Hachem were also the last two players left standing. On the final hand, Ramdin got it in as a big dog with ace-jack to Hachem’s ace-king, but a jack sealed the title for Ramdin, who went over $3 million in lifetime earnings with the $500K win.

Later in the week, the Bike hosted a $10,000 Bounty Shootout that will air later this year on ESPN. Once again Victor Ramdin found himself at the final table, winning one of nine first-round tables. He was joined by Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel, 2010 NAPT LA champion Joe Tehan, new Team PokerStars Online addition Shane Schleger and Michael J. Fox Alex P. Keating, amongst others. Pat Walsh triumphed over them all, and took home $241,700 for his efforts.

Ali Triumphs in “Thrilla on the Riva” Over Frazier (and others)
Caesers, Atlantic City, NJ
In a sport where names like Moneymaker and Fish seem more apropos, the WSOPC stop at Caesers Atlantic City had names that fit better with boxing’s golden age. Jeff Frazier stood in the way of Brian Ali, as did defending WSOPC champion Rolan Israelashvili. But Ali was a bad, bad man on this day, utilizing his poker skills and a few chance cards to thoroughly dominate the final table. It took less than four hours for Ali to be crowned “the greatest” and his purse was $139,284, a golden ring, and a valuable seat in the million dollar final.

Every Tom, Mateusz, and Harry Won a Tournament This Week
Casino at Portomaso, Malta & UKIPT Manchester, England

293 players put up €1,650 to play poker on the tiny Mediterranean island of Malta. The Unibet Open stop there drew players from all over Europe, but for the second consecutive time dating back to its London stop, a Dutchman took home the crown. Mateusz Moolhuizen of Holland was crowned the champion of this event, taking home €117,000.

Another Mateusz, Mateusz Warowiec of Poland, is the chip leader heads-up at the UKIPT Manchester stop. He currently holds a nearly 2.5-1 chip lead at dinner break, and stands to be both the second Mateusz to win a title in a week and the second person I’ve ever heard of by the name of Mateusz.

DeepStacks U Instructor Wade Wins DeepStacks Challenge; No Money Back Guarantee
Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, NV
Training site DeepStacks University sponsored a series of tournaments in Reno, including a $2,500 Main Event in which several of its instructors, including Michael Mizrachi, Mike Matusow and Tristan “cre8ive” Wade took part. Instead of teaching them proper strategy, Wade took advantage of a field filled mostly with his students and won the tournament outright for $57,288. I am, of course, kidding, but I do imagine a funny pre-tournament training session in which he suggests giving off specific “fake” tells and riding that onto the easy victory, but that’s just me.

Borgata $500,000 Guaranteed Deep Stack
Borgata, Atlantic City, NJ
The WSOPC was not the only show in town this week in Atlantic City, as the Borgata hosted a $1,500 event with a $500K guaranteed prize pool. Vegas native and worldwide tournament grinder Chris Tryba was the big winner in that one, taking home $131,257 for the win. Other interesting notes on this field include Will “the thrill” Failla cashing and WSOPC champion Brian Ali cashing just days before his own win.

The Borgata Winter Poker Open and the Caesers Classic each held their Main Event,  and the year of the media continued to roll on strong.

Borgata Winter Poker Classic (Atlantic City, New Jersey)

After almost a full month’s worth of tournaments, the Borgata Winter Poker Open culminated in a $3,500 Main Event that drew 718 players and generated a prize pool of over $2.6 million. The top six players each locked down a six-figure score, but Ukranian Vadim Shlez was the last man standing, claiming a first place prize of $533,210. [Borgata Blog]

Caesars Winter Poker Classic (Las Vegas, Nevada)

This $550 Main Event drew over 450 players, which made for a first place prize of over $44,000. The biggest name to make this final table was Bryan Micon, who would have to settle for eight place and $6,500. The big winner on this day was Christopher Johnson, no relation to the Tennessee Titans Pro Bowl running back, but he undoubtedly got paid, straight cash homey. [CardPlayer]

Elsewhere…

Remko Rinkema became just the latest member of the poker media to score big on the other side of the tournament ropes. Remko finished 4th in an Estrellas Poker Tour event in Madrid to the tune of over €26,000… Liv Boeree made her first big splash since joining Team PokerStars by defeating James “mig.com” Mackey to win the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up and $75,000.

But arguably the biggest and most immediate threats they’re facing are from neighboring states that have expanded gambling — with new tables, poker and otherwise, rapidly opening. Though it’s just a single anecdote and hardly statistical evidence of anything, I got this text message from a Pokerati player about new games in his home state of Delaware:

I’m back in DE. Playing @ DE Park right now. Casinos 15 mins from my house. 20 tables, separate tourney room, pretty nice. haven’t gone to AC since I’ve been here.

Yikes, if not indicative of likely continued economic woes for New Jersey, it seems to at least suggest something about the redistribution of gambling wealth currently going on in the Northeast corner of the United States.

In other casino industry news:

Harrah’s is offering the state of Iowa $70 million to scrap greyhound racing.

And MGM/Mirage is looking to sell its 50 percent stake in the Borgata in an effort to avoid regulatory trouble over their association with Pansy Ho in China. Apparently they see more value in Macau than Atlantic City.

The Rivers Casino in Pennsylvania got fined for allowing underage players on their slot machines.

And a new study out of Australia found that handling a baby crocodile makes you more likely to chase straights and flushes.

At the EPT Deauville, which just wrapped up, all eyes were on Elky and Peter Eastgate to take down the biggest tournament ever in France. But out of 768 runners, they went out in 9th and 8th, respectively, with 21-year-old Brit Jake Cody winning the €847,000 top prize and presumably earning himself a spot on the PokerStars Kids Team.

Elky, meanwhile went pimptastic/not-gay in his homeland, sponsoring Team ElkyLady:

The LAPC is just getting into the thick of its WSOP-duration run. Click here to follow the winners as the events unfold. Of all these events going on worldwide, this one is still probably the biggest.

Across the continent, in Atlantic City. the World Poker Open at the Borgata is rolling along, with their $3,500 main event starting Sunday. They’re still drawing fields in the multi-hundreds, making Borgata the East Coast place to be.

But let’s not forget Mississippi — which used to be the preferred place for poker players to kick off the new year. They only got 208 entries into the $10k WPT main event at Beau Rivage. The final table for the Southern Poker Championship is set:

Name Chips

Hoyt Corkins 2,069,000
Tyler Smith 1,169,000
Jerry Vanstrydonck 1,044,000
Jonathan Kantor 894,000
Jared Jaffee 762,000
James Reed 377,000

Follow the good-ole-boy action here.

Halfway around the world, the Aussie Millions is into Day 2 of their main event. After a festive Australia Day celebration, things got underway for the big-daddy of this Southern Hemisphere main event:

Some other cool tourneys at the Crown Casino still going … It’s very 2 Months $2 Milliony In the Australian heads-up championship, they’re duking it out to see which four will advance to the money matches against Andrew Lichtenberger, Barry Woods, Vanessa Selbst, and Martin Gudvangen.

And action is just getting underway for the Team Event. Here’s how they play team poker down under:

How Does Team Poker Work
The game is No Limit Hold’em. Teams of two, only one member from each team is on the felt at a time.

The partner’s rotate whose turn it is to play the team’s stack each level. The first players in the game get half of the team’s start bank, if they bust in the first level the team mate comes in immediately and plays with the other half of the team’s starting bank.

That person will play the remainder of the first level, and the second, before the original partner resumes play in the third level.

From the second level onwards team will have their full stacks in play, and once it’s gone the team is eliminated.

And our new-good friends at the Heartland Poker Tour are in Quapah, Oklahoma — at the Downstream Casino in the far northeast end of the state, running qualifiers for their next televised main event, which gets underway this weekend. This one is good clean All-American fun for the kids, too, as you only need to be 18 to play.

The Venetian Deep Stacks is also getting ready to start — with Event #1 kicking off Friday, so it’s not like nothing’s going on here in Las Vegas these days. .

Pokerati loves charity poker and, of course, healthy breasts … which is why it’s our pleasure to contribute to the grab-bag of prizes for the upcoming Bad Beat on Cancer Poker Challenge, to be held Nov. 12 on PokerStars.

It’s a simple concept — a $10 tourney with rebuys where all the money minus shipping and handling goes to Bad Beat on Cancer … all on behalf of Nicole Rowe and her own fight against the disease. The donated prizes range from a lifetime subscription to DeucesCracked (the 2 Months 2 Million guys’ poker school) to all sorts of other coaching, boot camp, and lifestyle experiences (like drinking with Gavin Smith and Joe Sebok) to signed books to Skullcandy headphones to … for those oh-so-lucky 44th-49th place finishers … Pokerati T-shirts. The top 50 all get something, and that’s what should make this low-stakes fundraiser pretty fun.

Rowe, if you don’t remember, is the player who finished 2nd in a Borgata Ladies event in September, losing to Abraham Korotki, not a lady, who also turned down a chop offer when the two were heads-up and virtually even in chips. “You bastard!” screamed the poker masses, though Rowe herself insists she holds no animosity for her worthy, breastless opponent.

Rowe says she plays poker to escape from her daily battle with cancer, but is also using her winnings to help pay for uncovered expenses related to multiple surgeries and treatments.

Mark your calendars, and click here for a complete list of prizes and other tournament details.

Abraham Korotki, a WSOP Circuit Main Event winner in 2006, beat formidable odds to take down the $300 Borgata Ladies’ event on Saturday for just under $21,000. The “last woman standing”, Nicole Rowe, who recently discovered she had breast cancer, finished 2nd, good for just under $12,000.

On the Left Coast, TMZ.com reports that Poker PROductions, the makers of the NBC show Face The Ace, is being sued for $85,000,000 by Brandon McSmith, who said the company “stole” his idea called “The All-Star Poker Challenge”. McSmith’s idea consisted of a player having to defeat five pros in a series of heads-up matches to win prize money and a $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat, with the contestant having the option to risk their winnings after conquering their opponent. This lawsuit appears to top Gambling Times’ lawsuit against Scott Lazar for $1,000,000 for lack of product placement in the poker movie “Deal”, which grossed under $100,000 in lawsuits that will go nowhere.

With players whose styles are as diversified as the United Nations, the visiting East Coast talent pool features cash game kings, online aces, and tournament prodigies. Among those seeing action over the last two days were Matt Glantz (who finished 18th in the $40k — $96k payday), Dale Pinchot, Alex Neponyaschi, Farhad Sinaei and Tommy “TommyGunz” Dobrilovic.

According to Glantz, a number of AC’s ”Big Game” players are also in town and they met up to play a session of $600/$1,200 Stud, Stud 8/B and $100/$200 No Limit at Bellagio recently. As we get deeper into the WSOP, we can expect to see a sizable contingency of East Coast players make their way West, and I’ll do my best to make sure these guys don’t get overlooked here at Pokerati.

A press release from the Borgata noted that the main event is now a $3,000 buy-in, reduced from the going WPT rate of $10,000. Thus, the drop from the WPT schedule could have been a result of indicators that player turnout would be low. Economy? Damn right.

Almost all major tournaments, with the exception of the WSOP main event, have been lower in 2008, the most sad embarrassing obvious was the 2008 U.S. Poker Championships in September that only brought 52 players to the $10K main event, as compared to 164 players in 2007 and 261 players in 2006. Turns out that when the lights and cameras go away, not to mention people’s IRAs, stocks, and day jobs, people are less willing to plunk down $10K for a poker tourney.

So, if you want a WPT title, you won’t be getting it at the Borgata next month. There are other choices, however, like the Five Diamond event coming up at Bellagio, which will cost you a mere $15K to enter. The rest of the revised WPT Season 7 schedule can be viewed by clicking this handy link below:

Dear Friend of WPT,

Below please find the updated World Poker Tour Season VII tournament schedule for 2009. We will be kicking off the post-holiday season with the following listed tournaments.

1. Southern Poker Championship at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, MS
a. January 14th – 17th, 2009
b. 12pm Start Time
c. January 17th Final Table

2. Los Angeles Poker Classic (LAPC) at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, CA
a. February 21st – 26th, 2009
b. 12pm Start Time
c. February 26th Final Table

3. The WPT Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, CA
a. February 28th – March 2nd, 2009
b. TBA
c. March 2nd Final Table

4. Bay 101 Shooting Star at Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, CA
a. March 16th – 20th, 2009
b. 10:45am Start Time
c. March 20th Final Table

5. Foxwoods Poker Classic at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, CT
a. April 4th – 9th, 2009
b. 12pm Start Time
c. April 9th Final Table

6. WPT World Championship in Bellagio in Las Vegas, NV
a. April 18th – 25th, 2009
b. 12pm Start Time
c. April 25th Final Table

Straight from the Associated Press, a customer was asked to leave the Borgata poker room in Atlantic City on Tuesday because he smelled bad. Evidently, it was my-god-in-heaven-this-is-unbelievable-get-him-outta-here bad after Michael Wax went on a 17-hour poker binge without long-lasting deodorant. (Buddy, I’ve got a hint for you. Check out the casino store. I bet they carry a deodorant or fragrance of some sort. For future reference, of course.)

Wax said he told casino officials: “There’s no question I stink. I’m not denying it. I do have an odor. I’ve been playing for 17 hours.”

He filed a complaint with the Casino Control Commission, and he told AP that he wants an apology from the Borgata.

WSOP Europe – Day 10 :: Day 1a of the £10,000 + 350 Main Event drew a field of 137 players and an appearance by Phil Hellmuth (video below). The day 1a chip leader is Nicolas Levi with 153,850 in chips. Some notables returning Saturday afternoon: Bruno Fitoussi – 120,250, Leo Margets – 109,000, Allen Cunningham – 84,725, Barny Boatman – 73,200, Chris Ferguson – 52,950 and Jeff Lisandro 43,500. A full list of chip counts available at WSOP.com.

The £10,000 + 350 High Roller No-Limit Heads-Up event reached the best-of-three final, with Gus Hansen winning the first match, and Jim Collopy making a comeback from an over 2-1 deficit to even up the match. The third and deciding match is currently scheduled for Friday afternoon, but with both players planning to play in the Main Event, the exact time has not been announced. Be sure to check PokerNews or WSOP.com

Elsewhere …

WPT Borgata Poker Open, Atlantic City :: Play is currently heads-up between Dwyte Pilgrim and Kia Mohajeri. WPT Live Updates

UPDATE: Dwyte Pilgrim finishes first, winning $733,802, moves into first place in the CardPlayer Player of the Year standings.

LAPT Grande Finale – Rosario, Argentina :: $5,000 Main Event draws a field of 254 players, with 131 returning Friday afternoon. Winner takes down over $300,000. According to Terrence Chan, the Argentinian government will tax 31.5% of net winnings to all players outside Argentinia, which has some people upset. Updates at PokerNews and PokerStars Blog