This week we cover another step toward online gambling regulation in the United States, as the announcement came that Poker Stars and Wynn Resorts have reached an agreement to work together! Also, updates on the upcoming iGaming Super Show and the latest from eCOGRA.

Rabbit Hunt:

Our friends on the Rabbit Hunt podcast jump right into the middle of the Joe Sebok drama this week. The guys break down and criticize both sides of the drama, breaking down what both sides of did wrong. They also discuss why Paul Leggett will probably never agree to come to 2+2 to answer questions from the forum readers and how much work the moderators have had to do over the past few days. Take a listen to the show on either the Cardrunners site or download it directly from iTunes to listen to this interview.

The Bernard Lee Poker Show:

Making its first appearance in the roundup The Bernard Lee Poker Show welcomes mindset coach Sam Chauhan to their show. Chauhan speaks about being in the positive mindset in order to be successful. He also discusses about how he got started in the poker community with a short discussion that he had with Antonio Esfandiari in a restroom at the Rio. To close out the show the two discuss some of the tools that Chauhan uses with his students to keep them in the right mindset. If you would like to listen to this show you can either download it from Bernard’s site, listen to it directly on on Rounders Radio, or through iTunes.

I Am Nanonoko – Team Pokerstars Online Documentary:

OK, this is not a podcast but it was brought to our attention this week from our good friend Dr. Pauly from Tao of Poker. If you have ever wondered what it is like to be in the head of a Supernova Elite you definitely should check out this short documentary that was done on Randy “Nononoko” Lew. Also check out the brief blog that gives an introduction to the film.

The Poker Edge:

The guys from The Poker Edge are back this week with Daniel Negreanu in tow. First on topic is Erik Seidel’s recent run to the top of the all time money list and how the super high roller events are altering how he looks at the list. The discussion shortly turns to the SuperStar Showdown where Negreanu discusses his game plan against Isildur1. Negreanu also discusses the recent notNAPT event that was held at the Bike and PokerStars moving into poker regulation. You can listen to the entire podcast on ESPN.com, or download it directly via iTunes.

Poker Road Radio:

Are you looking for on the road radio with stops at most of the major tournament stops then you should be listening to Poker Road Radio. These guys have been at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament the past week and have had guest such as Dwyte Pilgrim, The Royal Flush Girls, and final table player Mike Sexton. The highlight of the week was the show from March 15th where Joe Sebok discusses the recent Friedman/Haxton issues that have come to the forefront on Cerus network. Check out the show on the Poker Road Radio site or subscribe via iTunes.

Jess And BJ Show:

This show speaks for itself, Jessica Welman and BJ Nemeth from the award winning The Poker Beat join forces at all the US World Poker Tour events to record the Jess and BJ show. If you do not watch these shows you definitely should.

Due to your heroic author’s insistence that he can actually play poker as well as write about it, he decided to take a quick trip to Atlantic City to play a couple of Circuit events. That failed miserably, and also delayed the publishing of this article by more than a day. But here it is, a recap of what turned out to be a very busy week.

Erik Seidel Declares, “All Buy-In’s Over $25K Belong To Me”
2nd in the 2010 NBC Heads-Up Championship. 4th in the 2011 PCA $25,000 High Roller event. 3rd in the $100,000 High Roller and a win in the $250,000 Super High Roller at the 2011 Aussie Millions. And in the last week, a win in the $25,000 High Roller event at the LAPC and redemption with a win in the 2011 NBC Heads-Up Championship.

That’s a whole lot of words without a complete sentence, but it needs to stand alone due to the sheer impressiveness of one man accomplishing all of that in a calendar year. For a long time, Erik Seidel was known only as the man on the other end of Johnny Chan’s WSOP win, courtesy of the famous clip in the movie Rounders. Since his most infamous moment, Seidel has won 8 WSOP bracelets, but the last year has to be his crowning achievement. The total cash haul for all of this success? Over $4.5 million.

The path that Seidel took to the Head’s Up Championship was an impressive one. His first three victories were over fellow founding members of Team FullTilt, defeating Allen Cunningham in the first round, Jennifer Harman in the second round and Phil Gordon in the third. Seidel’s next two matches were against very different kinds of players, specifically of the online variety. One of the few people who’s been as hot as Seidel on the tournament trail is Vanessa Selbst, who has captured a few titles of her own in the last year. But she too fell to Seidel in the round of eight, setting up a match with Andrew Robl in the semifinals. Robl was no match for Seidel, who advanced to the finals and, wouldn’t you know it, a WSOP Main Event champion was waiting for him there. In a reversal of fortune it was Erik Seidel standing tall, claiming the $750,000 first place prize by beating what many would classify as a surprise finalist in Chris Moneymaker. Should make for some pretty good TV.

John Riordan Can’t Buy Booze, But He Can Rock a WSOP Circuit Ring
WSOP Circuit, West Palm Beach, Florida
The bad news for John Riordan is that because he can’t gamble in the state of Nevada, he misses out on the huge opportunity of the WSOP Championship, with $1 million in the prize pool. The good news is that he’s already got quite a few reasons not to be upset. About 210,810 reasons, to be specific, as he won the Main Event of the WSOP Circuit stop at the West Palm Beach Kennel Club last week.

Riordan took advantage of the fact that Florida is one of the few places in the United States in which you’re allowed to gamble at 18, so while he technically qualifies for the million dollar freeroll, he can’t legally play in Las Vegas, and thus forfeits this right to play. His spot will be occupied by an additional at-large qualifier, determined by overall point standings for the entirety of the 2010-2011 WSOPC season.

Gregory Brooks Owes Neighbor Free Drinks For Life After Convincing Him to Play LAPC Main Event
LA Poker Classic, Commerce, California
I don’t personally know what it’s like to be able to play or not play a $10k event on a whim, but for those who can, it can be a decision that can change their life. In the case of Gregory Brooks, that’s exactly what happened. After some disappointing results online, Brooks was ready to take a break from poker, but thanks to the advice of that sagely neighbor, he decided to squeeze in a trip to the Commerce Casino that would change his life.

After several grueling days, Brooks found himself in the final six of the LAPC Main Event with online legends Vivek Rajkumar and Steve Gross, as well as former WSOP Main Event champion and poker superstar Carlos Mortensen. But when the dust finally settled, it was Brooks that was the last man standing. Most people end up with a headache or a mysterious rash after doing something on a whim. Greg Brooks won $1.6 million and a seat to the $25,000 WPT Championship. Tough life.

In other action at the seemingly endless LAPC, David Kitai won the WPT Celebrity invitational. The final table of this event was delayed by a week to accommodate the WPT filming crew, which was already set up to film the Main Event. Kitai took home a $100,000 package, with $75,000 in cash and the other $25,000 wrapped up in a seat in the WPT Championship.

WSOPC in Atlantic City Becomes a 3-Ring Circus
WSOP Circuit – Caeser’s, Atlantic City
The WSOPC has been in Atlantic City for less than a week, and there’s already madness brewing. At the final table of Event #5, a bevy of borderline poker ettiquette issues were raised, from calling for cards in hands players weren’t involved in to high-fiving spectators, to running around the rather large tournament area causing a major scene. The instigator of this madness was Matthew Piccolo, who Nolan Dalla, in his recap of the event, called “an unshaven Chris Farley wearing an Oakland Raiders cap.” The hysterics overshadowed the victory of Jaeik Cho, who quietly collected the WSOPC ring and nearly $30,000.

Luke Vrabel Takes Home $670K and a Lambo In 5th Anniversary of PokerStars’ Sunday Million
Its rare to see a tournament eclipse 10,000 players online. It’s nearly impossible to imagine almost 60,000 players in an event, and it hits that mark when the buy-in is $215. But that’s just what happened this past weekend in the PokerStars Sunday Million, where they guaranteed a $5 million prize pool for their 5th anniversary and reached more than double that mark. As play reached the final table, the structure became a bit too fast for the remaining players, who each agreed to chop out part of the prize pool and guarantee themselves almost $300,000. The biggest winner of them all was Luke “Bdbeatslayer” Vrabel, who took home $670,000 as well as a brand new Lamborghini Gallardo. Not bad for 16 hours of work.

Gah, another juicy newsbriefable thingy to speculate wildly on with little information or context when we all could just make a phone call or send an email to find out what’s up) … yet no Poker Beat to break it down.

Anyhow, check it out and decide with minimal information for yourself … Daniel Negreanu, “caught” on webcam via screencap … playing on a site that isn’t PokerStars?

It’s something new called PokerView — which looks like just about any other online poker site except instead of avatars you have webcam video. Very tell-revealing you might think in straight-up play. And Negreanu obviously isn’t making any effort to hide his identity any more than he’s actively trying to promote this new endeavor.

So many stories potentially in play here. Is Negreanu going the way of Hellmuth, Duke, Raymer, and Maven … seeking a new poker home? Does this new site have any connection to PokerStars (the biggest online poker company in the world, save for maybe Zynga)? Could this technology be a major step forward in TOS security, giving a real-time glimpse of who’s really playing and what else might be going on in their seat. Could you mix it with Rush Poker to create online poker’s version of chat roulette? And with that in mind, serious question … how long before people start showing their junk and contend it’s merely a strategic maneuver if your schlong got the other guy to fold?

ALT HED: Show Me Your Nuts

(Thanks, DL, for the tip!) (Shame on you, DL, for trying to play me a chump!)

CONFIRMED: Not a real Daniel Negreanu endeavor.

Women’s Poker Hour:

Host Amy Zupko and Jennifer Shahade are joined by Donna Houle to start off this weeks show. Donna is one of the founders of the Pink Ladies Poker Tour. They then move on to discuss the Women’s Poker League on PokerStars before briefly discussing the PCA women’s event. If you want to keep up with some women in poker or ladies only events then check this podcast out. You can listen to the show on WomanPokerPlayer.com or download it directly on iTunes to listen on your iPod later.

Wicked Chops:

With no This Week In Poker this week the entities come together for a TWIP style podcast this week. Just like with TWIP Jess Welman comes on to do “Poker Headlines” before getting into the feature of the show. That feature this week is Erik Siedel who comes on to discuss his recent success, his appearance on “The Micros”, and Rounders 2. Listen to the show on the Wicked Chops site or download it on iTunes.

The Poker Edge:

Eric Siedel is making his rounds this week joining Phil Gordon on The Poker Edge. Before Siedel makes his appearance Andrew Feldman gives this weeks headlines, he is followed by Matt Savage who comes on to discuss the LA Poker Classic and the future of poker. Siedel comes on to close out the show to discuss the high roller cashes that he has enjoyed since the first of the year. The guys finish off the show by handicapping most of the top players chances at winning a WSOP bracelet in 2011. You can listen to the entire podcast on ESPN.com, or download it directly via iTunes.

It’s already starting to pain me not to have The Poker Beat to re-speculate wildly with limited knowledge on real people’s lives. Not sure who said what on previous episodes, but I can almost guarantee you one of us said this retirement would never stick, one said yes it would forever because we just know, and another panelist probably went “meh”. Oops, now the secret formula to award-quality podcasting is out …

Surely a newsbrief for the next episode … words coming directly from the WSOP champ himself via his PokerStars keepers … Peter Eastgate is Isildur1 back on some sort of probationary re-entry deal, obv. Rumor has it from unconfirmed unverifiable sources that he turned down inclusion of a WSOP ’11 main event buy-in in exchange for starting a Danish “home game”:

“Sometimes in life a person can feel lost and wake up one morning not recognizing who he is. Last summer that was how I felt. Prior to winning the WSOP in 2008, my life was very much a good solid routine of playing online poker and hanging out with my friends and family. Winning the WSOP changed that. I relocated to London and started a new life, the life of a high profile poker pro. For almost 2 years I was in a constant spotlight, travelling from poker tournament to poker tournament, doing thousands of interviews and never had a chance to catch my breath. In the whirlwind that followed winning the WSOP I lost track of the most importing thing in my life, myself.

Last summer I decided that I wanted to stop playing poker and catch my breath and find out who I am and what I want to do with my life. Over the last 8 months I have had a chance to reconnect with my friends and most important, my family. I have spent quality time with my family and really had an opportunity to figure out who I am and what I want to do with the rest of my life. When there is no financial pressure it can sometimes be hard to get motivated to move forward as a person.

I truly enjoy playing poker. I love the competitive element and the mental challenges of tournament poker. I feel it is important to constantly grow as a person and for a while I didn’t feel I was moving in the right direction. Having had time to think about my life and future I feel I have figured out how I can combine playing poker with a healthy life outside of poker.

I do not consider this a comeback, as I always knew there was a good chance I would play poker again. During my hiatus from poker, PokerStars have been very supportive. Therefore, I am pleased that I will start out with playing two events where I will be sponsored by PokerStars. First, I will be playing the PokerStars.com EPT Copenhagen which of course means a lot to me, since it is on my home ground. Then I will play the NBC Heads Up Championship. I am fortunate that PokerStars have the best online tournaments, so I have an opportunity to get back in tournament shape.

There have been some questions about the sale of my WSOP bracelet. I was not trying to devaluate the WSOP name. It was not sold to make any kind of statement. It was sold to raise money for UNICEF and I am very proud and thankful that the sale raised £100,000 to UNICEF.”

- Peter Eastgate

Interesting + cool … now the first ever November Nine winner can be more like all the rest who have come since then, but different because two months ago he became the only November Nine-era champion old enough to rent a car in Vegas.

NOTE: Turns out “devaluate” is a real word. Who knew?

I didn’t think I cared too much about the forthcoming Season 7 of High Stakes Poker, kicking off later this month on GSN. I dunno, the show’s still gonna be good, I’m sure, technically, but it certainly hasn’t been the must-see-TV it was in the early days when people stayed home on Tuesday nights to see new episodes first-run. But now I’m thinking the latest from HSP might be more than something I may or may not catch part of on YouTube every so often by accident or read about on Twitter.

Saturday Night Live alum Norm MacDonald is replacing venerable sometimes-funnyman Gabe Kaplan as the show’s host. Gotta think it’s a good move because I’m kinda-sorta re-interested, suggesting others are too … Might even go outta my way to set the DVR.

Also changing things up this year … the show is being “presented by PokerStars” — meaning no usual cast of Full Tilt Pros. No Lederer, Matusow, Cunningham, or Harman? Please, they were like so 2006-2010. Supposedly the show’s gonna be airing in 3D, too (on GSN). Awesome. Can’t wait to see Doyle Brunson-HD in my living room … close enough to see his hole cards and imagine I’m bringing him a glass of water and some ointment.

(Go technology advances, but at the same time, keep thinking of the not-so-awe-inspiring Jaws 3-D and Honey, I Shrunk the Audience… not to mention PKR!)

Kevmath’s got the 411 over at Bluff, including the complete lineup and a breakdown of where the amateurs got their bankrolls. Also, if you want to know more about Norm and his path to poker and degenerate sports betting, check out Michael Kaplan’s profile on him from 2007.

Likewise, a reminder that Norm didn’t just come to Las Vegas outta nowhere … check out one of my early attempts at podcasting, from the 2006 WSOP: Norm Macdonald gives me personally very practical advice on how to take down single-table satellites — but not without an admission of recruiting minors to ghost on his PartyPoker account:

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Norm Macdonald WSOP Satellite Tip

The format that seemed to work so well in describing the action at the 2010 WSOP November Nine is going to get the full treatment now (and because I think the daggers that Dan has been sending me with his eyes have finally worked and I need to write something.)

A word about the “scoring system”: This year I want to keep track of how well (or poorly) a player is doing in a given year. +1 point for being a winner, -1 for being a loser, -3 if you have the misfortunate of winning my Screw You award, +3 for being my Player of the Month, and nothing for getting a coinflip. That’s what happens when you have a 50/50 chance. In the long run you just break even.

Winners

• Daniel Negreanu (1): My feelings about the All-time Money List aside, Daniel has hit the ground running in 2011 with his second place finish in the $100k Super High Roller 6-table SnG at the PCA. Pocketing a cool million a few days into the year has got to make you feel good.
• Erik Seidel (1): Sure, it’s aided by a $2.5 million score in an obscene $250,000 buy-in event, but Seidel won even more money than Daniel, $3.4 million for the month of January.
• Hendon Mob (1): For acknowledging the All-Time Money List is kind of turning into a farce and doing something about it by having options to remove Super High Roller SnGs and restricted tournaments.

Losers

• Viktor Blom (-1): If this guy actually owes $149 MILLION dollars to Swedish tax authorities, it will be safe to say that signing with Pokerstars was the worst thing to happen in his life. Going 2-1 in his Superstar Showdowns isn’t gonna be enough to cover that bill.
• Prahlad Friedman (-1): A man has got to pay the bills, I’m not going to get into a “is he a sellout?” conversation. That said, the fact that the forums and media are ablaze about his decision to join UB is probably not a good sign for him. His “brand” is likely to have taken a hit and his words about not joining the man have certainly come back to haunt him.
• The All-Time Money List (-1): Pretty much everyone has been dumping on this lately with the increase in buy-ins reaching astronomically stupid levels. Hendon Mob addressed this and that’s why they are one of the winners, but the list itself still seems like a wasted statistic.

Coinflips

• Annie Duke/Jeffery Pollack: I like the idea of a new Professional Poker League, but I am soooooo skeptical as to whether they can even pull it off. Also, not letting online play count in your formula looks to me more like laziness than anything else, and removes any player that is in the current generation of contenders.
• Phil Hellmuth: For someone that’s got to be the biggest free agent in poker by a country mile, his lack of a sponsorship had better be a calculated decision. Or its just that Phil isn’t as marketable as people thought? OK…that’s a stretch.
• Results from the Bluff Reader’s Choice Awards: Congratulations are in order for The Poker Beat winning its second consecutive RCA, this time in the “Best Web Based Poker Show” category. Still, would be nice to have Pokerati win Best Poker Blog and Cardrunners win Best Poker Resource. Ah well, there is always next year.

The “Eff You, Sir/Madam” Award

Every month there is bound to be at least one player/entity/whatever that deserves special mention for being an idiot for a particular month. It doesn’t have to be rational, its likely to get some flak, and is going to definitely almost always be a mindless rant. So without further adieu, the winner (loser?) is:

• Russ Hamilton (-3…not including negative karma): This month, I’m going for the low hanging fruit and giving this to Russ Hamilton. In fact, I’m tempted to name the award after him. He made the news earlier this month for flying off the handle at a Florida poker room as he was getting jeered about how bad he was when he couldn’t see the hole cards. He then proceeded to call his opponents “fucking dicks” and that “You do not know what you are talking about; you were not there. You just read about it and think you know.” No, Russ, they do know what they are talking about, because everyone from UB to the poker media to 60 FUCKING MINUTES said that you did it. And you did. So the fact that you grace us with your presence at a poker table anywhere on this Earth should come with the caveat that you are going to get verbally abused. And you should just take it or quit. No one remembers you for your WSOP win, they remember you for being the “fucking dick” who screwed people out of $20 million, and just maybe also for receiving the inaugural Pokerati “Fuck You” award. Maybe.

Player of the Month
The Player of the Month is taken straight from the winners list, and is given a coveted 3 points instead of 1 toward becoming the 2011 Pokerati Winners, Losers, Coinflips player of the year. I suppose. We haven’t really worked out all the details yet.

• Erik Seidel (3): Anyone that manages to wade through shark infested high roller waters not once but three times and cashes every single time more than deserves to be named Player of the Month. It was a nice progression too, from going 4th in the PCA SHR to 3rd in the Aussie Millions SHR to winning the “Full Tilt proving they can have a bigger buy-in than Stars” event. Very well deserved, and we’ll see if Erik can keep up the momentum in the coming months. If he is not ranking in ESPN’s “The Nuts segment I’d be pretty shocked. (EDIT: He has, just barely. Erik is ranked 10th this month.)

Today, January 30th @5:30 ET Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom will take on Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates in the third installment of the SuperStar Showdown. Cates is better known by his Full Tilt Poker name of Jungleman12 where he came on, and dominated, the high stakes cash scene last year.

Follow @merchdawg on Twitter for updates throughout the 2,500 hand match.

Tao of Pokerati: December 9, 2010

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Pauly chats with Change100, the newly crowned Ladies Champion at the 2011 PCA. She explained how she threw out her back and while nursing herself back to health, she parlayed a tiny investment into a satellite seat into the Ladies Event. Upon her arrival in the Bahamas, she advanced to Day 2 and the final table before she eventually secured a victory.

Subscribe to the Tao of Pokerati podcast in iTunes so that you don’t miss an episode.

This week was an incredible one on the tournament scene, with tons of stuff going on down in the Bahamas. Between the millions of dollars on the line, dozens of tournaments held, and the small detail of a live broadcast of the final table of the PCA Main Event on ESPN2, they dominated the news this week. Or they would have, if any of the members of the media were actually doing their job, rather than racking up impressive scores of their own this week.

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (Nassau Paradise Island, Bahamas)

Main Event
One of the biggest experiments, at least in the United States, in the history of televised poker, the broadcast of the final table of the PCA did anything but disappoint. A collection of young talent was looking up at Chris Oliver, a 21-year-old Florida native who held 42% of the chips in play, more than twice that of second place Galen Hall entering the final day of play. Phillipe Plouffe and Max Weinberg (no relation to the former Conan O’Brien and E-Street band drummer) hit the rail early, and they were followed by Bolivar Palacios. Each player earned more than $200,000, with Palacios earning a nice haul of $450K.

The two players who entered this final table with the biggest previous results were Sam Stein and Mike Sowers. Stein’s biggest cash entering this final table was a 2nd place finish at the NAPT Venetian last year for over $500,000, and he also has a WPT final table under his belt. Sowers finished 3rd at the LAPC in 2009 for $650,000 and added a WSOP final table later that same year. Both fell victim to the Oliver buzz saw, as Sowers exited in 5th place and Stein right behind him in 4th.

The quietest player at the table by far was Romanian Anton Ionel. By far the oldest player at the table, Ionel made quite a parlay, riding his $33 satellite win to the final three of the tournament. He played very few hands throughout and the blinds eventually caught up to him, but not before Ionel was able to turn $33 into $1.35 million.

When heads-up play began, Oliver held a chip lead of 4-1, but Hall methodically picked his spots and avoided disaster. The pivotal hand was actually one that Hall folded, and is likely to be a hand that will be discussed for a long time to come. On a board reading [5d][3d][2c][2h][As], Hall bet out 2 million with [8c][4h], leaving himself about 8 million behind at 100,000-200,000. It was a disaster card for Hall, as Oliver had hit a runner-runner full house with [Ad][2s]. Oliver eventually moved all-in, and in shockingly little time Hall was able to fold his wheel, preserve his stack, and keep the match going.

Oliver once again extended his lead to 4-1, but Hall went on a rush, and within an hour had turned the deficit around into a significant advantage. At the end of a heads-up battle that lasted over 200 hands, it was Galen Hall taking the 2011 PCA Main Event crown and the $2.3 million first prize. Chris Oliver settled for second, but he has $1.8 million to wipe his tears away. [PokerStars Blog]

$25,000 High Roller
I’ll preface this by saying there are billions of people who are truly unlucky in the world and have to deal with real world issues. It’s hard to argue against the fact that William Molson’s PCA High Roller record is one of the unluckiest out there. While he was comforted by the second place money each time, in both 2009 and 2010, Molson finished as the runner-up in this event.

This year’s table would not be much easier, featuring Jason Mercier, David Baker and Erik Seidel, amongst others. But this time William Molson sealed the deal, topping off an incredibly impressive three year run by taking down the $25,000 High Roller event and a first place prize of over $1 million. [PokerStars Blog]

Ladies’ Event
The Twitter stream was going crazy this past weekend as people back in the states (or elsewhere in the Bahamas) cheered on Kristin “change100” Bihr as she vied for the Ladies’ Event title. A veteran poker writer and reporter, Bihr had satellited into the tournament and was working on a pretty nice parlay of her own. She was up against a pretty impressive collection of players that included Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren and Lauren Kling, as well as ’90s talk show host Ricki Lake.

Most of the updates during the tournament came via @taopauly Tweets, and by the end of the night, @change100 had become a local trending topic in Las Vegas. Mostly thanks in part to the fact that change100 defeated Kling heads-up to take the crown and a cash of just under $30,000. Congratulations to her on her monster cash. [PokerStars Blog]

Heartland Poker Tour – Red Rock (Las Vegas, Nevada)

Anyone who has been around the poker scene over the last few years has almost certainly run into Rob “veeRob” Perelman. One of the hardest working guys in the game, you can be sure that he’s behind the scenes on some of your favorite poker television programs, and if you’ve ever tried to keep track of a Matt Savage tournament, you likely have veeRob to thank for excellent coverage as well as comprehensive live streaming.

Perelman found himself at the final table of the HPT event at Red Rocks Sunday night, entering as the chip leader. He faced some stiff competition that included Joanne “JJ” Liu. It was really no big deal for veeRob, though, as he found a way to take the title (and likely the remainder of the media rungood for the year, thanks a lot) and an astounding first place prize of $158,000. A big congrats to Rob as well, though I’m sure he’s setting up a live stream for an LAPC prelim as we speak. [HPT]

Coming Up…

This week will see the Main Event at the WSOPC Choctaw in Oklahoma, just outside of Dallas, and a Main Event will take place at the India Poker Series as well. Action will continue at the Aussie Millions in Australia, the Southern Poker Championship in Biloxi, MS, and tournaments will be starting at the LAPC in LA as well as in Atlantic City for their Winter Poker Championships. One of the busiest times of the poker year, to be sure.

PCA photos courtesy of PokerStarsBlog.com. HPT photos courtesy of heartlandpokertour.com.

The second installment of the Islidur SuperStar Showdown took place yesterday evening on PokerStars. After getting beat by Isaac Haxton in the first match Islidur1 took on Tony G in the 2,500 hand heads-up match. By the time the 9 hour match was concluded Islidur1 came out victorious with a final winning margin of $44,820.

At different points of the match each player held a lead of at least $70,000 before the biggest hands of the match even happened. The largest hand of the match came on one of the PLO tables when both players were sitting with over 60k each. Tony G was the aggressor for the entire hand and was the one who got the players all-in after the river when the board read . Tony G held the lead throughout the hand with his but the river was enough for Islidur1 to steal the $124,300 pot with his .

As the matched closed Tony G went into desperation mode and tried to make a move with but ran into the of Islidur1. After this hand Islidur held a $45,000 lead and that was where the match ended.

Post match comments by Tony G can be found on his blog where has laid down the challenge for Islidur1 to come over to Party Poker.

Who is next in line for the SuperStar Showdown? Some think it will be Phil Galfond while others think that a Islidur/Haxton rematch is possible. PokerStars Pro David Williams hinted in the chat box last night that David “Viffer” Peat has sent in a proposal for a challenge between him and Islidur1 take place live at PCA this month. Keep an eye on the official SuperStar Showdown page for the announcement of the next opponent.

EPT Barcelona (Barcelona, Spain)

Daniel Negreanu’s wild ride did not result in a cheesy story book ending-type win in Barcelona. In fact, none of the PokerStars sponsored players made much noise in this EPT stop. The most recognizable name amongst the group was Konstantin Puchkov, who won a bracelet in a HORSE event at this year’s World Series of Poker.

Eight different European countries were represented at the final table of eight, with Jesus Cortes Lizano trying to capture the hometown title. He fell just short, taking home €525,000 for a runner-up finish. Kent Lundmark became the sixth Swede to capture a title on the EPT, besting a field of 758 players to win €825,000, the biggest prize in Spanish poker history. [CardPlayer]

United States Poker Championship (Atlantic City, NJ)

The USPC has lost some of the luster it had during the early days of the poker boom, but this year’s event continues a fairly strong run it has had as a $5,000 event. The main event drew 96 players, including quite a few local grinders. The infamous Mike Sica made the final table, finishing fourth for $40,000. In his first live event, Edward Gamaitoni came out victorious, pocketing $167,616 for his efforts.

Other highlights of this series included two wins on the same night for “Miami” John Cernuto, five final tables and a win for Chris Reslock, and a record three USPC titles in one series for New Jersey local Gordon Eng. [Atlantic City Weekly]

WPT Regional Series: Seminole Hard Rock Fall Open Poker Tournament (Hollywood, Florida)

Some players wait their entire lives to get their monster score. Harrison Gimbel has now struck big twice before his 21st birthday. After taking down the PCA in January at the tender age of 19, Gimbel book-ended his year with another big score with a win at the WPT’s regional stop in Hollywood, Florida. One of the few places in the United States where hel could legally play, Gimbel took full advantage of the opportunity to the tune of $330,000 following a deal made heads-up. Those who are worryed about Gimbel entering the general tournament scene can hold off on their worries in the states until next October. [PokerListings]

LA Poker Open (Los Angeles, CA)

The LA Poker Open took advantage of the insatieable local players as well as a number of well-known pros who were in town for the NAPT to award over 1.3 million over the entire series. Local player Kwinsee Khoa Tran banked almost $180,000 for the win, taking advantage of his chip lead entering the final six. [PokerListings]

WSOP-Circuit Lake Tahoe (Lake Tahoe, NV)

Despite a four-day snow storm leading up to the main event that had event organizers nervous about the turn out, 246 players showed up for the $1,600 tournament. With a spot in the WSOP Circuit National Championship on the line, Stan Quinn came out on top for $86,789. He earned one of the 100 coveted spots in the $1 million freeroll, which will be nationally televised and will award a WSOP bracelet to the winner. Also earning a seat from his results in Lake Tahoe was Andrew Barber, who won the overall points race throughout the series. [WSOP]

GUKPT Grand Final (London, England)

After finishing third in a preliminary GUKPT London stop, Leon Bui sealed the deal when it really counted. Bui won the Grand Final of this year’s tour, winning £144,905 in the process. David Johnson won GUKPT POY hono(u)rs after bubbling this final table. [BLUFF Europe]

Minnesota State Poker Tour Hinckley (Hinckley, MN)

Matt Hyland added a title at the MSPT Hinckley to his 2009 Heartland Poker Tour victory this week, taking home almost $40,000 for his win. [MN Poker Mag]

Online

The biggest news in the Online Poker world this week were the unexpectedly large overlays in PokerStars’ USACOOP. One of several regional COOP series that PokerStars is running in between its two major series, the guarantees were apparently set too high, which was most obvious during a $322 event with a $750,000 guarantee. With 1,326 players, the overlay was an astounding $325,000, with Christina “lindeyloo” Lindley taking advantage and winning the top prize of $127,500.

The main event of this series is paused with day two action scheduled for today. Among the 94 still in contention are David “Whooookidd” Baker, Garret “gbecks” Beckman, Jason “strassa2″ Strasser, Stuart “thedonator” Patterson, Steve “gboro780″ Gross, and Matt “mlagoo” Legard. Top prize is $164,050.

NAPT :: Day 3 brought us down to 19 players and there are still a lot of known dangerous players in the field heading into Day 4. Jason Mercier, Matt Affleck, Michael Binger, and Anh Van Nguyen are all still in the running to become the first (and maybe only?) NAPT LA champion. A detailed chip count is available as well as a seat draw for the 4th day of competition. There is more going on today than in the past few for the NAPT as well. The $5000 Bounty Shootout is going to take place at the Crystal Casino in Compton (yes, you read that right). Turns out if you want to televise anything, you can’t do it at the Bike because the WPT has a lock on that sort of thing. Which makes the next bit of information all the more interesting. It was revealed (or at least people finally noticed) that the final table will be filmed for ESPN from the Crystal Casino as well. Oh, and these televised events will be airing in December, 3 hours for the bounty shootout and 1 hour for the main event final table.
At first glance, Stars appears to be dropping the ball consistently with the NAPT, is it birth pangs or a resignation that they just wont be getting very far with this tour? Time will tell, but for now action in this event will restart, once again, at 1PM PST.