PokerStars new sleeve sponsor for Cronulla Sharks

After Full Tilt Poker became short sponsors for the Sydney Roosters in the NRL, I knew it was only a matter of time before PokerStars got in on the act of sponsoring an NRL or AFL team. I was not surprised to see today that PokerStars have become the new sleeve sponsor for the Cronulla Sharks. PokerStars will no doubt be delighted that just after announcing the sponsorship deal the Sharks ended their 13 game losing streak!

Sharks Announce New Sleeve Sponsor @ Cronulla Sharks

The Hisense Sharks have confirmed that PokerStars.net has joined the Sharks as its new major sleeve sponsor for the 2010 and 2011 seasons.

PokerStars.net is the world’s largest free of charge on-line poker website with more than 32 million members around the world.

“We’re over the moon with the two-year sponsorship deal and are really looking forward to a long and fruitful partnership with the Sharks as they rebuild,” 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, Joe Hachem, said.

“We definitely see poker and rugby league sharing the same sort of competitive drives and therefore a partnership like this with the Sharks really makes sense.”

The signing of PokerStars.net comes only weeks after the club announced Hisense as its 2010 and 2011 major sponsor and Shire Steel as a shorts partner.

More hands have been dealt on PokerStars.net than any other site, that’s over 40 billion hands dealt to date and more than 283 million tournaments played. PokerStars.net operates worldwide under the license from the Isle of Man Government.

PokerStars.net is also home to an elite team of sponsored players known as Team PokerStars.net Pro – a group of established and up and coming players that travel the world competing in international tournaments.

Pass the Sugar

I finished reading Joe Hachem's "Pass the Sugar" autobiography last night. I'm happy to admit I'm a fan of Joe and what he's done for the Australian poker scene. I enjoyed The Poker Star and I enjoyed reading his book, its a good insight in to the man, where he came from and what happened to his life after winning the WSOP Main Event.

One of my favourite lines from the book comes from the co-author Peter Ralph. In the Afterword, he tells a story about how Joe explained the skill level in poker:

"Pete, if we played a hand now you could beat me, and you may even get lucky over fifteen minutes and if you got really lucky you might even be ahead after half an hour. However if we played for four hours I'd own your house, your car and all of your bank accounts"

LOL, typical Joe confidence ...

The Poker Star

Well, not too much to report from the PokerStars $50K, or at least nothing exciting for me anyway. I didn't realise but the tournament I had qualified was in fact a rebuy tournament and my first time in it the $10 rebuy didn't interest me too much when I had satellited in using FPP points.

I played fairly tight early, took down some small pots and avoided some of the rebuy madness that was going on at the table. I virtually tripled up at one point with top pair king kicker on the flop managed to outrun top pair midkicker and flush draw in a raised pot. So I survived through until the end of the rebuy and add-on period and got to see that there was a first prize of over $10K up for grabs. Shortly after tho I had ace ten in the big blind and in a multiway unraised pot the flop came 10, 10, 6 ... hello!! It checked around to the button who bet smallish so I called and figured I'd lead out on the turn which I did, I got re-raised and hoped I was up against a worse ten, flush draw or bottom pair. Unfortunately the button had pocket 6's and I was needing help on the river but it didn't come and I was gone midfield.

Other than that tournament tho, my early morning good form continued as I got a 3rd in a $3 45 man, min-cashed a 180 and then won a $3 45 man, all in my first couple of games. From there tho I failed to cash in the next 11 games, bubbling 3 (frustratingly). Happy with the way I played tho and a profitable day overall.

As I mentioned, I missed Joe Hachem's The Poker Star last night but you have to love YouTube for having it on there already. I've just finished watching it and its great to see that the episodes are an hour long, unlike 2M2MM which is just 30 minutes and is drawing heat in the forums for being too short. The city of Melbourne and Crown Casino make a great back-drop for the show and its good to see Lee Nelson involved as well. Week 1 was very much a getting to know the contestants episode so we'll see how the show develops from here.

Good start to the day

I just got up an hour or two ago, didn't feel like breakfast as I ate a lot yesterday. I went to the gym in the afternoon, had a couple of sandwiches when I got home and then went to a friend's place to watch the AFL Grand Final, NRL Semi-Final and I was hoping to catch the first episode of Joe Hachem's The Poker Star but unfortunately that last one didn't happen. As soon as I walked in the door, the beers were cracked and the food started flowing and really didn't stop.

Anyway, I like playing poker on Sunday mornings because its the one chance I get to play in a number of the big MTT's. I late registered for one about 50 minutes late, normally I wouldn't but there was over 6000 players in it and it was only a $1 buy-in. Nothing exciting to report there, registered for another $1 buy in one and didn't do much better there either.

I've been wondering what to do with my FPP's and decided to play in a satellite to the nightly 50K guaranteed (normally an $11 buy-in). It was only 70FPP's and it was a turbo satellite which I really didn't take in to account in the early rounds. Thankfully I got some hands at the right time, picked a few other good spots and was right back in the game. There was 190'ish runners, 19 of which would qualify for the 50K. Being a turbo the blinds were high late and an ace high shove from the small blind held up and I was well in contention. The table was very tight unless they had a big hand so I was pleasantly surprised when everyone folded to my blind instead of making me taking a stand around the bubble. I used my time bank in the right spots to slow our table down and it worked well enough to get me through. The 50K starts in just over an hour so hopefully I can do something in that.

While playing that I also won a $1 45 man game. I was in a good position all the way through and despite being last in chips with about 4 to go, got some hands, took down some blinds and got out of the way when the big action started. I went in to heads-up facing a large deficit but took down a big hand or two to even the ledger. We then went back and forth for a while until he went card dead and got too passive. He was folding way too many hands when short-stacked and I was able to take advantage of it.

2009 WCOOP: Sick! ElkY scores 2nd bracelet in Event #43, $215 NLHE - PokerStars Poker Blog

I've been taking an interest in the WCOOP this year as I get more and more involved in the poker world. With work not being overly busy all the time, I log on to PokerStars during the day just to rail some of the big name players. I tend to watch the big name pros such as Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker plus some of the bigger name online players such as Shaun Deeb, Tony Dunst and Alex Fitzgerald.

As the work day was winding down, I ended up watching Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier take down his 2nd bracelet of the series. As we speak, he's down to the final 12 of a second chance event where the first prize is over $130,000. Run better ...

Here's the story of how he got his 2nd bracelet, click on the title to read the full story.

2009 WCOOP: Sick! ElkY scores 2nd bracelet in Event #43, $215 NLHE - PokerStars Poker Blog

Event #43, the last of the $215 buy-in no-limit hold'em events in this year's WCOOP series, drew a whopping 9,220 entrants, making for a $1,844,000 prize pool. That was well beyond the $1 million guarantee, and the eighth time during the series we've seen a prize pool of greater than $1.5 million. (There'd be one more WCOOP event with at least a $1.5 million prize pool, of course -- the Main Event, with more than $10 million up for grabs!) The top 1,350 finishers would be cashing in this one, with first place scheduled to earn a nifty $263,323.20.

After nine-and-a-half hours of play, the field had been whittled down to 250 players, with Team PokerStars pros Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier in 12th, Victor Ramdin in 22nd, and Barry 'barryg1' Greenstein in 90th. At that point, 0926ricsi held the chip lead with 683,105, followed closely by LakersGTD, kezug, ångvälten, and HN Kakaroto.

At the 11-and-a-half hour mark, they were down to 100 players. Greenstein had departed in 203rd, followed by Team PokerStars Holland Pro Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis in 152nd. But Ramdin was still there in 42nd, and Grospellier had chipped all of the way up to second place, just behind LakersGTD who was nearing the 200,000 mark.

ElkY would soon overtake LakersGTD and claim the chip lead. With five cashes already this WCOOP and a bracelet in Event #38 (NLHE $530 + 1R1A), the London-based French pro appeared to be gearing up for yet another deep run in an WCOOP event. (Click here to read ElkY's reflection on his WCOOP win for the PokerStars blog.)

World Series of Poker update

Day 6 at the World Series of Poker was rough for many of the players I was following.

First elimination was Joe Hachem. He couldn't get anything going on day 5 or 6 and ended up pushing all-in short-stacked with jack 9 suited. Joe was called by pocket 4's but his hand didn't improve and he finished 103rd.

Kenny Tran was struggling near the bottom stacks, doubling up occasionally but not staying far enough ahead of the blinds. He pushed with a suited ace, got called by pocket 8's, didn't improve and bust out in 86th place.

Also hitting the rail on day 6 were one-time chip monster Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier in 122nd, one-time chip leader Matt Affleck in 81st and last year's champ Peter Eastgate in 78th.

The story of the day was the rise and rise of Phil Ivey. He had sat in the middle of the pack for much of the tournament but by the end of day 6 he was in 3rd and looking very dangerous. Midway through day 7 he's still cruising along in 2nd place and the field has narrowed to just 29 players left in action.

Phil Ivey, the man to watch

World Series of Poker update

We're now midway through day 5 in the World Series of Poker and with 232 players remaining out of the 6494 starters, one of Assassinato's mates Matt Affleck currently leads the field.

The poker community would love for one of the big name pros to take down the Main Event and this year there are a number still in contention. Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier has been at the top of the leader board for the last few days and is currently in the top 20 while my boys Joe Hachem and Kenny Tran aren't far behind. Phil Ivey is also roughly midfield and has plenty of time to make a move.

From last year's Main Event, Dennis Phillips and defending champion Peter Eastgate are both still well in the hunt.

Pro updates

Just a quick post to give you some updates from a few of my stories last week.

Firstly, Alex Fitzgerald (AKA Assassinato) finished 7th in the EPT San Remo. The PokerStars blog had a live feed of the final table but I was at home on a wireless plug-in modem so it wasn't practical to watch much of it. I kept up to date on the blog and the key hand that ended it for Alex was when he re-raised all-in on someone with ace king. The original raiser called turning over pocket jacks and Alex's hand didn't improve. His stack was crippled and he was out shortly after. While disappointed he didn't last longer on the final table, he did walk away with 171,000 euros.

I hoped Alex might give more of a breakdown of the tournament on his blog but I think he's happy to just be home catching up on everyday life. Here is the main post he wrote about the final table achievement and the payday and here's an article that mentions him in the top 10 online players to watch at the World Series of Poker (if he actually goes).

Elsewhere, I had hoped Joe Hachem might get deep at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo but unfortunately he was out in day 3. Annette Obrestad however made it to the final two tables finishing in 13th place and picking up 77,000 euros for her efforts.

Pieter de Korver took out the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, not Joe or Annette as I had hoped

2009 PokerStars.com EPT Grand Final

I was checking out Poker News today to see what was going on around the place and saw that they have already finished day 2 of the Pokerstars EPT Grand Final.

I have been reading Daniel Negreanu's blog and his twitters so I knew his tournament was over but I'm glad to see that Aussie and one of the faces of PokerStars, Joe Hachem is doing well. Check out the front page of Poker News for a quick interview with Joe. After my last post, I see that Annette Obrestad is smashing up the field in 2nd place.

There are just 149 players left out of the 935 starters. From an Aussie point of view it would be great to see Joe continue on and finish deep.

The Poker Star

I came across an e-mail from PokerStars today about a new show coming to One HD called "The Poker Star". Being a big fan of shows live Survivor and The Apprentice a similar show about poker with Joe Hachem would be awesome (to be in, it probably won't rate well)!

I'm sure there will be a huge number of people auditioning but I'll definitely be playing in the freerolls trying to qualify for the tournament in Sydney.

To read more about the show, click on the title below.

One HD - The Poker Star - About the Show | Channel Ten

New to poker or been playing for while? It’s time to bring your poker face to the table as a new reality show is coming your way. The first series of The Poker Star launches soon, but the search for eleven contestants starts here.

It’s a journey beyond the table with World Series of Poker Champion, Joe Hachem where you will be challenged to see who really has what it takes to sky rocket to stardom as The Poker Star.

The winner will not only take home $100,000 in cash, but have a money can’t buy experience living as a poker pro – the right to participate in 4 multi-million dollar global tournaments, in places such as Monte Carlo and Las Vegas all sponsored by PokerStars.net and mentored by Joe Hachem.

There will be only ONE winner – The Poker Star.

Aussie Millions update - end of day 3

At the end of day 3, there are just 28 players left in the hunt for the Aussie Millions crown. Unfortunately Joe Hachem got knocked out before the money when his push all-in with queens was called by ace - 8 off. Joe really wants to win his "home" poker title but it looks like he'll have to wait another year for the chance to do so. Click on the title below to read the full story and see the top 10 chip counts.

Aussie Millions: 28 Players Remain; Annette Lurking - Poker News

Author: Lance Bradley

Only 28 players remain Down Under to chase the 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event title and the $2 million AU first place price. Day 2 was all about the ladies as Annica Ivert and Annette Obrestad but as the third day of play wound down the attention turned to Michael Tureniec (pictured right), the only player with more than 1,000,000 in chips.

Obrestad and Ivert aren’t far behind though. With 807,000 Obrestad is in fifth place while Ivert, the relatively unknown cash game player from Sweden, sits in seventh with 709,000. The action on Thursday saw a number of the biggest remaining names eliminated from the event.

Joe Hachem was unable to continue his heroics from Day 2 and busted before the money bubble burst. One star player who did hang around long enough to cash was Patrik Antonius. Finishing in 41st place Antonius made $20,000 AU. Clonie Gowen almost survived the day but busted in 32nd place for $30,000 AU and Scott Nguyen posted a 50th place finish for $15,000 AU.

There are still some star players in contention though. November Niner Kelly Kim sits in 16th place with 380,000 and Sorel Mizzi has 293,000 – good enough for 20th spot. Joe Cassidy will have his work cut out for him when he returns to the table on Friday afternoon. The Los Angeles-based pro has only 197,000 chips.

2009 Aussie Millions Main Event

Here's an update from the end of Day 2 at the Aussie Millions. Nice to see Joe Hachem and Scotty Nguyen still in the running. Click on the title below to read the full story.

2009 Aussie Millions Main Event, Day 2: Ivert, Obrestad Top Pack | PokerNews.com

January 21, 2009
John 'Falstaff' Hartness

After three grueling Day 1 flights, 320 surviving players combined into a single Day 2 field on Wednesday at the 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event. The poker players on hand at the Crown Casino in Melbourne included Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen, Patrik Antonius and Tony G, but it was two young women who led the field at the end of the day. Annica Ivert and Annette 'Annette_15' Obrestad locked up the top two spots on the leader board as the field neared the money.

Mark Vos and Phil Laak were among the early casualties as the field shrunk rapidly to less than 100 survivors. Vos started the day on the short stack and never got anything going on Day 2, and Laak took a tough beat to send him to the rail. Laak moved all in on a flop and was called by an opponent with . The on the turn gave Laak only two outs to survive, and the on the river wasn't one of them. Other early eliminations included Saidal Wardak, Neil Channing and Billy "The Croc" Argyros.