PokerStars 25 Billionth Hand Prize

Five Players Split PokerStars 25 Billionth Hand Prize - Poker News

The 25,000,000,000 hand celebration at PokerStars got a little bit out of hand Monday morning. The online poker giant gave away hundreds of thousands of dollars over the weekend in anticipation of the milestone hand. Then on Monday morning all hell broke loose at a six-max $1/$2 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo table.

Six players were seated at the table but player “Confederate” decided to sit-out and not post his blinds. That decision cost him at least $20,000. That wasn’t the only drama though. With so many players online, and a PokerStars host alerting the players that the hand was being played at this table, the waiting list for a seat ballooned to 1,600 players. The sudden increase in traffic caused some server issues including the sudden disappearance of one of the players hands."

“NeonFrost” had been dealt cards but after the restart the cards were missing. PokerStars staff reviewed the situation and decided to award the prizes as if NeonFrost had played the hand out and he’s probably very happy that that decision was made. With the board showing 2 7 K A 7 NeonFrost would have made a queen-high flush and “tupapi777″ made a qualifying low.

The two winners split $100,000 cash and each will receive a prize package including a buy-in and travel allowance for the European Poker Tour Grand Final, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the World Series of Poker Main Event and a World Championship of Online Poker ticket. The prize package alone is worth $50,000.

The three other players, “FrtSpnkdMn”, “na47j25s” and “chris12080, split $100,000 between them. Confederate received nothing.

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.

Matt McKay Socceroo

Congratulations to Matt McKay (pictured right), QCS Australian Poker League player for his second call-up to the Socceroos for their upcoming game in Indonesia.

Matt's one of the nice guys in our poker region and his lucky hand is ace-5 because his jersey number for the Queensland Roar is 15. Let's hope Matt gets more than 3 minutes on field this time! Click on the title below to read the full story.

Zullo shocked to be Socceroo - National News - National - Sport - The Canberra Times

McKay said the Roar's form this season was a major factor in his second international call-up.

'We're all playing well and if we can continue to do that there'll be more players in the squad in the future,' the 25-year-old said.

The midfielder was hoping to add to the three minutes he gained against Kuwait in August 2006.

'That's up there with one of the highlights,' McKay said. 'Even though it was three minutes it's a Socceroos cap and very prestigious.

Aussie Millions

I haven't been on top of all things poker over the last few days and missed the start of the Aussie Millions in Melbourne.

Congratulations to Christian Heich for taking out event 1. Click on the title below to read the full story and stay up to date with all the action from the Aussies Millions here.

Crown Aussie Millions : Heich Takes Home the Gold in Event One

With a guaranteed prize pool of half a million dollars, there was always going to be a massive field for Event One of the 2009 Aussie Millions. A new record of 731 entrants smashed the guarantee by almost a quarter of a million dollars. Only 110 players returned to the Crown Poker Room for Day Two of Event One - $1,100 No Limit Holdem, all of who were eyeing off the first place prize of $150,000.

Dean Blatt started Day Two as chip leader, but it was Christian Heich from Germany who emerged as the first winner of the new Aussie Millions championship rings.

Local favorites Eric Assadourian, David Saab and Jamie Pickering were sent packing early in the game. Emad Tahtouh also found the rail before the money bubble burst.

See, pocket jacks don't always lose!

APL roll

As the game last night signalled the end of this quarter's APL season its disappointing to know that I won't be heading back to States next month to back-up my cash-winning performance from last time. I really didn't play enough this season to put up good enough numbers to get me back there. I also didn't play enough games at one particular venue to be competitive.

Saying that tho, I finished the quarter on a pretty impressive roll. In my last 4 games (over 10 days) I finished 3rd, 4th, 5th and a 2nd last night. These results followed on from my 27th in the big game down at Tweed on December 14. I checked my stats on the website earlier and I only played 9 APL games this month but 6 of them I finished 5th or better.

Last night's game was at The Redbrick which I don't like as a venue but have a really good record there (3 games, won a regional tournament, a 4th and a 2nd). I ran very hot early until my nut flush ran in to a full house. I then hovered around the same mark until the blinds were nearly catching up on me. I got some good cards and some even better flops and chipped up to a strong level. The blinds were massive long before final table and it became a push-fest. On the bubble, I pushed from under-the-gun with ace-jack off-suit, got called by a short-stack small blind and the big blind who had my stack covered folded ace-king! Neither of us hit and I took the pot down.

On the final table one guy who had been playing VERY loose all night cleaned house taking out a few players and chipping up massively when his jack-ten off-suit took out 3 players in one hand (one had pocket kings, one had pocket jacks). He took out the 3rd placed player and had a MASSIVE chip lead when we got heads up. He was pushing with everything but I won a couple of hands in a row before losing a race and the game.

The new season starts tomorrow and I WILL be going back to the APL State Finals next quarter.

World Blogger Championship of Poker

Well the Blogger World Championship of Poker on PokerStars didn't go quite as I had planned. There were 3 qualifying rounds of No-limit hold'em leading to the final tournament.

Round 1 I played a little too tight and cautiously, finishing 200th out of around 550. Round 2 I had to get up at 4:30am to be ready for the starting time. I don't remember too much about the way things went (it was obviously too early) but I finished 170th out of 550.

The final round was this morning with another early start for me of 5:30am. I played well losing a couple of hands to the river, including the last which was the knock-out blow. The first I had pocket 4's and the board came 10, 2, 10. A player put a pot-sized bet out on the flop and I had the feeling they were betting on the 2. Next card out I think was a 3 so after they bet again on the turn I re-raised. They thought for a little bit and then called with a king coming on the river, they checked so I did too ... they turned over king-2 which is what I expected. The final hand was a small blind and myself big blind with king - 8. The flop comes 8, 5, 6 rainbow ... they bet hard I went over the top all-in but only had probably double what they had bet. They called turning over 8, 9 so I have to dodge a 7 (to fill their gut-shot straight draw) or a 9 and unfortunately the 9 comes on the river. I finish 110th out of 550 ... failing to get in the top 72 to qualify for the final.