Friday, March 4, 2016

The perfect weekend ahead?

Sometimes all the elements that make for a great poker weekend collide creating a weekends you want to dive into fully clothed. Whether it's something to play, something to inspire, or something to read, we seem to have it all.

For one thing there are the usual assortment of weekend Majors, and the satellites that will get you into them at a discount. That culminates with the Sunday Million where someone will walk away with the biggest payday of the weekend.

But size isn't everything (despite what you hear on TV). Other prizes might not match the million for magnitude, but they'll still put a smile on your face, starting with the conclusion of Team Pro Online week.

Team Pro Online week

If you've been reading the Blog this week you'll already know about this, but let me get you up to speed.

Foremost was the Beat Them or Back Them element, whereby you had to beat the Online Pros heads-up to win a package to the EPT Grand Final, or Back Them to do the same thing. Then there's the $200,000 Bounty Freeroll, the Zoom Pools, and an opportunity to actually join Team Pro Online. If this last part appeals to you in particular, I can highly recommend the post by Katerina Malasidou this week who talked of her own application and the changes that has brought to her life.

Liliya 'Liay5' Novikova wrote yesterdayabout her experiences at EPT Prague (good experiences). Meanwhile Malasidou's husband Andre Coimbra wrote about his latest challenge, to turn $10 into $1,000. It's not the first time Coimbra has attempted this kind of thing. Last time he tried to turn $1,000 into $100,000. He failed miserably, reaching only $70,000. A shortfall perhaps, but if that's considered a failure I'm not sure Coimbra will ever want to be right again.

That takes care of the playing side of things. What to watch while all this is taking place?

Well that's where Twitch makes an inevitable appearance. Various members of Team Online will be broadcasting their progress through the weekend, the schedule for which you can find here.

While that's all taking place online, two festivals get started in the real world

LAPT Chile

The Latin American Poker Tour pulls into Chile this week. As always the LAPT knows how to put on a show, and a poker tournament, which our team of Jack Stanton and Will O'Connor will be on hand to report on starting later today in Viña del Mar.

The LAPT homepage has all the details, while coverage begins on the blog later today.

Rozvadov

Those of us who have never been to Rozvadov hear it's a deceptive place. It's essentially a small town in the Czech countryside with an enormous casino in the middle of it. But while there might not be much to do outside, inside there's one of the best poker venues in the region. That's what we told our reporter Nick Wright as we packed him onto a plane yesterday to cover the Eureka Rozvadov festival, which starts today.

But like many places that are far from anywhere, the reception is typically warm, as the thousands of players who have already given this theory a try will back us up on. We have full coverage of the Main Event in Rozvadov starting today.

MPC

Lastly, and certainly not least(ly), the Macau Poker Cup 24 concludes today. You might have seen our coverage this week on the Blog which our reporter Brad Kain wraps up tonight. It's final table time, so check out the finalists then jump into the MPC:24 coverage.

EPT Not Live

In between all of the above there's another episode of the #EPTNotLive podcast to enjoy. Not only will James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton bring the irreverence, but there's also details of a freeroll being staged on Thursday March 10 which could earn you a ticket to the 10th Anniversary Sunday Million later this month, as well as signed "KidPoker" poster.

That's our bit. Here's the official version:

"It's a triple-header, as James and Joe bring Matt Broughton ("The Other Commentator") into the booth. Although, in the run-up to this week's recording, Stapes went missing, and Matt was on stand-by to play the role of Uncle Daddy! Luckily, Hartigan' s journalistic skills saved the day. After kicking things off with a few post-Dublin anecdotes - including James's near-death experience and an update on Matt's mouth - Joe recalls the glamour and glitz of the American Poker Awards and talks about his work as a "seat filler" during the ceremony. There are details of the forthcoming #EPTLive Home Game, including the all-important Club ID and Invitation Code. Plus, find out if Teun van Dijk from The Netherlands is a Muggle or a Wizard in a Harry Potter-themed edition of 'Superfan vs Stapes'. And the show concludes with the boys' (delayed) review of 'Deadpool'. #EPTNotLive"

Tune in using your preferred link below:

http://www.soundcloud.com/eptnotlive
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/ept-not-live/id970248920?mt=2
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ept-not-live

That's about everything you'll need going into the weekend, except a PokerStars account, which you can get here. In the meantime best of luck at the tables, both real and online, and as always you can send us your thoughts and comments on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.

Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.