Coming soon: Macau Poker Cup 22

Earlier this year, the 'PokerStars LIVE Macau' poker site ran the twentieth installment of the Macau Poker Cup in January and set a Red Dragon main event record with 995 players.

It became a well-recognized theme as Asia's home to the most important and richest poker tournaments broke a slew of private and Asia poker records inside the 2014 season. The poker site awarded HK$189 million (USD $24m) in total prize money and people are big numbers in any a part of the world.

In fact, that represents six consecutive years of growth and PokerStars LIVE Macau team is pushing harder than ever to make it seven.

It all starts with Macau Poker Cup 22 which occurs from Feb 27-Mar 15, 2015.

Here's three things to seem out for:

1. RED DRAGON RECORDOnce again, the MPC features the Red Dragon event with the buy-in set at HK$12,000. It's widely expected that the legendary tournament will surpass the 1000-player mark for the primary time ever - a huge jump from its humble beginnings as a 33-man tournament back in 2008.

Bigger buy-in plus bigger player field? You do the math.

2. IMPROVED 17-DAY SCHEDULEThe Red Dragon is plenty to be interested by all in itself but after running the MPC as a 17-day poker festival for the primary time this past August, organizers have listened to the player feedback and changed accordingly.

"We know that the Macau Poker Cup side events we now have are hugely popular." said APPT President Danny McDonagh. "It wasn't such a lot about changing those event, but more so about placing them in better spots at the schedule."

Checkout the schedule and you may see a far tighter packed list of events.

One new addition is the HK$5,000 Megastack which comes with a HK$500,000 guarantee. For individuals who can't come for the whole schedule, it is the perfect warm-up tournament with a tremendous starting stack of 30,000 chips.

3. ASIA PLAYER OF THE YEAR (APOY)December's Beijing Cup will officially kickoff the 2015 APOY season but there is no doubt that MPC22 will set the pace for the year with 16 Official Asia Player of the Year events handy. If you wish to be within the running for the hardest poker ranking in Asia you just can't miss this event.

Online Satellites to MPC22 begin Wednesday, November 19.

For more information, please visit www.PokerStarsLIVEMacau.com

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: PokerStars Macau]

Game of the Day: Auburn at Alabama

The Iron Bowl features some of the premier rivalries in college football, but in the case of pure drama, it will likely be nearly impossible to top last year's finish. Number one. Alabama hopes to exact a measure of revenge for last season's devastating loss when it ...

Read More... [Source: Covers.com: NCAAF News and Stories]

NFL Betting Odds Offer Big Lines For Week Eight

Published on October 25, 2013 by Vincent Tapoglia III

Odds makers spent the primary seven weeks of the season separating the contenders from the pretenders. Now, as week eight approaches, the sports books have continued a trend of heavy betting lines on one of the vital top teams within the league.

Of the 12 games so that they can be played in week eight, eight have underdogs getting greater than a touchdown. That may be with regards to a record at this point within the season, and shows that there has become a pointy competitive imbalance between the highest and the ground of the league.

"There is a large discrepancy between the great teams and the bad," said analyst Joel Shermack. "What we have seen is the nice teams improving from the beginning of the year, and the bad teams really beginning to take form as inept. That may be creating some lines that experience never before been seen."

Two weeks ago, Denver was favored by nearly four touchdowns over the Jacksonville Jaguars. The Broncos was one of the crucial prolific offensive teams in league history during the first half the season, while Jacksonville has struggled to attain 10 points a game. The Jags ended up covering the massive spread.

This week's largest spread again involves the Jaguars. San Francisco, the defending NFC champs and a team that has hit their stride in recent weeks, is a 17 point favorite over Jacksonville. The sport is being played in Jacksonville, and the entire for the match up is 41.

Washington have been playing best of late, but that didn't stop odds makers from installing the high flying Broncos as two touchdown favorites over the Redskins. Washington's defense has given up a ton of points up to now. and lots of predict Peyton Manning and the Denver offense may have little problem picking apart the Washington defense.

Green Bay (-10), and Seattle (-11), are the one other two double digit favorites in week eight. The Packers will face a Minnesota team that may be all the way down to its fifth string quarterback, while Seattle will play Monday night against a St. Louis team that lost their starting quarterback, Sam Bradford, to injury two weeks ago.

Read More... [Source: Sports Gambling News]

Baltic Festival: Day three, level 20 updates

This post contains live updates from day three, level 20 of the PokerStars Baltic Festival in Tallinn. It's now final table time.

The full chip counts originally of the extent can be found at the chip counts page. Approximate counts will appear here updated within the level. A WHOLE breakdown of the prizewinners so far and the whole payout structure is at the prize structure page.

Blinds: 8,000-16,000 (2,000 ante)

Thomas Partridge wins €76,750 plus $15,000 package to PokerStars Caribbean AdventureA full wrap of the day to return. Take a look at the prizewinners page to look who won what.

8.40pm: Game overThomas Partridge wins!James Keys, UK, PokerStars qualifier, out in second winning €48,505It's in every single place. There has been minimal pre-flop action and Thomas Partridge led out 50,000 on a flop of 3♠Q♠2♣. Keys called. The turn came 9♠ after which all of it kicked off. Partridge bet 120,000, Keys moved all in and Partridge snap-called. He had K♠5♠ for the flush and Keys had turned two pair together with his 9♥2♥. Keys had full house outs however the 3♥ at the river was not one in all them.

8.30pm: A technique trafficThomas Partridge have been dominating this heads up battle to this point and he has just taken another decent pot to position him as much as about 2,400,000.

There was 40,000 each within the pot pre-flop, then the cards came: 5♠7♣6♠. Partridge checked, Keys bet 50,000, Partridge made it 175,000 and Keys called. The turn came T♠ and Partridge led out for 175,000. Keys let it go.

Heads up

8.25pm: Approximate chipsIt's now:Thomas Partridge: 2,100,000Kames Keys: 900,000 approx

8.20pm: New chip leaderThomas Partridge has now taken the chip lead when he bet 200,000 at the river, with the board showing 7♥8♦A♦A♥K♦. Partridge had 7♦4♦ for the flush and Keys mucked.

8.15pm: Keys being hauled inPartridge has now taken another big pot on this heads up battle. There has been some small action at the flop of 6♠8♣3♥ however it was when the 9♠ turn came that more cash flew in. Partridge checked, Keys bet 105,000 and Partridge called. The river was 3♠ and Partridge checked again. Keys bet 280,000 and Partridge called, showing 7♥8♠ to take it.

8.05pm: And anotherPartridge has taken another one, in what was almost a carbon copy of the last hand. Keys limped and Partridge made it 100,000 more, which Keys called. The flop came 8♣7♥Q♦ and Partridge bet 100,000, which Keys called. The turn was 3♣ and Partridge announced he was all in. Keys let it go.

8pm: Partridge takes oneAfter James Keys took the primary small pot of heads up play, Thomas Partridge took the second, and it was worth just a little more. Partridge made up the massive blind and Keys bet about 80,000. Called. The flop came A♥5♠5♥ and Keys check-called a 90,000 bet from Partridge. The turn was 9♥ and Keys check-folded when Partridge moved all in.

7.55pm: Heads upThe two Britons from the general table have made it to heads up. Here is what they have got on the moment:

James Keys: 2,300,000Thomas Partridge: 784,000

Thomas Partridge

James Keys

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: Baltic Poker Festival]

The net Poker Show (7-19-09)

During our time on the World Series of Poker, you will have forgotten that our video teams spend a large number of time maintaining a tally of the massive online action on Sunday. Most notably, the oldsters behind PokerStars/tv produce an awesome highlight show of the most important weekly tournament within the world.

The Online Poker Show offers first class commentary and highlights from the large money Sunday Million every week.

We won't spoil the action and inform you what happened this week (scroll back through our printed coverage if you want a spoiler). Just click the video below and notice how one person walked away with nearly 1 / 4 million bucks.

Watch Online Poker Show: Sunday Million - July 19th, 2009 on PokerStars.tv

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: PokerStars.tv]

2014 ACOP Main Event Day 4: Last year's champ Suny Jung leads final table

Everyone was gearing up for an excessively long Day 4 of the 2014 ACOP Main Event.

After all, 24 players had to become nine and the typical stack was around 60 big blinds with levels lasting 90 minutes each.

But the players didn't mess about.

There was no tanking, no stalling and no nonsense.

Instead, it was just elimination after elimination with a view to setting the overall table.

The big overnight story was that last year's ACOP champion Sunny Jung was making another deep run. He defeated 203 players in 2013 to win greater than US$500,000 and had already outlast more players than that to make Day 4 of the 2014 ACOP.

Well, Jung is the tale again as he's amazingly the chip leader of the overall nine! Jung is now starring down the barrel of history as he looks to become the first-ever back-to-back ACOP champion. There aren't many players in poker history who've achieved one of these feat in tournaments of this magnitude.

Sunny Jung won this event last year. Could he do it again?

Jung, however, is faced with tough competition.

In fact, the player with the second one largest stack is the extremely experienced Ami Barer.It was an enormous year for Barer, starting back in February when he won the 2014 Aussie Millions for AU$1.6 million.

Ami Barer has a large stack on the ACOP final table

Since the Aussie Millions win, Barer made two side event final tables at EPT Monte Carlo, finished fourth within the EPT Barcelona 8-Handed High Roller and finished third within the ACOP Warm-up only a few days ago.

All in all, Barer has posted greater than US$2 million in ends up in 2014 alone and is now eight places clear of adding another US$800,000 to the tally.

Another one of the crucial prominent players on the ACOP final table is Joseph Cheong.

Over the last several years Cheong has proven himself as one of the vital finest poker talents within the world, amassing greater than US$10 million in results. Cheong finished fifth within the ACOP Super High Roller earlier within the week for just over US$500,000 so he's clearly in good form.

Joseph Cheong is a large threat on the ACOP final table

Jung, Barer and Cheong must get through Tore Lukashuagen, Raiden Kan, Zuo "ST" Wang, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Gabriel Le Jossec and Konstantin Pogodin to win the ACOP title, so it's not going to be a very easy task.

For these nine players to have secured a place at the final table, 15 others needed to fall short. A kind of who was unable to make it was Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin.

The two-time Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon champion were fighting with the quick stack for far of the last two days and ultimately found herself all in when 22 players remained.

Lin had pocket fours against Dimitar Danchev's pocket tens and Ami Barer's A♣K♣ and wasn't capable of finding the cards she needed and so headed to the rail with HK$270,000.

Team PokerStars Pro Celina Lin fell in 22nd place

Lin was certainly one of two ladies who returned to the felt on Day 4, with Yaxi "Yvonne" Zhu the opposite. Zhu actually started the day because the chip leader, but ended up falling in 12th place.

Zhu ended up short stacked and moved all in with K♠3♠ on a 2♣3♣J♥ flop and was out drawn by Barer who called with A♦4♣ and hit a five at the river to make a straight.

Yaxi Zhu hit the rail in 12th place

Some of the others who joined Lin and Zhu at the rail throughout Day 4 include Byron Kaverman (24th), Kai Yat Fam (19th), Sorel Mizzi (18th), Dimitar Danchev (16th) and Terrence Chan (14th).

The player to catch up with to the overall table than all others, but ultimately fall short, was Bodo Sbrzesny. He was the quick stack in the course of the final table bubble and was happy to get his chips in preflop with A♦Q♠ and was even happier to have Barer call with K♣Q♥.

Sbrzesny looked clear of the table because the dealer opened up a 9♦9♣3♠ flop and only glanced once the dealer turned over a T♦. Sbrzesny was then devastated to look the J♦ fall at the river to provide Barer a runner-runner straight, meaning Sbrzesny was eliminated in 10th place and the day was over.

Bodo Sbrzesny was the overall table bubble boy

Here is how the general nine lineup:

Seat 1: Zuo 'ST' Wang (China) - 504,000Seat 2: Konstantin Pogodin (Russia) - 1,165,000Seat 3: Ami Barer (Canada) - 1,766,000Seat 4: Raiden Kan (Hong Kong) - 488,000Seat 5: Sunny Jung (Korea) - 1,810,000Seat 6: Vladimir Troyanovskiy (Russia) - 576,000Seat 7: Tore Lukashaugen (Norway) - 369,000Seat 8: Gabriel Le Jossec (UK) - 1,025,000Seat 9: Joseph Cheong (USA) - 1,027,000

All the players have already locked up HK$675,000 (~US$87,000) and can be fighting it out for the HK$6,300,000 (~US$815,000) top prize. There'll be full player profiles posted shortly so that you can learn more about all the nine remaining players.

The final table is ready to commence at 3:00 p.m. local time on Saturday and again it is possible for you to to search out full live reports, feature stories and results at the 2014 ACOP page on the PokerStarsBlog.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: PokerStars Macau]

French Online Poker Players Have Tea Party Protests

New French gambling taxes have online poker players staging protests very similar to the Tea Party grassroots movement within the US.

New regulations imposed by the French government in opening the country's online poker market include a vital tax. Some Internet poker sites are crying poverty and passing the price to players, resulting in organized protests along the lines of the Tea Party gatherings within the US.

France will collect a 2 percent tax on cash games, tournaments, and re-buys. Even hands that feature folding throughout to the large blind can be taxed, meaning in those cases the unlucky player within the big blind seat wins the hand and doesn't even collect a whole small blind for his effort.

Operators similar to PokerStars are passing the tax along as an additional 2 percent rake. Spokesman for online poker sites say the additional rake is necessary, claiming the sites are losing money on a gentle basis under the brand new French gambling rules.

But players don't seem to be quietly cooperating. Instead, semi-organized sit-ins are occurring, during which players check in to PokerStars and other online poker sites after which occupy seats while sitting out hands.

Blocking the seats at cash game tables is costing the poker operators hefty income. Players say the sites brought it on themselves, because the additional rake can mean players see their collection of hands available for a given buy-in drop by up to 1 / 4 of the total.

A report by eGaming notes that Sweden actually followed a plan lowering rake to drive tax collections. The resulting increase in players greater than made up for the lesser take per hand. There is not any word yet, however, that French officials might even see the sunshine and help online poker sites escape from between a rock and a difficult place.

Published on July 12, 2010 by MattMiller

Read More... [Source: Poker News]