World Poker Tour Online
CONTROVERSIAL POKER PRO IS BLUFF'S PLAYER OF THE YEAR
2011-01-03
Sorel 'Imperium' Mizzi heads magazine's 2010 list
The often controversial online and live tourney poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi has been named as the 2010 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year, having maintained the top spot since entering the POY rankings in March.
Tom 'kingsofcards' Marchese, who became CardPlayer Magazine's top player last week (see previous InfoPowa report) came in second.
The Bluff announcement notes that Mizzi ended the 2010 calendar year with a record high score at 1,777 points, comfortably ahead of Marchese on 1,257, with both well ahead of Fernando Brito, David Peters, Vanessa Selbst, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Dwyte Pilgrim, Chris Bjorin, Jason Mercier and Chris Bell.
With a $659 000 start to the year, thanks to a third placing in the Aussie Millions live tourney, Mizzi went on to take down two preliminary events during the PokerStars European Poker Tour Snowfest in March, boosting his bankroll by a further $150,000.
In the following month the young pro won the East Coast Championship Event during the Borgata Spring Poker Open, taking home another $170,000 after besting 62 players, many of them respected top exponents of the game. By the end of the month Mizzi had pulled in another $190 000 for making the final table in the EPT Monte Calro Grand Final, following up on this just two weeks later with a $159 000 take-home from the High Roller event at the World Poker Tour live tourney in Paris, where he was runner-up.
Mizzi was relatively quiet on the live tounrey circuit until August, when he was again runner-up, this time in the EPT Tallinn High Roller event, which boosted his bank balance with another $98 000. He went on to haul in another $88 000 for a seventh placing in the Foxwoods World Poker finals; and a $59 000 payday for a ninth placing in the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio for $59,000.
With almost $1.9 million won over the year, Mizzi has displayed an impressive and consistent level of live tournament skill.
Previous Bluff Players of the Year have included:
Jason Mercier (2009)
John Phan (2008)
Bill Edler (2007)
Chad Brown (2006)
Phil Ivey (2005)
PARTYPOKER ANNOUNCES LATEST UPGRADE2010-11-01Find the Pro's and Chase the Rabbit's
PartyPoker.com has released its latest software upgrade which according to the company blog includes
- Pro Players now highlighted.
- Adding the tournament lobby to a table’s chat area capability.
- Rabbit Hunt - post hand information.
- New Anonymous Heads Up Tables
A PartyPoker spokesman said, "All these new features are now live in the client", and encouraged players to communicate with the company with any views or suggestion.
MORE ONLINE POKER CASH SEIZED IN THE UNITED STATES2010-08-18$13.3 million settlement reached with processor
Federal prosecutors continue to go after financial processors in their attempts to stifle online poker, reports Forbes Business, revealing that the authorities reached a settlement worth $13.3 million Tuesday with Ahmad Khawaja, together with his firms, Allied Wallet and Allied Systems.
The settlement brings to a close a year-long issue that began when the FBI seized the $13.3 million in June 2009 (see previous InfoPowa reports).
Officials alleged that the funds constituted proceeds of operating an illegal gambling business that were deposited between January 2009 and May 2009 in an account at Goldwater Bank in Scottsdale, Arizona. Those funds were traceable to PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker firm, and other offshore online gambling companies, and include “proceeds of the illegal transmission of gambling information and operating an illegal gambling business," court documents reveal.
Forbes reports that the funds were linked to allegations of money laundering by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, with some of them traceable to wire transfers from outside the U.S. by individuals who knew that the funds represented the proceeds of the illegal transmission of gambling.
Isle of Man-based PokerStars issued a statement following the settlement in which it said: “PokerStars does not condone efforts by processors to conceal the nature or purpose of funds used to play online poker. PokerStars has taken steps to ensure that processors properly disclose the nature of their business to their relevant financial institutions.”
Forbes notes that PokerStars has long maintained that it offers for-money online poker play to U.S. players in accordance with legal opinions from several U.S. law firms that state it is not violating U.S. law.
"Department of Justice officials have for years taken the position that facilitating for-money online poker violates U.S. law, making no distinction between online sports betting - clearly illegal - and online poker playing. Still, the fact that prosecutors have not moved directly against the online operators has suggested to some that the government’s position is weak," the publication observes.
Despite the UIGEA, PokerStars continues to dominate the U.S. market for online poker, making it the world’s biggest online gambling firm, with estimated annual revenue of $1.4 billion and some $500 million in profits.
MIZRACHI WINS WSOP $50K PLAYER’S CHAMPIONSHIP (Update)2010-06-03$1.55 million in prize money, a prestigious bracelet and other rewards for poker pro
Mike Mizrachi won through in the $50 000 buy-in mixed game Player’s Championship at the World Series of Poker early Wednesday, besting a field of 116 of the best players in the world to win his first WSOP bracelet, $1.55 million in cash, and the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.
"It's definitely worth the wait," a delighted Mizrachi said. "This is one of the most prestigious tournaments in poker.”
With the hard fought championship down to fourhanded play, Mizrachi took on and ousted John Juanda and David Oppenheim to enter the heads up against Russian player Vladimir Schmelev.
Schmelev initially appeared to have Mizrachi’s number and looked set to win the event, but Mizrachi staged a bright comeback, eventually dominating his opponent and taking the honours.
The final table payouts looked like this:
Michael Mizrachi – $1,559,046
Vladimir Schmelev – $963,375
David Oppenheim – $603,348
John Juanda – $436,865
Robert Mizrachi – $341,429
David Baker – $272,275
Daniel Alaei – $221,105
Mikael Thuritz – $182,463
In the $1 000 buy-in NLHE event a final table was reached after 5 tough days of action in which all but nine of the original 4345 starters fell by the wayside.
On Wednesday afternoon the final nine took their seats with Adam Dava holding a chip lead of over half a million on opponents Cory Brown, Gabe Costner, Dash Dudley, Bart Davis, Nicholas Mitchell, Isaac Settle, Richard Rice and Deepak Bhatti – all going after the big money in a prize pool that topped $3.9 million in this event.
Every one of the final table players was guaranteed a paycheck of over $50 000, and the atmosphere was intense but friendly as the action started.
By 8pm Vegas time the game was down to three handed play with level 30 blinds at 60,000/120,000, Ante at 15,000 and average stack $4,345,000. Bhatti, who had started the day as the low chip count had enjoyed a great session to reach the final three players, and after the break went on to face Adam Dava in the heads up after Gabe Costner was eliminated in third place.
When InfoPowa went to press the two were still slugging it out.
By 10pm Vegas time Wednesday, the $5 000 buy-in NLHE Shootout players were down to 6, vying for the remaining seats at the final table for the event.
Ben May, Chino Rheem, Blair Hinkle and Eugene Katchalov had all been eliminated, and Julien Nuijten and Stuart Rutter; Danny Estes and Josh Tieman and Joe Elpayaa and Cary Katz were playing for the three final table places, most of them agreeing on bail-out bets in case they did not make the $72 000 payment levels that go with final table play.
In Event #4: $1500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Michael Chow outlasted 818 players en route to a bracelet and $237 140 after besting runner up Dan Heimiller, who had to be content with a second placing paycheck of $146 505. Ylon Schwartz took third for $94,561.
POKERSTARS LIKES UKASH2010-03-15Payment facility is attracting a whole new player demographic, says the world's largest online poker site.
Global e-commerce payment provider Ukash has joined forces with online poker site PokerStars.com to offer players an alternative means of cashing up new gambling accounts, and first time European users are being offered a promotion to use it.
First-time Ukash users in Europe can win a seat to the European Poker Tour’s San Remo event next month. The seat will include an all expenses paid trip with flights, accommodation and spending money.
“This is an exciting chance to offer Ukash users a once in a lifetime opportunity to play poker alongside poker's elite,” said Mark Chirnside, CEO for Ukash.
“By partnering with PokerStars.com to offer first-time Ukash depositors such a valuable prize, we hope to show players across Europe the benefits of using Ukash as they join the millions of consumers who already use cash to bet online.”
A Pokestars spokesman in the Isle of Man said: “Providing Ukash as a payment method on PokerStars.com has introduced a new demographic to our site, the cash customer.
“Thousands of our players benefit from using Ukash, an easy system for depositing money when betting online, and we look forward to working with Ukash to give one lucky customer the chance of a lifetime, to play poker alongside the world's best.”