Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

A few months ago a new poker site popped up named Cardspike (www.cardspike.com – not linking for obvious reasons).  They are running as part of the Cake Network and have been creating quite a stir in the poker affiliate front.  Apparently Cardspike either launched prematurely or feels that they do not have to pay their players.  Some players have been waiting months to receive a payment and there really is no end in sight to this issue.

The issues of payment are also affecting affiliates of the site who are months behind on their pay.  According to one affiliate, the affiliate manager at Cardspike told him, “NOT to send any players!“.  This is definitely a bad sign and we feel that we should alert more people before they get duped by these guys.

So, what I am trying to say is DO NOT PLAY AT CARDSPIKE.COM!  If you have money on Cardspike, I would try to get it out ASAP.  If you do not receive it in a timely manner, start posting everywhere on the internet to warn other players.  Some places you could try are the major poker forums:

2+2
PF.ORG
PokerForum.ca

If you are only playing here because you are american, STOP!  There are many other poker sites for Americans!

It really was a record breaking weekend at Pokerstars.com this past Sunday.  Many players logged in to take part in the historical largest ever online poker tournament which reached its capacity of 35,000 players!!!

Poker Stars put up $500k to ensure that the tournament met this number which gave players a nice overlay to sign-up and take a stab at the massive prize pool.  In the end, only one person could win it and that honor went to stan34powa from France.

Here are the final 10 from the World Record Event:
1. stan34powa $30,000
2. meiky777 $20,000
3. rumred14 $15,000
4. Goldman007 $10,000
5. Nekochan48 $7,500
6. gustave44 $5,000
7. n0ideahh $3,500
8. alepolice $2,500
9. ONE_TIMEE $2,000
10. FuFish $1,500

The world record event was not the only big draw this weekend.  Pokerstars also raised their guarantee on the Sunday Millions tournament from $1.5 Million to $2.5 Million.  16,260 players decided to take a stab at this life-changing prize which soared the prizepool to $3,252,000 (almost $1Million past the guaranteed amount!!!).

In the end, a player from Stockholm, Sweden under the alias lp_SakiSaki outlasted the field and no chop was made to split the prizepool up.  Here is what the final 10 players received:
1st place lp_SakiSaki ($331,378.80)
2nd place Beufford ($227,640)
3rd place MauryFishant ($162,600)
4th place k0rt ($130,080)
5th place manifest23 ($97,560)
6th place salmor ($73,170)
7th place AAmerican ($50,406)
8th place La_Alvarado ($32,520)
9th place kharak ($22,764)

Even the Sunday Warm-up Tournament had its largest ever number of players which brought the prize-pool to over 1 Million Dollars!

Finally, Pokerstars also hit a new record at approx 3:30 EST for most people logged on when their site reached an incredible 250,500!!!  Check out this screenshot:

If these aren’t enough reasons why Pokerstars is the #1 online poker site, then I don’t know what are!

So, I came accross an interesting graph on a poker forum of possibly one of the worst online poker players.  The player’s username is tomastomast and it seems that since he started playing poker on Full Tilt he has hardly ever won a game.

According to his chart he is down almost $120k since he started playing there.  If you feel you may have a similar graph I suggest you either:
1) Quit playing poker all-together
2) Sign-up for a poker training site and get some serious help
3) Seak professional help for what appears to be a horrible gambling addiction

Merry Xmas and hopefully you aren’t like tomastomast!

Ultimate Bet thought they could escape some of their past problems by moving to the Cereus Network (basically a combination of 2 corrupt poker sites: Absolute Poker and UB).  But, yesterday more issues arose when a very strange hand happened with one of their super-users pros, Phil Hellmuth.

Phil was playing heads-up limit with a player using the alias DOUBLEBALLER.  They had been playing for a bit, then suddenly this hand happened:

Stage #XXXXXXX: Holdem (1 on 1) Normal $200/$400 – 2008-12-20 04:15:23 (ET)
Table: FIR AVE (Real Money) Seat #4 is the dealer
Seat 4 – PHILHELLMUTH ($4495 in chips)
Seat 6 – DOUBLEBALLER ($7494 in chips)
PHILHELLMUTH – Posts small blind $100
DOUBLEBALLER – Posts big blind $200
*** POCKET CARDS ***
PHILHELLMUTH – Raises $300 to $400
DOUBLEBALLER – Raises $400 to $600
PHILHELLMUTH – Raises $400 to $800
DOUBLEBALLER – Calls $200
*** FLOP *** [Js Kc Kh]
DOUBLEBALLER – Checks
PHILHELLMUTH – Bets $200
DOUBLEBALLER – Raises $400 to $400
PHILHELLMUTH – Calls $200
*** TURN *** [Js Kc Kh] [2h]
DOUBLEBALLER – Bets $400
PHILHELLMUTH – Raises $800 to $800
DOUBLEBALLER – Raises $800 to $1200
PHILHELLMUTH – Calls $400
*** RIVER *** [Js Kc Kh 2h] [9c]
DOUBLEBALLER – Bets $400
PHILHELLMUTH – Calls $400
*** SHOW DOWN ***
DOUBLEBALLER – Shows [Kd Qh] (Three of a kind, kings)
PHILHELLMUTH – Mucks
PHILHELLMUTH Collects $5599 from main pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total Pot($5600) | Rake ($1)
Board [Js Kc Kh 2h 9c]
Seat 4: PHILHELLMUTH (dealer) (small blind) won Total ($5599) HI: ($5599) [Mucked] [2s 10s]
Seat 6: DOUBLEBALLER (big blind) HI:lost with Three of a kind, kings [Kd Qh - B:Kh,P:Kd,B:Kc,P:Qh,B:Js]

Here is the evidence:

Apparently mucking your cards can get you a win in a hand???  And also, Phil later confirmed that DOUBLEBALLER had the best hand in a chat:

DOUBLEBALLER: any idea what you are in for phil?
DOUBLEBALLER: it messed up my stack
PHILHELLMUTH: i think i bought 4k
PHILHELLMUTH: but not sure
DOUBLEBALLER: i won that had with KQ right?
DOUBLEBALLER: K K J board?
PHILHELLMUTH: yes U did

Poker players have been up in arms about this accross various internet poker forums, and fortunately the player in this hand was returned the money from this hand, but HOW THE HELL DOES THIS EVEN HAPPEN IN THE FIRST PLACE!!!  HOW MANY OTHER PLAYERS HAVE BEEN AFFECTED???

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again…. stay away from Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet… go play at Pokerstars instead or somewhere that doesn’t let this kind of crap happen!

/rant

On December 28th, 2008 at 15:30 EST Pokerstars will attempt to go for a new record in the Guiness Book of World Records and YOU can be part of it.  The tournament will be a $10 + $1 buy-in with a massive overlay.  In fact, Pokerstars is guaranteeing $500,000 and only allowing 35,000 players!!!!!  This means they will be putting up $150,000 of their own money to make this beneficial for all those that decide to play in this historic tournament.

The prizepool of the tournament will be as follows:
1st – $30,000
2nd – $20,000
3rd – $15,000
4th – $10,000
5th – $7,500
6th – $5,000
7th – $3,500
8th – $2,500
9th – $2,000
Last prize is 8750th for $20

The tournament will be No Limit Texas Holdem, with 3000 starting chips, and 10 minute blinds for the structure.

This tournament is guaranteed to fill up fast, so even if you aren’t sure if you can play I suggest at least registering at Pokerstars.com today to hold your spot.  If nothing else, you will at least have bragging rights to say that YOU were part of a world record.

If you don’t have an account at Pokerstars, sign up using our link and get $50 free on your first deposit!

A while ago we wrote about a pedophile scammer getting OWNED hard on the Internet.  So, I was playing a little 2/4 Limit on Poker stars tonight and noticed an interesting username:  NickNSX.

At first I thought, this name sounds real familiar so I googled it.  When I remembered where it was from, I thought that there was no way this guy would be dumb enough to show up on the Internet using that username, so I decided to ask him in the chat:

ME: OMG are you the famous NSX Nick?
NickNSX: wat do u want
ME: hahaha… it is u.. u sick child molestor
NickNSX: hahaha

Wow… so Nick does live.  If you haven’t heard of this story you gotta read that link above.  Definitely good for a laugh!

Here is the screenshot of his account:

Head over to Pokerstars and try and take Nick’s money!