Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Kevin Stani, a Norwegian poker player appears to have decimated his opponents at the European Poker Tour (EPT) held in Tallinn, Estonia knocking out more than four of the final table players including Arnaud Mattern, the noted French poker player.

Fans of Arnaud Mattern were excited to see that the Frenchman had a good chip lead in the early part of the day and estimated that he would the EPT that day, especially since he already has got one EPT win to his name. However, Mattern’s luck ran out as he played the turn and the river which saw him drop from his first place lead to third place, while Konstantin Bilyauer, a Russian poker player took second.

Should he have won the EPT 2010 held in Tallinn, Arnaud Mattern would have made poker history as the first player to have won two EPT titles. Instead, it was Kevin Stani who took home the honors adding €400,000 to his poker bankroll.

When the day began, Arnaud Mattern was in the lead and he was closely followed by Konstantin Bilyauer. Stani progressed steadily surely and eventually ousted both of them from their comfort zones before he took the first. Stani increased his bankroll while removing players like Dmitry Vitkind and Steven van Zadelhoff from the game. Zadelhoff was pushed into sixth place when he left the game and was quickly followed by Dmitry Vitkind, whose earning qualified him for fourth place.

Konstantin Bilyauer took in €250,000 and came in second while Arnaud Mattern fell in to third place with €160,000 in winnings.

Other players who placed in the money included Dmitry Vitkind who took in €120,000, Mikko Jaatinen who ended up earning €80,000 and Steven van Zadelhoff who only won €63,000. Other noted players were Nicolo Calia and Bassam Elnajjar both of whom took in less than €50,000, with Calia earning €47,000 and Elnajjar getting €47,000.

The next EPT will be held at Vilamoura, Portugal.

With 2009 coming to an end Tonight, i was asking myself what is the biggest poker story of the year??? I have spoken a lot on this blog about theUIGEA and how the PPA lobbying group delayed the compliance deadline.  But 2009 has been a banner year for the high stakes online poker scene with Isildur1 vs. durrrr, and 2009 has crowned the youngest WSOP Main Event Champ in it’s history. 

UIGEA Deadline Delayed
Not much has happened in the last month or so with the UIGEA deadline.  At the beginning of December Barney Frank and the PPA were successful in getting Treasury Secretary Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Bernake to delay the deadline by 6 months (to June 2010), essentially preserving on-line poker in the United States, and giving necessary time for “further research” into on-line gaming.  This move is huge, as it’s widely believed to be a shift in thinking toward on-line poker (basically a cash grab for the government), but more importantly it allows on-line players to continue playing in the states without interruption.  Look for developments in this story as 2010 will see further debate and hopefully strong legislation to legalize and regulate on-line poker (instead of criminalize and stop it). 

Isildur1
Isildur1, the unknown Scandinavian, ignited the high stakes tables at Full Tilt poker this fall, and during his rise to super-stardom in the on-line poker world, took down Tom “Durrrr” Dwan.  There was huge coverage of these back and forth battles, and even records set for largest on-line poker win in a single hand, and we sawDurrrr drop down in stakes to rebuild his bankroll.  The end of 2009 was not so rosey for Isildur1, as Phil Ivey and others took note of his play and the wildest swings ever seen by on-line poker resulted.  While this story is far from overIsildur1 changed the way high stakes poker is played on-line.

Youngest Champ in History
This could have been the section i talked about a man who hadn’t played on-line poker, but won the WSOP without a sponsor.  But it’s not.  This is the story of the youngest ever winner of the WSOP main event.  Joe Cada beat out an impressive “November Nine” final table that included huge chip stacks (Darvin Moon), a very seasoned poker pro, who was on everyone’s list to win it (Phil Ivey) and a hole host of others.  Since winning Joe became an excellent ambassador for online poker, appearing on many late night programs and generally helping to bring poker into the mainstream spotlight.

So goodbye 2009. We had some big wins, some records broken, and some losses.  But overall, in 2009 the world of poker continued to push into the lives and living rooms of more and more people, and i can’t see that trend ebbing in 2010…we’ll have to wait and see though!

I have been a little lazy updating the blog the past few days because I have been very busy with Christmas shopping and spending time with the family (something I don’t do enough of).  So I just wanted to take the time to wish everyone (and their families) a Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays.  Check out this awsome vid from last xmas:

I am happy to announce that I will be running the first ever BankrollBoost.com / FuzionPoker.com freeroll 3 weeks from today. Here are the details:

Date: Sunday December 9th, 2007
Time: 15:00 EST (19:00 GMT / 12:00 MST)
Registration: Send a PM to Graham on Fuzion Poker with your username at Carbon Poker. If you don’t have one, you can create one here. This will ensure that the password does not get leaked keeping the player field very small, and more money for the winners!
Registration Closes: Friday, December 7th, 2007 – Unfortunately late submissions will not be allowed to play in this event because I have to send them the player list 2 days before the tournament.
Requirements: You must make at least 10 new posts in the Fuzion Poker Forum before the registration closes for the tournament.
Prizes: $200 Prize Pool + $25 bounty on me (I will send you the money to your player account).  I am pushing to get some additional prizes for the top 3 players (ie some tournament entries, but I still need to confirm this with my contact).
The Game: No Limit Holdem. 2000 Starting Chips.

If you have never played at Carbon Poker before, it runs on the same network and is owned by Poker.com.  Their software is really simple, clean looking and easy to use.  I like it a lot.  I am going to write a better review shortly, but for now, here is a screenshot of their software:

Any more questions?

Sign up now at Carbon Poker. Please use our link to help support the tournament so that we can continue to bring you great tournaments like this one!

Who doesn’t like free stuff?

As part of the launch of my new poker forum, I will be giving away some free poker swag to members that make the best posts from now until the end of December.  This means free t-shirts, DVDs, books, or anything else that I have that i can give away!  Happy Holidays!

Details can be found here, so sign up today and get posting! 

Happy Holidays

I have recently purchased another poker site called FuzionPoker.com.  This will be the home of the Bankroll Boost Poker Forum.  The site already has almost 3000 members and with some hard work, I hope to grow the site to a lot more!

We will be running several poker freerolls, as well as money added tournaments and eventually our own Poker League.

Sign up to date to keep posted on these great events.  If there is anything that you would like to see, or if you have any recommendations I would love to hear them!

Thanks,

Graham