Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

Vadzim Kursevich emerged as the champion of the Deauville Main Event of PokerStars.fr European Poker Tour (EPT) 2012, after beating a huge field of 889 players. He rose from the main event final table, which came to an end on Monday night, with a large prize of EUR875,000.

When the finals commenced, Mick Graydon who held the shortest stack of chips was knocked off after two hours. The chip leader at the time was Paul Guichard. The next poker player to be knocked off the table was Luca Pagao, a member of Team PokerStars Pro. Olivier Rogez and Bruno Jais finished in the sixth and fifth places, respectively.

This was followed by a one-hour break after which the game commenced, more exciting than ever. This time Trong was the chip leader, but he lost most of them to Kursevich during the course of the game. With Trong off the table, Kursevich could concentrate on defeating all the short-stacked players at the table. Thus, Yorane Kerignard found himself out of the game.

During the final phase of the tournament, Guichard and Kursevich were left playing heads-up against each other. Although Kursevich had the larger stack of chips, Guichard played so well that the chip stacks appeared more or less equal. However, the odds worked in Kursevich’s favor, and since he displayed a stronger hand, the tournament came to an end with Kursevich finishing first and Guichard finishing second.

According to the final results, the champion of the game Vadzim Kursevich won a cool prize of €875,000. Paul Guichard, who finished second, and Vuong Than Trong, who finished third, won €557,000 and €328,000, respectively.

Yorane Keringnard, Bruno Jais, and Olivier Rogez, who finished fourth, fifth, and sixth won €260,000, €200,000, and €155,000, respectively. Luca Pagano and Mick Graydon, who finished seventh and eight won €110,000 and €67,200, respectively.

Daniel Negreanu has moved back to Canada so that he can continue playing at PokerStars. He has also advised US poker players to seriously consider migrating to a country that allows people to play online poker in the comforts of home.

He said that players can always move back to the US if things get better there, but right now, the only option left for US online poker players is to move out of the country so that they can continue with their lucrative career. Negreanu has also advised all poker pros to adapt to the changing face of poker.

However, Negreanu might miss several events of the World Poker Tour (WPT) because he does not plan to return to the US for a long time. He plans to return in late October, after which he intends to play some Leaf games in Canada, play online poker, and then spend Christmas with his family.

He says that he plans to participate in the European Poker Tour (EPT) and will be heading over to Barcelona on September 26 to participate in the EPT Barcelona. He will then be playing the WCOOP on PokerStars, after which he will spend a week in Montenegro and then visit Budapest. There are rumors that Daniel Negreanu is currently in a relationship with Krisztina Polgar, the Miss Earth Hungary of 2008.

He plans to participate in EPT London in late September, spend 3 weeks in Cannes to play in WSOPE, after which he will play the EPT San Remo.

This means that he will miss many of the events of WPT, Season X, including the Borgata Poker Open, scheduled to be held in Atlantic City; the WPT finals, scheduled to be held in Connecticut; and the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, scheduled to be held in December at Bellagio.

Daniel Negreanu was not in the least bit happy with Martin Hruby’s style of game play at the European Poker Tour main event table. He called Hruby out on his slowroll soon after he was eliminated from the EPT, losing his shot at the Triple Poker Crown.

“Why did you slowroll that hand? You knew that you had the nuts,” Negreanu asked Hruby. As he was leaving the table, Negreanu commented, “I shouldn’t shake your hand, it’s filthy. That’s the filthiest thing I’ve ever seen, but I’ll do it anyway.” Although said with a smile, it was obvious that Daniel Negreanu considered Martin Hruby’s behavior at the European Poker Tour main event table to be a breach of etiquette.

When asked about his slowroll, Martin Hruby appeared a bit baffled by the question and answered in a mutter that he did not. “I don’t slow-roll,” he said.

Daniel Negreanu finished the European Poker Tour in fourth place but was sportive enough to remark that he would not have won the European Poker Tour main event no matter how Hruby played his hand. Negreanu was later interviewed by the popular German poker website Hochgepokert.de in which he comments on Martin Hruby’s behavior at the EPT main event table. Here, Negreanu stated that he did not think that the Hungarian poker professional Martin Hruby had made the slowroll on purpose but believed that it had stemmed from the player’s lack of experience at being on such a large stage.

Although there is nothing in the poker regulations that disqualify Martin Hruby’s slowroll, as slow rolling is well within a player’s rights; it is not considered to be the norm when playing professional poker. Many poker players consider it to be a breach of etiquette. However, in Martin Hruby’s defense, it is extremely understandable that the player should have been a bit hesitant about putting such a big bet on the table, especially considering what was at stake.

Daniel Negreanu, an accomplished poker professional with World Series of Poker and World Poker Tour titles is now out to get the European Poker Tour title at the Vienna tourney. If Negreanu manages to win the EPT Vienna 2010, then this victory will win him the illustrious Poker Triple Crown award, which is a title of recognition given to players who have won titles in the World Series of Poker (WSOP), World Poker Tour (WPT) an the European Poker Tour (EPT).

This victory will be the final feather in his cap and will complete his qualification required for the Poker Triple Crown award. Currently, Daniel Negreanu has already managed to secure 4 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets and 2 World Poker Tour titles; all that is remiss is an EPT title. Negreanu is now in the lead in the EPT and it would appear that he is well on his way to taking home the Poker Triple Crown award this year. “My EPT history hasn’t been good. I finally got my first ever EPT cash in London, and this one is my second in a row, but I’m looking for a win here considering my chip position,” Negreanu commented.

So far, there have been only 2 poker players who have won the Poker Triple Crown award and this includes Roland de Wolfe and Gavin Griffin. If Daniel Negreanu should win the EPT, it will make him the third poker player in this league of extraordinary poker players.

Since Daniel Negreanu is currently the chip leader at the EPT Vienna 2010, he is very excited about the possible outcome. “Being chip leader is just sexy. It’s been a while since I had some luck late in tourneys and I’ve been deep quite a bit. Well, I was certainly lucky in the late stages of EPT Vienna…So while I’d like to claim that I skilled my way to the chip lead I’d be lying… but hey, I’m not complaining and I’ll take it anyway I can,” he said.

David Vamplew, a 23 year old poker player from Scotland made the poker community sit up and take notice as he defeated WSOP winner John Juanda in the EPT main event. Many players expected Juanda to win the event as he already had a title to his name and was thought to be the better experienced player of the two.

Although he was defeated by Vamplew at the European Poker Tour in London, Juanda did not appear to be too disheartened by his loss and tweeted, “Finished 2nd in EPT London (£500,000). Not too bad for 5 days work! Congrats to the Champ David Vamplew. Thank you all for rooting 4 me!”

Vamplew made it 848 players at the European Poker Tour and won £900,000 as his prize. Vamplew appears to be a very cool headed player and although he was happy to play against Juanda he appeared to take everything in a very calm manner. “I wasn’t looking to play a lot of big pots against Juanda. I just think that there wasn’t any need to get into three-betting or four-betting wars … I enjoyed playing heads-up against him a lot,” Vamplew commented after his EPT victory.

After he won the EPT London Main Event, David Vamplew took full advantage of his winning streak and participated in the UK and Ireland Poker Tour Champion of Champions (UKIPT) event and ended up winning that too. This was a televised event that featured some of the past season winners and saw David Vamplew compete against some strong poker guns like Jamie Burland, Gilles Augustus and Andrew Couldridge. Jamie Burland was defeated by Vamplew and commented on it; “I hoped David would get tired after yesterday,” said Burland afterward. “But…he played really good,” he said.

Indeed, David Vamplew played his hands very well at the table and took in £50,000 worth of prize money and a ticket to all the events in the UKIPT tour in 2011. Vamplew himself was nothing short of pleased after his two wins and said, “It’s pretty good; after yesterday, it’s icing on the cake.”

The Poker Stars European Poker Tour kicks off today at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino in London. With only 24 players remaining in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, many are expected to head over and pick up where they left off in this event. With so many known professional players and online phenoms still in town, this may well be a nice event.

In a bit of irony, there are so many Full Tilt Pro’s left in the WSOPE that Poker Stars may steal the show with the most logo’s on display by players. John Juanda, Brian Townsend, Scott Fischman, Brandon Adams, Mike Matusosw, Eric Siedel, and Andy Bloch are all left in the WSOPE and all fly the Full Tilt Poker colors.

The Main Event will be followed with the EPT London £1 Million Showdown, an interesting format limited to only 100 players. Played over the course of two days, the event has a £1 Million guaranteed prize pool.

This last years EPT London Main Event had 392 entries with a £611,500 prize pool. The top 32 players were paid and Joseph Mouwad from Lebanon was the Champion.