Poker Blog and Poker Gossip

October, which made some players very rich, was very unlucky for others. The biggest loser of the month was Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, who lost around $1 million to Tom “durrrr” Dwan early this October during a highly exciting pot-limit Omaha tournament. Toward the end of October, Sahamies found that he was down at least $1.5 million.

Sahamies’ loss, however, was Dwan’s gain; since he won nearly $1 million from Sahamies, Dwan turned out as the biggest winner of October. Other top winners of October are Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen, Patrik Antonius, and Dan “Jungleman12” Cates, who found themselves richer by at least $500k or more.

By mid-October, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “jungleman12” Cates were the leading players at the high-stakes tables of Full Tilt Poker, having won more than $4 million each. Jungleman12’s wins were far more impressive, considering the fact that he had played only 590 sessions in comparison to Durrrr’s 4069. Following closely was Phil Ivey, who had added a cool $3 million to his poker bankroll, having played slightly over 47,000 hands at Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes tables.

Brian Townsend and Gus Hansen of Team Full Tilt Poker, however, were not having a great time. While Hansen lost more than $3.1 million, Brian Townsend lost over $3.8 million. Hansen is one of the most active high stakes player at Full Tilt Poker, and Townsend, who was once a dominating online poker player, is now at the losing end.

The early days of October were extremely exciting, with top poker talents such as Dwan and Sahamies confronting each other. However, the latter half of October, and especially the beginning of November, was very quiet. During the last few days, only Ben “Sauce 1234” Sulsky and luckexpress10 were able to provide some excitement at the high-stakes table of Full Tilt Poker.

Hmm..so, has anyone ever heard of the World Team Poker Event?  Me
either.. But apparently it’s a pretty big deal, and it’s happening on
May 19th. 

The tourney will take place at The Golden Nugget,
and will have team representation from China, Australia, Israel,
Vietnam, England, Brazil and Greece.  As you can imagine, some of the
biggest names in poker will be representing their countries.  The
events will be PLO, LimitHoldem and No Limit Holdem, but no word yet on structure, or weight of the games, weather cumulative, or if the No limit game will crown the best in the world.  

The team from the USA will have many well known faces as well, and be anchored by Phil Helmuth and Doyle Brunson. 
Phil brings the most World Series of Poker bracelets to his name (11 of
them!) to the team while Doyle, who is largely considered the
“Godfather” of modern poker brings years of experience and some recent
major tournament wins.   Unfortunately, Phil Hellmuth has been on a bit
of a down swing these past 2 years, and his last bracelet win was in
2007.  If it were me, i would be choosing a more stable player to
co-anchor with Texas Dolly.  The total bracelets for Team America is 47
and includes these huge poker names: Jennifer Harman, MikeMatusow, Allen Cunningham, Chris Ferguson, Erik Seidel, and the brother/sister combination of Howard Lederer and Annie Duke.

It’s a shame that Canada hasn’t announced a team yet.  Come on Negranu!

Because this is a tournament that is suppose to be determining the best in the world, there will be no satellites to the event, but as always you can satellite into World Series of Poker at any of the major poker rooms!

The
even will also be broadcast on TV but as yet, no one holds the rights
to broadcast. But seriously, has anyone ever heard of this?

Maybe in 3d? Probably not in 3D!

Pokerstars was first in the
race to announce their new show, calling it “The Big Game.”  It will
air on Fox, and looks to be a competitor and or out and out copy of
GSN’s High Stakes Poker.  Fox’s “The Big Game” will have a $200/$400
NLHE cash game with a $100,000 minimum buy in.  So far, Pokerstars and
Fox have only signed Daniel Negreanu to sit in on this game, and i’m
sure that we’ll be seeing a lot of big push advertising with him as the
main face.  This is kind of strange, because i could have sworn that
Negreanu had his own brand of poker to promote (he does, Full Contact
Poker…).  It also appears that “The Big Game” will not be a strictly
pro player paradise, instead, it will allow online qualifiers. 
Pokerstars (as it’s Pokerstar’s show) will be holding daily free rolls
until June 25th, and then the winners will move on to the Big Game
Final Round.  But it doesn’t end there!  If you make it to the top 200,
you then have the chance to send in a casting video, and make your
pitch directly to pokerstars as to why you should be on the show.  I’m
not sure i like that final twist, it seems like it takes the purity of
poker, and cheapens it with “hey, you don’t get to actually win
anything, just the CHANCE to send us a video about yourself!”  But,
hey, i’m sure it will appeal to some people.  Oh, and one final turn of
the knife from pokerstars?  If they do choose you to sit down at the
table, they’ll stake you $100,000, and you can even bring your own
money to the table (lucky us eh?), and get this? if you earn any profit
above the $100,000, you even get to keep it! If you turn a profit,
you’ll also be invited back the next episode.  Great.

When
Pokerstars announced their show, Full Tilt also announced their show. 
It is called “The Poker Lounge” and is a series of ten 6 handed sit n
go tourneys.  Each one has a $20,000 buy in, and the winner will walk
away with $120,000.  Full Tilt will also be allowing it’s players a
chance, although not through freeroll.  You will be able to win in a
$600+40 direct qualifier (next one is April 11).  Of course, you can
satellite into the $600 game.  Winners get $22,000…$20,000 for the
buy in to the tourney, and $2000 travel expenses (you have to get to
the tourney yourself!)  The Poker Lounge will be broadcast primarily in
Britain on Channel 4, and will likely make it’s way to GSN in the near
future.

Neither show is perfect, and me?  I’ll probably stick to High Stakes Poker.

The way Isildur1 plays, it almost seems like he doesn’t care.  Last week, he was up 2.1 million on his Pot Limit Omaha skills.  This week however, his bankroll took a giant $1,790,744 hit, and most of it to the man who took $4.2 million from him last year.

Isildur1 was up $845,000 at the close of the weekend, but then sat down at the table with Brian Hastings.  The two have a long history (4.2 mil last year to Hastings; Isildur took some of his 2.1 last week from Hastings), and when they start playing usually a lot of money switches hands.  Isildur1 was down $150,000 in the first 1500 hands of $500/$1000 PLO, and over the next 1200 hands Isildur1 dropped $1.6 million to Hastings.  But he wasn’t done yet.

Isildur1 sat down with Ilari Sahamies and while initally looking good and wining %65,000 on $200/$400 stakes, when they made the switch to $300/$600 stakes Isildur1′s cards ran cold and he dropped $350,000 to his opponent.  At this point Isildur1 dropped down in stakes and played Cole South on the $25/$50 tables, and again was bested.  This time for a paltry $30,000 (i’m kind of being sarcastic there…30,000 is what a lot of people live on in a year…that blows my mind.)

With his total losses nearing 2 million, i’m wondering if we’re going to see another hiatus for Isildur1.  When he lost his 4.2 million last year, he disappeared from the tables for a while.  If he does take a break, i’m sure it wont be for long.  The man likes to throw his money around.

I dont want to mislead anyone, Isildur1 hasn’t exactly left the tables.  After taking a Five Million dollar hit in the highly publicised few weeks when he was playing anyone and everyone who wanted a piece of the action, Isildur1 had kind of faded.  Little to no news of his wild swings, or taking a pro down a few pegs.  That has changed today.  And it has changed on Pot Limit Omaha.

Over the last two days playing the highest stakes tables at PLO (pot-limit Omaha) Isildur1 has taken more than 2.2 Million from the very pros who were lining up when he started to run bad a few months back.  His first victim was Cole South.  They started at the $100/$200 PLO table, but with Isildur1 never dropping below his buy in, they quickly moved up the $300/$600 tables.  South blinked after losing more than $700,000 to Isildur1 before calling it quits. Isildur1 then upped the stakes and went after Brian Hastings.  At the $500/$1000 table Hastings dropped $500,000 before calling it a night. 

Isildur1′s identity is still a mystery, however it is well known that he hails from Sweden.  In the past, NLHE has been his game of choice, so it’s nice seeing him switch up his games and having so much success!  Isildur1′s fame rose when he played Tom “Durrr” Dwan over multiple days in the “nosebleed” section of Full Tiit Poker’s high stakes tables.  Isildur1 seemed unstoppable…until he was stopped…repeatedly by a line-up of seasoned pros that were able to take him apart piece by piece. 

I wonder how this new run of luck / skill will play out for the Sweed?

With AJ Benza getting unceremoniously canned from High Stakes Poker, GSN has been a bit coy about rumors of a female replacment co-host.  Until today.  It was announed on Pokernew.com that Kara Scott would fill the role for the upcoming season.

Kara will work with Gabe Kaplin, analyzing hands and being the poker “Expert” on the show.  And she is not without the experience.  She has written articles for “Flush” and Poker Player Magazine, while simultaniously hosting “Poker Night Live.”  In 2007 and 2008 Kara hosted the European Poker Tour.

After placing 104th in the 2008 World Series of Poker ($10,000 buy in main event) Kara announce that she would be leaving her job at Sky Poker to concentrate on a career as a poker professional.  While she is the sescond woman to cash in consecutive WSOP main events, the whole concentrating on being a poker professional must not have worked out so well for her.

I’m not sure what prompted AJ Benza’s firing, but High Stakes poker was one of my favorite shows, with some of the best insight and hand analysis out ther.  I hope that going in this direction (after 5 successful seasons) wont damage the show’s watchability!