Stars Sunday Million

This weekend, 6,856 players put up the $200+$15 entry for PokerStars' Sunday Million tournament. The $1,371,200 prize pool was down from last weeks event.
As play reached the final table, a diverse group of players from all over the globe found themselves fighting for the prize. 2007 WCOOP 3rd place finisher "Helmetsky" was in the mix but went out in 9th place. Australian PKerBL took down the event without a deal to win $193,339.20.

FTOPS VIII

Event #4, $200+$16 Pot Limit Hold'em

Marco Traniello was the host for FTOPS VIII Event #4, the $200+$16 buy-in Pot Limit Hold'em tournament. A total of 1,076 registered making for a $215,200 prize pool.

Top online tournament player "Kenny Rap" had a good chance to take this event, but eventually fell short in 3rd. EMSBas came out on top claiming the $48,420 first place prize and the prestigious FTOPS title.

Final Table Payouts:

Mind, Body, and Spirit

FTOPS VIII

Event #2, $240+$16 Pot Limit Omaha Knockout

Max Pescatori was the host for FTOPS VIII Event #2, the Pot Limit Omaha Knockout tournament. A total of 1,070 players entered, creating a total prize pool of $214,000. Whothedonk came out on top in the end to take home $48,150, and a prestigious gold FTOPS avatar.

Top cash game player and longtime NWP member "reggiman" (player name UPlayPoker) had a big chip stack with 50 left, and a rail-full of NWPers, but ran into a few coolers, eventually busting in 33rd when his KKA9 ds ran into AAQT.

FTOPS VIII

Event #1, $200+$16 No Limit Hold'em 6-Max

Full Tilt's popular FTOPS Series returned in impressive fashion as it's kick-off event on Wednesday night drew a massive 4,148 person field. First place was guaranteed nearly $160,000, and many of the top Full Tilt pros had registered for the tournament.

2007 Cardplayer Online Player of the Year Isaac "the guru 11" Baron took down this event in impressive fashion. Baron came into the final table as chipleader and dominated the action to win a prestigious gold avatar and FTOPS VIII Event #1.

Remember the Absolute Poker Superuser Scandal of 2007? You know, the one where their founders and top executives were playing on special accounts where they could see your hole cards, and they stole $1.6 million from the players, including $15k from yours truly? Of course you do! It was all over the online forums!
However, much less-mentioned was the fact that Ultimatebet had a scandal, too, also involving a very similar situation with superusers at high limit games in mid-late 2007.
Why is the poker media ignoring this for the most part? Are the major poker magazines and news websites basically conceding that advertising money is more important than reporting the biggest and most egregious cheating scandal to ever hit poker?

PokerStars Sunday Million

Attendance has been down for the Sunday Million in recent weeks, and this trend continued last Sunday on PokerStars, with a total 7,001 entrants. The prize pool was $1.4 million, and the tournament drew to its close with a final table of primarily unknown names. Iron Henry defeated ShankingYouin to win the prestigious weekly title. A deal was made when play got to heads up.

Final Table Payouts (full story after the jump):

PoolStars is now offering a WSOP freeroll pool tournament.

PoolStars is offering a wonderful opportunity for the 9-ball playing inclined. They are offering a virtual pool tournament to the main event of the World Series of Poker. The entry is free and all you need to do to join in the action is to register as a member. The free membership allows you to participate in every facet of Poolstars.

The site is running many great promotions still as part of its beta testing phase. You can win cash prizes for creating trick shots, or being the most active member in the play money games. There is also a weekly leaderboard where the top players face off every Sunday in a 64 player tournament for $300.

What the monkey fuck is Jeffrey Pollack smoking? How on earth could you play a poker tournament down to 9 players then wait 4 months to play down to 2, then wait another day to crown a champ? That is exactly what will happen for this year's main event. Imagine the shenanigans that will go down in those 4 months. Deals will be made, players will study each other, money you don't have yet will be lost. I really hope the heads up match lasts 1 hand. Or what if the tournament ends with the final 3 players going all in and the chip leader wins the hand? Talk about it in the forums.

We all play poker, but most of us have other gambling interests/habits, as well. So if you're going to play other games, why not play them right?

Tonight's subject on the Dan Druff +EV Radio Show is Blackjack, where you will learn all about the game, how to beat it, and even get a crash course in card counting!

We also have 2 great guests tonight -- legendary modern blackjack player Hollywood Dave Stann, and "Viola", a female professional blackjack player who took part in a card counting team from 2001 until recently.

Follow all the action on the official thread for the show!

Does the picture of David Chiu scare you like it scares me? I was shocked to see the front of Cardplayer draped in a Chinese flag after the WPT. Of course David is from China, but when a country is fucking up as much as China I wouldn't be draping myself in that flag, even if I was from there. China has been fucking with Tibet for about a minute, and they make all of the world's socks because they basically enslave their people. While the USA is a little bit off track right now with the whole Iraq thing and other various Bush-based fuck ups, it is nothing like the scene going on in China.

PokerStars Sunday Million

This week was PokerStars' monthly $500+$30 buy-in event. This higher buy-in event attracts fewer weekly players, but tends to bring in the very best online players, and consistently has a huge first place prize. The total prize pool reached over $1.5 million, and the first place prize was $272,132.75.

When play became five-handed, the remaining participants made a deal to chop: KipsterDK came out with the official victory in the end, defeating well-known online tournament player Matt "plattsburgh" Vengrin in heads up play.

Join us for NWP radio when we have Mark "Newhizzle" Newhouse in studio (Micon's luxury apartment) for reactions to the 'Hizzle Drinking Spectacular Video and other current 'Hizzle-based issues. Don't want to miss this episode and congrats to 'Hizzle (and Bryan Devonshire again btw) on your deep run in the sicko WPT $25k field. Kids please party responsibly - seriously.

Congressmen Fight for Online Gambling

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) continues to prevent transfer of money for online gambling, but unrest among politicians and law makers keeps hope in sight for poker players. Last year Barney Frank introduced the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act, which aims to allow online gambling at a Federal level. Unfortunately, that bill is stuck in committee. However, this month Ron Paul, Barney Frank, Peter King, and Luis V. Gutierrez have all come together with a common cause - to pull the plug on the UIGEA once and for all.