Poker52 Europa - n7 - Septermber/October 2012

www.poker52europa.comN°7

SEPTEMBER /OCTOBER 2012

UPCOMING TOURNAMENTS

TOURNAMENTDIRECTOR SERIES

WPT & EMOP BarcelonaCAPT & Poker EM BadenWPT CopenhagenMarrakech Poker Open XXVIIEPT PragueWPT Malta

The ISPT Ambassador

MICHAEL MIZRACHI

Show and Take,Last Live Handor Split Pot?

EXCLUSIVE EUROPEAN RANKINGS

CHRONICLES

Kara Scott Doyle Brunson Victoria CorenJake Cody

EXCLUSIVE EUROPEAN RANKINGS

PK52EURO_COUV_N7.indd 1 20/08/12 20:15


Open every day from 2pm to 6am,Correct dress code, Over 18s,104 avenue des Champs Elysées, 75008 Paris - France Tel : +33 (0) 1 45 62 26 [email protected]

PARIS ACFHOLD’EM SERIES

Friday, Nov. 16th 2:30pm Satellite for 1000 € NLH tournament € 50 Rebuys 1H + 1 Add-on 8pm Satellite for 1000 € NLH tournament € 150 Freezeout

Saturday, Nov. 17th 2:30pm No limit Hold’Em (2 day event) € 1 000 Freezeout

Sunday, Nov. 18th 2:30pm Super Satellite for the 350 € NLH satellite on 27th or 29th € 50 Freezeout 4pm 1 000 € NLH day 2 8pm Mixed Pot Limit and No Limit tournament €200 Freezeout

Monday, Nov. 19th 2:30pm Super Satellite for the 350 € NLH satellite on 27th or 29th € 50 Freezeout 8pm Bounty Killer € 250 Bounty € 300 Freezeout

Tuesday, Nov. 20th 2:30pm Super Satellite for the 350 € NLH satellite on 27th or 29th € 50 Freezeout 8pm Satellite for the 3000 € NLH tourn. € 350 Freezeout

Wed., Nov. 21st 2:30pm Satellite for the 500 € NLH tournament € 50 Rebuys 1H + 1 Add-on 8pm No limit Hold’Em (2 day event) € 500 Freezeout

Thursday, Nov.22nd 2:30pm Super Satellite for the 350 € NLH satellite on 29h € 50 Freezeout 4pm 500 € NLH Final 8pm Satellite for the 3000 € NLH tournament € 350 Freezeout

Friday, Nov. 23rd 2:30pm No Limit Hold’Em - Main Event Day 1 (3 day event) € 3 000 Freezeout

Saturday, Nov. 24th 2:30pm No Limit Hold’Em - Main Event - Day 2

Sunday, Nov. 25TH 2:30pm Deepstack Tournament € 200 Freezeout 4pm No Limit Hold’Em - Main Event - Day 3 - Final 8pm WPT Mazagan € 3 500 Satellite € 500 Freezeout

Vous allez aimer jouer

Online qualifi cations on

from November 16th

to November 25th

THE FINEST TEXAS HOLD’EM PLAYERSWANTED

TEXAS HOLD’EM PLAYERSTEXAS HOLD’EM PLAYERSTEXAS HOLD’EM PLAYERS

Hold'emUK420x297.indd 1 19/08/12 09:04

Open every day from 2pm to 6am,Correct dress code, Over 18s,104 avenue des Champs Elysées, 75008 Paris - France Tel : +33 (0) 1 45 62 26 [email protected]

PARIS ACFHOLD’EM SERIES

Friday, Nov. 16th 2:30pm Satellite for 1000 € NLH tournament € 50 Rebuys 1H + 1 Add-on 8pm Satellite for 1000 € NLH tournament € 150 Freezeout

Saturday, Nov. 17th 2:30pm No limit Hold’Em (2 day event) € 1 000 Freezeout

Sunday, Nov. 18th 2:30pm Super Satellite for the 350 € NLH satellite on 27th or 29th € 50 Freezeout 4pm 1 000 € NLH day 2 8pm Mixed Pot Limit and No Limit tournament €200 Freezeout

Monday, Nov. 19th 2:30pm Super Satellite for the 350 € NLH satellite on 27th or 29th € 50 Freezeout 8pm Bounty Killer € 250 Bounty € 300 Freezeout

Tuesday, Nov. 20th 2:30pm Super Satellite for the 350 € NLH satellite on 27th or 29th € 50 Freezeout 8pm Satellite for the 3000 € NLH tourn. € 350 Freezeout

Wed., Nov. 21st 2:30pm Satellite for the 500 € NLH tournament € 50 Rebuys 1H + 1 Add-on 8pm No limit Hold’Em (2 day event) € 500 Freezeout

Thursday, Nov.22nd 2:30pm Super Satellite for the 350 € NLH satellite on 29h € 50 Freezeout 4pm 500 € NLH Final 8pm Satellite for the 3000 € NLH tournament € 350 Freezeout

Friday, Nov. 23rd 2:30pm No Limit Hold’Em - Main Event Day 1 (3 day event) € 3 000 Freezeout

Saturday, Nov. 24th 2:30pm No Limit Hold’Em - Main Event - Day 2

Sunday, Nov. 25TH 2:30pm Deepstack Tournament € 200 Freezeout 4pm No Limit Hold’Em - Main Event - Day 3 - Final 8pm WPT Mazagan € 3 500 Satellite € 500 Freezeout

Vous allez aimer jouer

Online qualifi cations on

from November 16th

to November 25th

THE FINEST TEXAS HOLD’EM PLAYERSWANTED

TEXAS HOLD’EM PLAYERSTEXAS HOLD’EM PLAYERSTEXAS HOLD’EM PLAYERS

Hold'emUK420x297.indd 1 19/08/12 09:04

THE BIGGERTHE STAR, THEBETTER THESTAGE.

ARIA IS SERIOUS PLAY.

866.359.7111 • 702.590.7230 • Ar iaLasVegas.com • facebook .com/ARIApoker • twi t t er.com/ARIApoker

Dear Readers,

Poker is getting bigger and bigger in each country on the continent, and next year’s big event will surely be the ISPT

After some wonderful WSOP which saw European players make history – including Englishman Sam Trickett, whose second place finish in the Big One sets him at the top of the Hendon Mob European Money List – it is time for most players to head back out on the poker trail. And this fall an incredible array of tournaments awaits them. Keep in mind that for Main Events such as the PPT Finale, the WPT Grand Prix de Paris and the WSOP-Europe in Cannes, you’d better have a five-figure poker bankroll handy for September, so manage your finances wisely…

Poker lovers will also be able to play a lot of World Poker Tour stops in the coming months (sunny Malta, magnificent Copenhagen, outlandish Barcelona, etc.) as well as the European Poker Tour, whose second stop in San Remo will undoubtedly set EPT records for attendance, then Prague. Morocco will host the wonderful Marrakech Poker Open at Casino Es Saadi, as well as, the FPS in Mazagan. The CAPT will host its annual finale; plus numerous middle-stakes tournaments will be held all over Europe. Poker is getting bigger and bigger in each country on the continent, and next year’s big event will surely be the ISPT, a gigantic tournament which will be held in May, 2013 at Wembley Stadium; in this issue Michael Mizrachi, recent winner of the WSOP 50,000$ Players Championship, gives the lowdown on this incredible project.

Good luck at the tables!

EDITOrIal

5POKER 52 europa // SePTember-ocTober 2012 // ISSUe 7

SEPTEMBER 21 - OCTOBER 4, 2012CaSinO LE CROiSETTE - HôTEL MajESTiC BaRRièRE - CannES

Entries into the World Series Of Poker Europe is strictly prohibited for minors (under 18), even those legally emancipated, persons not authorized to play, persons subject to a measure of exclusion by casino management or a voluntary restriction of access.

All players will be required to provide a valid picture ID or passport. Proper attire required.

20/09/2012 9:00 PM TURBO CASH e 300 + e 30

21/09/2012 10:00 PM 10 O’CLOCK TURBO CASH e 500 + e 50

22/09/20124:00 PM TURBO CASH e 300 + e 30

10:00 PM 10 O’CLOCK TURBO CASH : KnOCKOUT + RAndOm BOUnTy e 400 + e 50 + e 50 + e 50

23/09/20124:00 PM TURBO CASH e 300 + e 30

10:00 PM 10 O’CLOCK TURBO CASH e 500 + e 50

24/09/2012 10:00 PM 10 O’CLOCK TURBO CASH : KnOCKOUT + RAndOm BOUnTy e 400 + e 50 + e 50 + e 50


26/09/2012 4:00 PM CASH e 400 + e 40





30/09/20124:00 PM CASH e 600 + e 60

10:00 PM 10 O’CLOCK TURBO CASH pOT LimiT OmAHA e 500 + e 50 (Omaha)

01/10 - 02/10/2012 2:00 PM CASH mEGA dEEpSTACK e 1 800 + e 200

01/10/20124:00 PM CASH miXEd mAX e 1 000 + e 100


02/10/20126:00 PM CASH e 700 + e 70


03/10 - 04/10/2012 2:00 PM CASH dEEpSTACK e 900 + e 100

03/10/20126:00 PM TURBO CASH 6 mAX e 5 000 + e 300


04/10/20122:00 PM mini mAin e 5 000 + e 300

4:00 PM TURBO CASH e 500 + e 50

Information & registrations : www.wsop.com

Des

ign

: ww

w.th

omas

oak.

fr

20/09/2012

4:00 PM SAT TO SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°1 (6 Max No Limit Hold’Em) e 40 + e 15 (Unlimited rebuys)

6:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°1 (6 Max No Limit Hold’Em) e 270 + e 30 (Freezeout)

21/09/2012

2:00 PM TURBO SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°1 (6 Max No Limit Hold’Em) e 270 + e 30 (Freezeout)

8:00 PM SAT TO Any E 1 100 TOURnAmEnT (Super Sat or NLH Bracelet Event or Cash Mixed Max) e 130 + e 20 (2 Rebuys + 1 Dble Add On)

11:00 PM mOOnLiGHT SAT : HyPER TURbO bUIlD yOUR bAnkROll (4 Tickets e 550 40 players max.) e 60 + e 15 (Freezeout)

22/09/2012

2:00 PM SAT TO SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°3 (Pot Limit Omaha) e 50 + e 15 (Unlimited rebuys - Omaha)

6:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°3 (Pot Limit Omaha) e 500 + e 50 (1 Dble Add On - Omaha)



23/09/2012


8:00 PM SAT TO Any E 1 100 TOURnAmEnT (Super Sat or Cash Mixed Max) e 130 + e 20 (2 Rebuys + 1 Dble Add On)


24/09/2012

4:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°4 (Shootout No Limit Hold’Em) e 500 + e 50 (Freezeout)

6:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°7 (WSOPE Main Event) e 500 + e 50 (1 Dble Add On)



25/09/2012

4:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°5 (Mixed Max (9-6-2)) e 1 000 + e 100 (Freezeout)




26/09/2012


8:00 PM SAT TO BRACELET n°6 (6 Max Pot Limit Omaha) e 270 + e 30 (Freezeout - Omaha)


27/09/2012


8:00 PM SAT TO Any E 1 100 TOURnAmEnT (Super Sat or Cash Mixed Max) e 130 + e 20 (2 Rebuys + 1Dble Add On)


28/09/2012

2:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°7 (WSOPE Main Event) e 1 000 + e 100 (Freezeout)


8:00 PM SAT TO WSOpE LAdiES EVEnT e 50 + e 15 (2 Rebuys + 1 Dble Add On)


29/09/2012

4:00 PM LAST CHAnCE SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°7 (WSOPE Main Event DAY 1B) e 1 000 + e 100 (Freezeout)

8:00 PM SAT TO SUpER SAT TO THE WSOpE mAJESTiC HiGH ROLLER e 500 + e 50 (1 Dble Add On)


30/09/2012


8:00 PM SUpER SAT TO THE WSOpE mAJESTiC HiGH ROLLER e 5 000 + e 300 (Freezeout)


01/10/20128:00 PM SUpER SAT TO THE WSOpE mAJESTiC HiGH ROLLER e 5 000 + e 300 (Freezeout)


02/10/20128:00 PM SAT TO E 1 000 CASH dEEpSTACK e 100 + e 20 (2 Rebuys + 1 Dble Add On)


03/10/20128:00 PM SAT TO E 5 300 mini mAin e 500 + e 50 (1 Dble Add On)

11:00 PM mOOnLiGHT SAT TO LAST dAy E 550 TURBO CASH e 60 + e 15 (Freezeout)

World Series Of Poker Europe and WSOPE are trademarks of Caesars Interactive Entertainment Inc.

SATELLITES

SIdE EvEnTS

Jouer comporte des risques : endettement, dépendance... Appelez le 09 74 75 13 13 (appel non surtaxé)

SpEcIAL EvEnT

21-23 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 1 6 mAX nO LimiT HOLd’Em e 2 500 + e 200

22-25 Sept. 12:00 PM n° 2 nO LimiT HOLd’Em (Re-Entry) e 1 000 + e 100

24-26 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 3 pOT LimiT OmAHA e 5 000 + e 300

25-27 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 4 SHOOTOUT nO LimiT HOLd’Em e 3 000 + e 250

26-29 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 5 miXEd mAX (9-6-2) e 10 000 + e 450

27-29 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 6 6 mAX pOT LimiT OmAHA e 1 500 + e 150

29 Sept. - 4 Oct. 12:00 PM n° 7 mAin EVEnT nO LimiT HOLd’Em e 10 000 + e 450

29-30 Sept. 1:00 PM WSOpE LAdiES EVEnT e 500 + e 50

2-4 Oct. 4:00 PMWSOpE mAJESTiC HiGH ROLLERUnlimited rebuys: Rebuy only possible using deposit and when a player has lost all their chips. Registration and Rebuys possible until the end of level 10 (first level on day 2)

e 50 000 + e 1 000

SEPTEMBER 21 - OCTOBER 4, 2012CaSinO LE CROiSETTE - HôTEL MajESTiC BaRRièRE - CannES

Entries into the World Series Of Poker Europe is strictly prohibited for minors (under 18), even those legally emancipated, persons not authorized to play, persons subject to a measure of exclusion by casino management or a voluntary restriction of access.

All players will be required to provide a valid picture ID or passport. Proper attire required.

20/09/2012 9:00 PM TURBO CASH e 300 + e 30


22/09/20124:00 PM TURBO CASH e 300 + e 30


23/09/20124:00 PM TURBO CASH e 300 + e 30




26/09/2012 4:00 PM CASH e 400 + e 40





30/09/20124:00 PM CASH e 600 + e 60

10:00 PM 10 O’CLOCK TURBO CASH pOT LimiT OmAHA e 500 + e 50 (Omaha)

01/10 - 02/10/2012 2:00 PM CASH mEGA dEEpSTACK e 1 800 + e 200

01/10/20124:00 PM CASH miXEd mAX e 1 000 + e 100


02/10/20126:00 PM CASH e 700 + e 70


03/10 - 04/10/2012 2:00 PM CASH dEEpSTACK e 900 + e 100

03/10/20126:00 PM TURBO CASH 6 mAX e 5 000 + e 300


04/10/20122:00 PM mini mAin e 5 000 + e 300

4:00 PM TURBO CASH e 500 + e 50

Information & registrations : www.wsop.com

Des

ign

: ww

w.th

omas

oak.

fr

20/09/2012

4:00 PM SAT TO SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°1 (6 Max No Limit Hold’Em) e 40 + e 15 (Unlimited rebuys)

6:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°1 (6 Max No Limit Hold’Em) e 270 + e 30 (Freezeout)

21/09/2012

2:00 PM TURBO SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°1 (6 Max No Limit Hold’Em) e 270 + e 30 (Freezeout)



22/09/2012

2:00 PM SAT TO SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°3 (Pot Limit Omaha) e 50 + e 15 (Unlimited rebuys - Omaha)




23/09/2012




24/09/2012

4:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°4 (Shootout No Limit Hold’Em) e 500 + e 50 (Freezeout)




25/09/2012

4:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°5 (Mixed Max (9-6-2)) e 1 000 + e 100 (Freezeout)




26/09/2012


8:00 PM SAT TO BRACELET n°6 (6 Max Pot Limit Omaha) e 270 + e 30 (Freezeout - Omaha)


27/09/2012


8:00 PM SAT TO Any E 1 100 TOURnAmEnT (Super Sat or Cash Mixed Max) e 130 + e 20 (2 Rebuys + 1Dble Add On)


28/09/2012

2:00 PM SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°7 (WSOPE Main Event) e 1 000 + e 100 (Freezeout)


8:00 PM SAT TO WSOpE LAdiES EVEnT e 50 + e 15 (2 Rebuys + 1 Dble Add On)


29/09/2012

4:00 PM LAST CHAnCE SUpER SAT TO BRACELET n°7 (WSOPE Main Event DAY 1B) e 1 000 + e 100 (Freezeout)



30/09/2012


8:00 PM SUpER SAT TO THE WSOpE mAJESTiC HiGH ROLLER e 5 000 + e 300 (Freezeout)


01/10/20128:00 PM SUpER SAT TO THE WSOpE mAJESTiC HiGH ROLLER e 5 000 + e 300 (Freezeout)


02/10/20128:00 PM SAT TO E 1 000 CASH dEEpSTACK e 100 + e 20 (2 Rebuys + 1 Dble Add On)


03/10/20128:00 PM SAT TO E 5 300 mini mAin e 500 + e 50 (1 Dble Add On)

11:00 PM mOOnLiGHT SAT TO LAST dAy E 550 TURBO CASH e 60 + e 15 (Freezeout)

World Series Of Poker Europe and WSOPE are trademarks of Caesars Interactive Entertainment Inc.

SATELLITES

SIdE EvEnTS

Jouer comporte des risques : endettement, dépendance... Appelez le 09 74 75 13 13 (appel non surtaxé)

SpEcIAL EvEnT

21-23 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 1 6 mAX nO LimiT HOLd’Em e 2 500 + e 200

22-25 Sept. 12:00 PM n° 2 nO LimiT HOLd’Em (Re-Entry) e 1 000 + e 100

24-26 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 3 pOT LimiT OmAHA e 5 000 + e 300

25-27 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 4 SHOOTOUT nO LimiT HOLd’Em e 3 000 + e 250

26-29 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 5 miXEd mAX (9-6-2) e 10 000 + e 450

27-29 Sept. 5:00 PM n° 6 6 mAX pOT LimiT OmAHA e 1 500 + e 150

29 Sept. - 4 Oct. 12:00 PM n° 7 mAin EVEnT nO LimiT HOLd’Em e 10 000 + e 450

29-30 Sept. 1:00 PM WSOpE LAdiES EVEnT e 500 + e 50

2-4 Oct. 4:00 PMWSOpE mAJESTiC HiGH ROLLERUnlimited rebuys: Rebuy only possible using deposit and when a player has lost all their chips. Registration and Rebuys possible until the end of level 10 (first level on day 2)

e 50 000 + e 1 000

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Poker Casino BarcelonaNATIONAL SERIES

www.casino-barcelona.com · [email protected] · PORT OLÍMPIC · Marina, 19.21 · Barcelona · T. +34 93 225 78 78

PRESENTS

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EmOp BARCELONA 2012 SEpTEmBER 13 - 16BUY-IN: 1000€+100€

WpT NATIONAL SERIES BARCELONA 2012 OCTOBER 25 - 29

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side events and cash games…

28

contents12 NEWS28 iNtErviEW MichaelMizrachi

34 travEl ariaresort&Casino–lasvegas

44 upCoMiNgtourNaMENtS 46Wpt&EuropeanMastersofpokerBarcelona 52CaptBaden 56WptCopenhagen 60WptMarrakech 62Eptprague 68WptMalta

72 HENdoNMoBraNkiNgS80 tourNaMENtSCHEdulE CHroNiClES 20victoriaCoren

theguyfromtheladiesevent 22JakeCody

vegasBaby! 24karaScott

Spontaneousdanceparties 36doyleBrunson

“Sometimesthebesthelpinghandyoucangetisagoodfirmpush”

42tonyg.paris,paris

78Hendonmobtournamentdirector

is published by Game Prod - 14 rue de Berri 75008 PARIS / France

+33 (0)1 53 89 14 00

www.poker52europa.com

Directed by: Bruno Benveniste

+33 (0)1 53 89 14 08 - [email protected]

Assisted by: Samantha Delmas - [email protected]

Chief editor: Jérôme Schmidt - [email protected]

Writers: Julien Morello, Antoine Salvi, Philippe Lemaire, Philippe Aronson

Cover picture: PartyPoker.com

Inside pictures: XDR, Neil Stoddart

Re-writing and translation: Alexander JE Bradley

Advertisement: Martin Garagnon +33 (0)1 53 89 14 04 - [email protected]

Founder: Bruno Fitoussi

DESIGN

Artistic Director: Frédéric Hallier

Layout: Jennifer Bouvard

Print: Imprimerie du Canal

5646

60

nEws

mazagan hoSTS thE FPS SunFESt

// TOurnamEnT

With its €1,100 buy-in, the France Poker Series Sun-fest held in wonderful mazagan resort, in morocco, is the perfect destination for poker players and their families: a wonderful white sand beach, some great resorts activities, a top-notch spa, a great golf course and some poker action! From october 12th to 15th,

mazagan will thus welcome some of the biggest pok-er stars, including elkY or Jonathan Duhamel in its futuristic poker room. Some side action is also sched-uled with big cash-games in the casino. The mazagan resort and casino will welcome further this year, a World Poker Tour stop.

All poker stArs rush to the olympic gAmes, led by Phil hEllmuth And AntOniO ESFAndiARi

// pEOplE

are you nostalgic for the huge fields of the WSoP that we saw in Las Vegas this summer, full of poker stars? no need to wait for the PPT grand Final, the WPT grand Prix de Paris or the WSoP-europe in cannes: the greatest players are all — well, almost all — in London,

supporting their national team, and more precisely the athletes they have bet on.You need only catch a glimpse of their Tweeter account to see the excitement generated by the olympic games among professional poker players: Doyle brunson is betting — hard — as is Daniel negreanu, on the ameri-can basketball team, while Phil hellmuth is being shot sitting in the stands with sexy Tatjana Plasic (bodog model) and her boyfriend, pro mcLean Karr. Let’s not for-get antonio esfandiari, who recently won the amazing $1,000,000 buy-in event “one Drop,” seen with his father and his friend Phil Laak at a table... 1-2£ at the Victoria grosvenor casino in London, between two olympic com-petitions. as for the english high-roller neil channing, he spends his days commenting sports results...Phil hellmuth is of course always on the VIP side, proud as a peacock as he struts around with michael Phelps, the american swimming prodigy who set re-cords by winning medals in every category: he has al-ready grabbed 20 of them (which made hellmuth win a pile of dollars, as he had bet quite a lot on him), and the games are not even over yet...

12 ISSUe 7 // SePTember-ocTober 2012 // POKER 52 europa

THE POKER EVENT OF THE YEAR3 - 10 NOVEMBER 2012 AMSTERDAM

MASTERCLASSICSOFPOKER.NL

SATURDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2012TEXAS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT € 1.500 FREEZE-OUT 3-day tournament. Final on Monday 5 November 17.00 hrs.Startstack 15.000Start 14.00 hrs | Day 2 - 14.00 hrs | Max. 300 players Entry Fee € 90

SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2012 OMAHA POT LIMIT € 200 UNLIMITED REBUYS + ADD-ON 2-day tournament Startstack 2.000 | Rebuy 2.000 | Add-on 3.000Start 14.00 hrs | Day 2 - 14.00 hrs | Max. 200 players Entry Fee € 20

MONDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2012 BOUNTY TEXAS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT € 800 FREEZE-OUT 2-day tournamentStartstack 8.000 | Bounty € 200Start 14.00 hrs | Day 2 - 14.00 hrs | Max. 250 players Entry Fee € 80

TUESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2012SATELLITE MAIN EVENT LIDO INTERNATIONAL DUTCH OPENTEXAS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT € 250 UNLIMITED REBUYS + ADD-ON 1-day tournamentStartstack 2.000 | Rebuy 2.000 | Add-on 3.000Start 14.00 hrs | Max. 280 players Entry Fee € 25

TUESDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2012 HIGH ROLLER TEXAS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT € 10.000 FREEZE-OUT 2-day tournament. Final Saturday 10 November at 13.30 hrs.Startstack 15.000Start 14.00 hrs | Max. 48 players / 6 tables Entry Fee € 250

WEDNESDAY 7 NOVEMBER 2012MAIN EVENT LIDO INTERNATIONAL DUTCH OPEN TEXAS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT € 5.000 FREEZE-OUT4-day tournament. Final Saturday 10 November at 17.00 hrs.Startstack 30.000Start 15.00 hrs | Day 2 and 3 - 14.00 hrs | Max. 340 players Entry Fee € 250

THURSDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2012TEXAS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT SPEED€ 1.000 FREEZE-OUT 1-day tournament Startstack 10.000Start 14.00 hrs | Max. 100 players Entry Fee € 80

FRIDAY 9 NOVEMBER 2012 TEXAS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT € 750 FREEZE-OUT 2-day tournamentStartstack 8.000Start 14.00 hrs | Day 2 - 14.00 hrs | Max. 250 players Entry Fee € 75

SATURDAY 10 NOVEMBER 2012TEXAS HOLD’EM NO LIMIT SPEED€ 300 FREEZE-OUT 1-day tournamentStartstack 3.000Start 14.00 hrs | Max. 200 players Entry Fee € 30

AMS-MCOP-A4-EditorialPage_1.01.indd 1 8/20/12 5:31 PM

nEws

Don’T mISS thE biggESt EuROPEAn POKER EvEnt From SePTember 21 To ocTober 4

// wOrlD sErIEs Of pOkEr EurOpE 2012

In 2011, the World Series of Poker Europe said goodbye to London and moved for the first time to the constantly sunny city of Cannes. The least we can say is that it was a lovely idea. With the sumptuous Cannes Croisette Casino, the legendary Hotel Majestic, and the gorgeous landscape of the French Riviera as perfect settings for this huge international poker series, the first edition in Southern France was a real hit.Last year, the first WSOP-Europe Main Event held in Cannes offered a fascinating show, as world poker stars gathered for one of the toughest tournaments ever organized in France. The final table provided an incredible cast, with Patrik Antonius, Jake Cody, Shawn Buchanan, Brian Roberts, Moritz Kranich, Max Silver, Dermot Blain and Chris Moorman vying for the WSOP bracelet before falling to Elio Fox. The young American player returned to New York City with the €1,400,000 first prize, his best performance in a live tournament, only three months after his victory at the Bellagio Cup Main Event, for $669,692.For this second edition, the World Series of Poker Europe will be held from September 21 to October 4. The two-week-long series will be a real festival, with no less than seven golden bracelet events with buy-ins starting at €1,100 and more than 50 satellites and side-events. From September 29, the €10,000 + €450 Main Event will be the pièce de résistance, attracting the best players in the world. Last year’s formula was such a success that the schedule

will almost be the same this season, with a few slight changes. The Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event will kick off the tournament on Friday, September 21 at 5:00 p.m., and feature a €2,500 + €200 buy-in and a 3-day structure. Other events include a €1,000 + €100 No Limit Hold’em event (from September 22-25), a three-day €5,000 + €300 Pot Limit Omaha event (starting on September 24), a €3,000 + €250 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event (from September 25-27), a six-handed €1,500 + €150 Pot Limit Omaha event (from September 27-29), and a Mixed Max No Limit Hold’em €10,000 + €450 event (from September 26-28).The Series will conclude with the six-day €10,000 + €400 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Main Event, which will start on Saturday, September 29 and run until the final table, on Thursday, October 4. The tournament directors are waiting for a huge field this year and the prize pool will surely break the 2007 record of £3,676,990. With high-level action and luxurious settings, this two-week major event, held for the second time on the French Riviera, will bring together the greatest players and the leading organizing brands in a stunning décor, making Cannes the world capital of poker. So don’t miss the Round II of the WSOPE Cannes!

nEws

Who are thE OctObER ninE?

// wsOp maIn EvEnT 2012

Starting July 7, the world’s biggest poker tournament attracted 6,598 players from 83 countries, generating a huge prize pool of $62,021,200, for the fifth greatest main event in WSoP history. after ten days of titanic battle and the elimination of the two last european women of the table, norwegian elisabeth hille (11th) and French gaëlle baumann (10th), for $590,442 each, the final table was completed, and the nine finalists (one european and eight americans), are all sure to win, at least, $754,798.$18 million are still up for grabs, including the $8,527,982 first prize. here are the profiles of the nine players who will come back for the final table on october 29.

• Jesse Sylvia: 43,875,000 chips. chip leader of the fi-nal table, the 26-year-old american, born in malden, massachusetts, made his first WSoP cash in 2011, fin-ishing 175th in the $1,500 Six-handed event for $2,954.

• Andras Koroknai: 29,375,000 chips. Koroknai, a 30-year-old poker pro from hungary, is the sole euro-pean of this final table. Winner of the 2010 WPT La Poker classic for $1,788,040, he has in the course of his career cashed in more than $2.5 million.

• Greg Merson: 28,725,000 chips. With a WSoP bracelet on event #57 (for $1,136,197) and two other cash prizes during the 2012 WSoP edition, this 25-year-old american pro will probably be the next WSoP Player of the Year.

• Russell Thomas: 24,800,000 chips. 248th of the 2011 WSoP main event (for $40,654), this 30-year-old ameri-can, born in bryn mawr, Pennsylvania, will make his fourth WSoP cash during this final, with a career total of $881,594 (including this WSoP main event cash prize).

• Steven Gee: 16,860,000 chips. born in china, this 57-year-old american, living in Sacramento, califor-

nia, is the oldest and most experienced player of this final table, with four WSoP cashes. he grabbed a WSoP bracelet in 2010, winning a $1,000 event, for $472,479.

• Michael Esposito: 16,260,000 chips. This final table will be the fourth WSoP cash of this 43-year-old amer-ican player, also a regular of the WSoP circuit. he has a career total of $172,000.

• Robert Salabru: 15,155,000 chips. This 27-year-old american player from San antonio, Texas, cashed in sev-eral small buy-ins events in the course of his two-year career. This main event will be his biggest cash ever.

• Jake Balsiger: 13,115,000 chips. This 21-year-old player, born in Portland, oregon, could be the youngest WSoP main event winner in history, besting Joe cada’s record. he has cashed $3,531 in a $1,500 WSoP event so far.

• Jeremy Ausmus: 9,805,000 chips. Short stack of this final table, ausmus is a 32-year-old player from Lamar, colorado. So far, he’s already cashed 12 times in the WSoP, in only three editions, including 8 times in 2012! he has won $480,000 during his career.

The october nine will enter the final table on october 29, and the heads-up will run october 30. Until this great moment, eSPn will broadcast a two-hour pro-gram every Tuesday, as well as the final table, live!

1st: $8,527,9822nd: $5,292,8893rd: $3,797,5584th: $2,850,4945th: $2,154,6166th: $1,640,4617th: $1,257,7908th: $971,2529th: $754,798

thE FinAl tAblE PRizES will bE diStRibutEd AS FOllOwS


Qualify online now to the world’s largest and richest poker tournamentonly at pokerstars.

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15759 EPT S9 Generic SP - Poker 52 Europa Mag FR.indd 1 06/06/2012 17:46

1st borja Urteaga $65,800 2nd alejandro barcelo $41,8003rd Daniel Pina $23,2004th Lucian Tofan $18,0005th emilio oleaga $15,1006th Jaume alomar $12,3907th Jose Luis rujas gil $9,8008th Vincente zamorano $7,750

estRellas pokeR touR san sebastian

lIsT Of wInnErs

From July 26-29, casino de Kursaal, in San Sebastian, welcomed the penultimate stop of the third season of the estrellas Poker Tour, for a three-day €1,000 main event which attracted 269 players, generating a €258,240 prize pool.The last day began with 11 players still in the race, and the eight-handed final table was finally composed after the eliminations of Spanish players aiguilino rio, Ibon borbolla and Jesus garrido. after a few hours, the only

non-Spanish player, romanian Lucian Tofan, busted at the 4th place for €18,000, leaving Daniel Pina, borja Ur-teaga and alejandro barcelo to duke it out for the title. Pina ended the tournament in third position, as alejan-dro barcelo was hoping to win his second estrellas Poker Tour event, following his victory in alicante in may 2011, for €75,800. but borja Urteaga was too tough, and barcelo lost his heads-up, leaving San Sebastian with €41,800.The winner, borja Urteaga, celebrated his first vic-tory in a live event, grabbing €65,800 for his per-formance. The next, and former, stop of the estrel-las Poker Tour III will run in casino barcelona, from august 13-25, with a €1,000 + €100 main event, from august 15-19.

bORjA uRtEAgA wins the estrellAs poker tour sAn sebAstiAn

// EsTrEllas pOkEr TOur san sEbasTIan

nEws

PEtER OlSEn dominAtes the wpt nAtionAl series mAdrid

// wpT naTIOnal sErIEs maDrID

fought his way back and took the lead as the two play-ers slowly reached the end of the tournament. on the very last hand, both players went all-in, olsen holding K-5 and mestre K-J, and the 5 of the river gave the title to the Danish player. he left madrid with €60,000, for the biggest cash prize of his career, while the Spanish champion grabbed the €42,000 second place prize. The next Spanish WPT national Series will be held at ca-sino barcelona, from october 25-29.

The first edition of the World Poker Tour national Series madrid €1,500 main event, held in casino gran ma-drid, home of some of the best tour-naments in europe, attracted 166 players for a three-day event. and after two days of competition, only eight remained to vie for the title, in a final table bringing together play-ers from five different countries.

Frenchman robert cazali and Spaniard enrique barroso-Serrano were the first to leave the table, fol-lowed by romanian cristian mihu, Spaniard manuel Sanchez and Swede alexander Stevic. raul mestre managed to bust his fellow countrywoman rosa Isla for third place, taking the chip lead and entering the final heads-up against Dane Peter olsen. but olsen

1st Peter olsen $60,000 2nd raul mestre $42,0003rd rosa Isla $27,0004th alexander Stevic $20,0005th manuel Sanchez $15,0006th cristian mihu $12,0007th enrique barroso-Serrano $10,0008th robert cazali $8,000

Wpt national seRies MaDRiD

lIsT Of wInnErs

18 ISSUe 7 // SePTember-ocTober 2012 // POKER 52 europa18 ISSUe 7 // SePTember-ocTober 2012 // POKER 52 europa

1st alessandro meoni $166,000 2nd raffaele bertolucci $129,0003rd Julien norbert Dolay $71,5004th nicolo allisiardi $53,5005th andrea Dato $36,0006th omar rodriguez $29,0007th Johnatan maisonneuve $21,0008th giuseppe zarbo $14,0009th Davide bonometti $10,710

ipt san ReMo

lIsT Of wInnErs

Italian alessandro meoni is the lat-est Italian Poker Tour main event winner, besting 374 opponents on

July 30 in San remo and netting €166,000 over the huge €727,500 prize pool with a dramatic victory. af-ter five days of intense competition in the gorgeous casino municipale, the Supernova elite, who makes a living on PokerStars under the screen moniker “cippi-no1” and has already proved his skills on the live stage, took his career earnings to a healthy total of $422,063.The 29-year-old crushed the final table, seeing off bonometti David in ninth followed by andrea Dato in fifth, Frenchman Julien norbert in third and raffaele bertolucci in second. as play moved into heads-up, meoni held a slight chip advantage over ber-tolucci, but just one hour later, the game was already over. In the final hand, bertolucci open-shoved 10-9 into his fellow Italian’s a-K and a King on the flop was good enough to exit bertolucci. meoni’s next shot at an IPT title will come when the Ital-ian Poker Tour visits campion from august 30 to Septem-ber 3. here are the results of the IPT San remo final table

After working for the most prestigious casinos in France and Europe, directing for several years some of the greatest tournaments, Italian tournament director Christian Sclazi has just signed a contract with the World Poker Tour and is now the new WPT tournament director of all the global and national stops in Europe.Sclazi began his career in 1994 at Costa Croisiere and Paquet, two major boat tour companies, then became an American game instructor at the famous Sanremo casino – and he still resides in the beautiful Italian city – and the Casino de Campione d’Italia. He went to poker in 2006, joining the TkTeam of Thomas Kremser and working his magic in some of the best European tournaments such as stops of the European Poker Tour. In charge of the organization of the Barrière Poker Tour tournaments, and also working on the next WSOP-Europe in Cannes, Sclazi is now the head and the face of the WPT series in Europe, and he will work with Matt Savage part of the time.Congratulations to Christian Scalzi for this new position which makes him one of the most influent TDs in the world!

AlESSAndRO mEOni DomInaTeS a 375 PLaYer FIeLD aT The IPT San remo

chRiStiAn ScAlzi is the new world poker tour europe tournAment director

// IpT san rEmO

// TOurnamEnT DIrEcTIOn

POKER 52 europa // SePTember-ocTober 2012 // ISSUe 7 19

I think saying that “professional” female players shouldn’t play either is a bit of a red herring. The women who choose to only play women-only tournaments

aren’t doing that because they feel uncomfortable with good players, it’s that they feel uncomfortable with the overwhelmingly male-dominated fields in the

live game. They feel out of place. This kind of thing is a counterweight to that. Some women prefer to go to a women-only gym, or go out for drinks at night with

a group of girlfriends. It’s the same kind of idea, about feeling relaxed; they don’t mind going to the gym with fitter women, or drinking with women who get drunk more slowly than they do. It’s about a girls’ day out. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, or

shouldn’t be allowed.

ThE guy frOm ThE laDIEs EvEnT

vIcTOrIa cOrEn

Anyway, where would you draw the line? Some of the commenters said I shouldn’t play because I’m a “pro,” but what does that even mean? I’m on PokerStars Team Pro. But by profession, I’m a writer. I’m out at the World Series for a couple of weeks and I’m playing four tournaments. After this, my next live tournament will probably be in another few months and at home in London. To those who said I didn’t play the women’s event “for fun” – yes I did. I play all poker for fun. And that event is a lot more fun than most. Of course it’s also attractive that it’s a softer field than others. But you’re getting into Lewis Carroll territory if you say that’s a reason for WOMEN players to avoid it. The point about men avoiding it is that if they all flooded in, it would be just like every other tournament, and the shyer recreational players (who make this “softness” in the field) would go away because they don’t want to play a “mixed event” (ie. an almost entirely male event); so, in their one attempt at grabbing the cash through a legal loophole, these guys would have killed it off completely.(But to the guy who said it’s the only tournament that’s

+EV for me because I haven’t “moved with the times,” and it’s my only chance of getting any money, that’s a bit harsh. I won an EPT event two months ago! If you expect to win five and six figure sums more often than that, you’re one of the people who’s been C

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bamboozled by the modern myth and you need to read my book.)To the people who said it sounded like I started it with the guy: yup, that’s true. Like the vast majority of women in the room (maybe all of them – I haven’t met one who felt otherwise) and the vast majority of men watching as well, I was annoyed in principle by the insult of these guys playing. I think it’s rude and selfish. When one of them came to my table, I absolutely took the opportunity to ask him why he was doing it. Maybe I should have done nothing but smile and wish him luck, but I’m not Jesus! If someone does something I find offensive, for better or worse I tend to mention it. I wasn’t horrible though. I was teasing him. I was hoping he’d have a decent explanation and we could thrash out the whole idea. But when he said “Don’t get your panties in a twist” (or “bunch,” as a witness says it was, though I’m not sure that makes a difference), and then actually called the floor again after I was out, he pissed me off. He knew perfectly well he was doing something at best cheeky and at worst nasty when he bought in, he should be able to take a bit of verbal challenge.I did say he was an asshole at the end. When he called the floor for that, despite the fact that I was out of the tournament and leaving, I might have said he was a dick as well. I’m not proud of that. But it’s not going to kill him. Blimey, I had a lot worse when I was his age. You want to try being the only woman in a poker game in 1998? I had men looking down my top and putting their hands up my skirt. But it wasn’t all good news – I also had them telling me women were too stupid to play, asking why I wasn’t out looking for a husband, telling me I didn’t belong there… Poker is a tough game and if you crumble at a bit of stick then it isn’t the game for you. However, the WSOP

ladies’ event is and always was a little oasis; it’s not about hard cold bracelet and money pursuit; I’m protective of that spirit in all sorts of poker and I don’t like to see it under threat.I have felt a bit guilty about giving the guy a hard time, of course. I’m not horrible. I have wondered if he stumbled in by mistake, if he just heard that men played and imagined everyone thought that was fine, if he’d been horrified to find he was only one of about ten men in it and just tried to put his head down and get through it for fear of losing the buy-in, if he hadn’t expected to have to defend that choice to anyone and felt flummoxed.Meh, but then I remember him saying “Don’t get your panties in a twist,” and calling the floor at the end, and I’m over the guilt. This was a guy deliberately getting stuck in. He’ll be all right. He knew he was getting himself into mischief when he bought in, and when he was challenged he chose to escalate it rather than look sheepish or make a joke of it.Maybe he’s at the start of a long poker career. I hope he’ll learn over time, as I hope all young players will learn, that it’s about so much more than +EV and ROI. It’s about being gracious whether you’re winning or losing, about being good-tempered and sporting, about not going on tilt, about pressing your advantage but not exploiting people for the wrong reasons, about knowing when to stop, about taking the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune (whether it’s an opponent spiking a middle pin, or a bunch of women saying you shouldn’t be gatecrashing their tournament) with backbone and a philosophical attitude and a smile. Just like life, just like life, just like life. I’m still working on it myself, and always will be. I wish him luck, I genuinely do. That’s not sarcastic. It’s a long road ahead, I’m sure he’s got a good heart in there, and I wish him luck.

I was out, he pissed me off. he knew perfectly well he was doing something at best cheeky and at worst nasty when he bought in, he should be able to take a bit of verbal challenge


calling ‘off the rails’ my relationship to reality would be an understatement for how I would describe my time in Vegas, it had officially gotten me, my friend madison described it as so far off the rails you are driving the train straight into the ocean, which is a lot closer to the truth. however, I don’t want this to come across as depressing… I am well aware of the train and the last month or so have been some of the most fun-filled and action packed of my entire life, I never really had a Vegas blow-out, I was much more sensible last year. The year before that I was only here for the main event and made day4 so most of my time was spent playing poker, and a lot of my friends were burnt out from the whole series. So I think I saved it all up for this year.

vEgas baby!

jakE cODy

It has definitely been crazy, and part of what Vegas is all about, and I wouldn’t change any of it.I don’t really know where to start, so much has happened since I last made a post. I’ll start off with the poker. When I first got here in May, I was here for the WPT $25k, which has good news and bad news. The bad news is I busted early on day two, after losing an absurd hand on day one where I got all-in three way on a A56 all hearts flop with 78 of hearts up against AQ with the queen of hearts for top pair and a flush draw, and KQ with the K of hearts for just a bare flush draw and with my straight flush blockers they remarkably had 4 outs between them, but the J of hearts on the river was one of them and that was me crippled and I couldn’t recover. Frustrating as the tournament had a hell of a lot of value for a $25k.The good news is I swapped a % with two friends, JP Kelly and Marvin Rettenmaier… the latter went on to WIN the whole thing. I have known Marvin for a while now playing in Europe and I was extremely happy for him regardless because he’s an awesome guy and totally deserving for how much he grinds the live scene.The following week or so before the WSOP started I grinded the cash games at Bellagio and the Wynn, with a decent amount of success and I really should put some more hours in when I get chance.

High hopes were everywhere and after the amazing start we all had last year, this time round has been somewhat of a

disappointment not only for me but the rest of the uk guys haven’t really had much success either. In fact this year I went 0/15 before I cashed. Most of the tournaments I just snap lost the first all-in and that was that, I did make day two in one of the 1500′s after a really fun day sat half with Matusow and the other half with my good friends Craig McCorkell and Sam Grafton, but I lost AA to AT all-in pre late on day1 and then just lost a race on day2. The only other two tournaments I have come close to cashing are the 10k Heads Up which I bubbled to Michael Drummond in a frustrating run of events then actually felt I was going to make a run at one last week in the 4max. I made it through to day two top 10 in chips out of 84 with 80 paid and still managed to pure bubble, I got in AJ against AK for a huge pot which I’m not totally happy about but I felt the dynamic was more than fine and it was kinda BS he had AK but whatever no one wants to hear people complaining about luck… Especially from me!That’s was the story of much of the WSOP for me, but I’m still confident I was playing all and things started to change in Event 59 the $1k NL, I ran insanely well on day1 winning every all-in and a huge one where a guy induced with AQ into my AA and finished the day as one of the chipleaders with 77k from 3k starting. Cruised through most of day2 losing a few frustrating pots and then winning a little back finished with about average chips and just 50 players left and $650,000 for the win I was excited, with most of the field reasonably soft I felt I had a good shot. Terrible time C

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to go card dead for the first two hours then raise called KQs on the button against the bb A9 and the flop came A high then got a few shoves through and finally shipped 99 and lost to AQ. Happy for Dominik Nitsche who managed to take it down though!Finally it was the main event, the most exciting tournament of the year bar none, the atmosphere around the Rio was buzzing and I couldn’t wait to get started. I wasn’t feeling burnt out at all I love Vegas and I was ready to play. Don’t want to draw this out too much but things went very smoothly over days 1 and two had great draws and finished day1 on 125k from 30 and day2 on 322k, with blinds at 800/1600/200 I was crushing. Then everything fell apart on day3, I lost every hand nothing got through then lost 99 to JJ, AK to 66 and finally ran AQ into AK near the end of the day and a few off the money, sigh.ANYWAY…The rest of the time there has been FUN FUN FUN and more FUN! I’m already excited about seeing this sign next year. Its been a crazy summer and I was genuinely sad to leave for lots of reasons, I was there for nearly 3 months and it was starting to feel like home. I really wish I blogged more there were so many stories and more pictures that I can’t fit into one blog. However it’s great being back in Leeds and seeing everyone back home. Going to recharge/hibernate here for two weeks then back to the tournament grind starting with EPT Barcelona, my favorite stop and maybe my favorite place in the whole world… maybe bar Vegas. n

Its been a crazy summer and I was genuinely sad to leave for lots of reasons, I was there for nearly 3 months and it was starting to feel like home

kara scOTTC

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SpontaneouSdAncE PARtiESSo I’m in Las Vegas. It’s been a curious trip so far. Sadly, I don’t have any good poker results to report. I ended up playing six events with my Party Poker patch on and bricked them all DESPITE having a copy of the luckiest lucky poker charm around – BJ Nemeth’s WSOP Pocket Guide. This guide is made in very small numbers every year by BJ “poker photographer extraordinaire” Nemeth himself. They’re not only reputed to be exceptionally lucky but they’re a really handy little book full of good information for the WSOP – start times, break times etc. This was the first year I was able to get my hands on one and as there had been reports of them showing up in the pockets of many a final table-ist all summer, I was hopeful for a little extra run good. They’re the 2012 equivalent of wearing a Micro’s tee-shirt. Sadly, it wasn’t to be. Like I said, I bricked all six events and have been preparing for work ever since. I can’t really complain though. I have some incredible life run-good. I’m still thinking about digging out my Micro’s tee though. I’ve been in Las Vegas for three weeks now and you’d think that I’d have some great stories of strippers, parties, clubs and random encounters to tell. I promise, I’m not just holding them back! I actually spent a solid week hiding in my hotel room trying not to die from the flu. Bleurgh. I’m a lot better now thankfully as the rest of my time in Vegas is going to be busy with the ESPN broadcast of the WSOP. We started with the Million Dollar buy in event, the Big One for One Drop and wow... the Cirque du Soleil drummers really amped up the atmosphere at the final table. We were doing the show nearly live (on a 15-minute delay) on ESPN and I was really stoked to get a chance to work like that again. I love live TV. I love ESPN. There’s just a buzz there that I don’t get anywhere else. So now, we’re heading towards the Main Event. It’s been a pretty full summer so I’m looking forward to relaxing a bit at the WPT National Series in Venice, Italy right afterwaards (July 21-25). I frakking love Venice so I jump at any chance to go there and playing a smaller National Series buy in event in Italy sounds like the perfect antidote to busting a bunch of WSOP events. Sometimes the best parts of the WSOP are those random nights

where nobody really expects to do anything but the great Random Number Generator that is the Universe, spins its way to a jackpot. I love those nights. I’m not really big on crazy parties or clubs although I’ve had some pretty incredible nights at clubs during crazy parties. It seems though, that as the summers fly by, I prefer the random nights. Like catching up at the Hooker Bar at the Rio for drinks with my friend Al (also known as Alcanthang). Or heading downtown for steaks at Binion’s and then low stakes mixed games where the locals are literally pushing each other out of the way to get onto our tables. Or a really fun, totally chilled out night spent at Insert Coins with some of my friends who had a night off from working the media rail at the World Series.For those of you who haven’t been there, Insert Coins is a bar near Freemont Street in Las Vegas. Its unique selling point is that it’s stuffed full of any kind of arcade game that you can think of. Even better, for just $25 per person in drinks for the whole night, you can rent out a table with any two consoles of your choice and just game your brains out for hours. My particular poison was Street Fighter on SNES. It’s been a long damn time since I worked a controller but it’s just like falling off a bike. And I’ve always been really good at falling off of bikes. After manfully trying to drink $25 worth of cut-price Red Stripes in a couple of hours, I was almost convinced to enter the Michael Jackson dance contest that the bar was running. Thankfully, as I was warming up, I saw some of the REAL competition and wisely sobered up enough to shrink back with the rest of the wallflowers. Wow. Seriously. These people could DANCE. There was this tiny little Hawaiian dude there who could actually bounce on his head. Repeatedly. His breakdancing skills were ridiculously good but as they weren’t technically “MJ” enough, he didn’t end up winning. Once the new pseudo-king of pop was crowned, the dance floor filled up with those of us who had been dying to bust a move since the music had started. Chip Bitch even did the worm. I fucking love spontaneous dance parties.

dAncE PARtiES


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* Elie Payan, 2011 WSOP WINNER

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ARIA Sky Suite Panoramic Penthouse


TravEl

Kremlin State Palace Theatre, Arena Madrid and Radio City Music Hall in New York City. Starting November 1, guests can experience this spellbinding extravaganza for the first time in Las Vegas. Zarkana features more than twelve traditional circus acts with a modern twist, including flying trapeze, juggling, high wire, and hand balancing that will leave guests breathless.After the show, let the nightlife begin. From quiet bars and lounges where guests can relax and chat with old friends, to hip and trendy lounges where they can make new ones, ARIA brings the night to life and provides lots of options to match the state of mind. The Deuce Lounge is an invigorating destination fusing the elements of an upscale lounge with high-limit gaming, creating an intimate nightlife experience. Gold Boutique Nightclub and Lounge brings a more refined nightlife experience to guests with an intimate dance floor and VIP bottle service.

If a high-energy, dynamic scene is more appealing, the colossal, 25,000-square-foot nightclub, HAZE, features an Avalon-designed sound system, 20-foot walls of flickering lights and interactive projection screens which navigate the space on five moving trusses, producing a surge of sights and sounds that engulf guests in its euphoric haze.

Rounding out the complete destination experience is ARIA’s 80,000-square-foot, two-level spa and salon. With services from classic Swedish and hot stone massages to facials and spa rituals, the Spa & Salon at ARIA invites guests into a peaceful haven where nature’s healing properties take center stage. Synchronizing balance and beauty, The Spa and Salon at ARIA offers 62 treatment rooms, private spa suites, a full-service salon, an advanced fitness center and Las Vegas’ first co-ed spa balcony, featuring an outdoor infinity-edge pool. For those looking for something unique, guests should spend time relaxing in the Shio Salt Room, featuring an illuminated wall of salt bricks, as well as the Ganbanyoku Stone Bed room, the only spa in the United Staes to offer these Japanese stone beds.

Beyond the excitement of the resort’s venues and amenities, guests will experience pure bliss upon entering their luxurious guest room. Each room and suite feature panoramic floor-to-ceiling windows and cutting-edge technology – which creates that hallmark experience for these plush retreats. Upon first entering the room, each guest will experience a truly unique welcome: curtains open, lights turn on and the TV displays a menu of options, allowing them to personalize their experience. The touch of a button controls temperature, music and TV channels, privacy notifications, and alarm clock and light settings.

Even in a dynamic city such as Las Vegas, ARIA Resort & Casino is a fusion of energy, inspiration and vision that is demonstrably different than anything that has preceded it.

No Las Vegas resort experience would be complete without a world-class casino, and ARIA delivers just that and more. Offering 150,000 square feet of gaming, ARIA’s unique layout and design elements allow guests to enjoy the energy and excitement of their favorite selections in a fun, modern setting. For high-end players, exclusive salons offer high-limit slot and table games in private environments. For the poker player, the non-smoking, luxurious 24-table ARIA Poker Room hosts daily and nightly tournaments with text message seat notification as well as tableside food and massage service. Those looking to play the Big Game will find it at “The Ivey Room” at ARIA, hosting some of the highest cash games in the world. Regardless of the game, guests playing poker at ARIA will be taken care of by top-notch staff in the best poker room in the city.

The Poker Room at ARIA


rEncOnTrErEncOnTrE


he may be only thirty years old, but michael mizrachi has already led an entire life on the gambling trail: ups, downs, feats, trophies, bankruptcy, addiction. but the man is stronger than his leaks, and gained his nickname — “The grinder” — by tirelessly coming back to the top of his game. he knows how to bounce back: hounded by tax problems, bad investments and a serious weakness for (depending on his mood) roulette or craps tables, this miami-based player has, alongside guys like gus hansen, been labeled a “bad boy of poker.” much like the great Dane, mizrachi fears nothing — especially not winning. his ultra-aggressive play is un-playable both in the no Limit hold’em games and in the mixed-games, and his tournament swings have since become legendary. “This type of player always pushes you out of your comfort zone,” bruno Fitoussi mused before the $50,000 Players championship finale this summer at the WSoP, where both players had qualified. Kind and profoundly personable, in real life mizrachi is light years away from his aggressive persona at the poker tables. When he won this tournament for the second time this year — a competition reserved for top-notch players — mizrachi did not even have time to party and celebrate despite winning $1,559,000: he simply rushed to the nearest rio casino cashier to withdraw only $559,000. “Keep the million,” he said, “and get me into the one Drop For one million.” action will always be The grinder’s fuel. he accepted to meet us during his only day off, after these two tournaments. The setting? bellagio’s bobby’s room, an ultra-private spot where the big game takes place every day, for one of the highest tables in the world. It was 1 p.m. in Las Vegas, almost early morning for these night owls, and next to us some players — brian rast, Doyle brunson, Jennifer harman and greg mueller — were waiting for mizrachi to start the game. michael mizrachi is from now on the ambassador for the incredible ISPT project, a 30,000 players competition set at Wembley stadium in 2013.

By Jerome Schmidt / pictures: Jules Pochy

a champIOn amOng champIOnsmichael mizrachi


You seem particularly happy with this second victory in a row in the prestigious players Championship tournament…

Before this tournament started, I have to admit that I was in a “whine” mode: I kept on complaining about the bad beats I had, and my friends were already mocking me gently about this. Since my WSOP-Europe win last fall, in the new tournament format invented by Jack Effel, it has been quite a desert of cards… But the $50,000 tournament is for sure one of the best tournaments in the world for pros. Even better than the Main Event, even if there is of course less value in playing it…

You have a big smile but yesterday you busted from the

most expensive tournament in the world, the $1,000,000 “one Drop”…

Oh, it took me no more than an hour to get along with it! (laughs) But, seri-ously, how could I complain about busting from this big sit’n’go, even if it’s a million dollars buy-in, after my week of incredible luck and play at the Players Championship? The One Drop was a great tournament for sure, but there was not that much dead money, despite all the pros bragging about that, and variance is so much harder in NLHE than in mixed-games, it is a totally different game. Hopefully, no pros had 100% of their action, and we played very relaxed, forgetting about the buy-in itself! When Sam Trickett busted in

second place, he seemed very disap-pointed but, frankly, I’d like to be disappointed with a $10,000,000 win! (laughs). Even everyday! These figures are just astonishing…

this victory seemed easier than the previous one; was it?

One of my friends told me: “You are cruisin’, Mike!” after the finale, and to be honest the final table has been one of a kind. Everything seemed to go my way, I had the tempo, the good cards, the right moves… The third hand of the finale is exemplary in this way: Bruno Fitoussi moves his short stack all-in, and Bill Chen just calls with As-King. I raise him with Aces in the blinds, Chen moves all-in, and I bust two players in a row!

InTErvIEw


That is what I call “good timing”! (laughs) Even if players could have seen my cards, I would have won anyway… Sometimes poker is like that, just magic. I am lucky enough that it was during the year’s most important tournament. I just finished them all in 5 hours: I did not have to bluff them, as I got all the cards and the set-ups.

the beginning of your tournament seemed way more complicated, with a lot of huge swings…

I have been either chip leader or the shortest stack at the table! (laughs). But this is my style of play: I like to take risks, always putting the pres-sure on my opponents. I do not want

to finish ITM but to win it all. In a poker tournament, everything can happen and the chips fly from one seat to another. The sentence “A chip and a chair” is true. I always try to play my best, and after, it is mainly luck and hazard — in both ways. I never complain, I mean almost never, about luck, as it has created both my losses and my victories.

is the players Championship the most difficult tournament ever?

Its field implies no dead money at all: the biggest cash-game players in the world gather for it every year, as they are the only ones playing mixed-games at that level. Of course, some of them have leaks in some poker games, and one has to do

his best with this. Even some do not know how to play Deuce-to-seven for example, and they prefer not playing it as they think they have an edge in other formats. I am not sure it is a good solution though… But mistakes are really rare, and each poker format requires some special skills. For example, in Stud, one has to focus especially and have a good photographic memory about all the cards which have been revealed.

after your 2010 victory, you used to say that you did not know all the poker formats, especially in cash-games with badugi and badeucy…

These formats have not yet been incorporated in the Players Cham-

When Sam Trickett busted in second place, he seemed very disappointed but, frankly, I’d like to be disappointed with a $10,000,000 win! even everyday! These figures are just astonishing


InTErvIEw

pionship, and I am even not sure that no one does master these for-mats! (laughs) With time, I realized that these games imply a lot and a lot of gamble and everyone — even the best players — tend to gamble too much whilst playing Badugi or Badeucy. I am doing OK in these games, but nothing crazy I guess. I played the other formats online, a lot… Before Black Friday, on Full Tilt or Pokerstars, these games were really quite popular amongst the high stakes community. After April 15, I mostly played live games, in cash-game. I have always appreci-ated the Stud games, for example, because these are the ones I espe-cially master. During the first round of Poker Players Championship in 2012, I picked up the Stud 8-or-better because I have a good edge in it. My global tournament poker strategy implies taking some big risks early in the tournament, and it can be very rewarding…

Did you begin poker by playing stud games?

I started playing poker with my brothers, who are also very good in mixed-games. In my family, we simply love card games: just tell us the rules of a game, and we are quick to master it! (laughs) Regarding poker, I just feel I have played at it since I was born. I like to discover new formats, and try to adapt my strategies in new territo-ries, try some new stuff…I began playing poker profession-ally at 15: I used to finance my high school and college years that way,

my global tournament poker strategy implies taking some big risks early in the tournament, and it can be very rewarding

POKER 52 europa // SePTember-ocTober 2012 // ISSUe 7 3737POKER 52 // aoûT 2012 // nUmÉro 31

and since then, I never looked back. Depending on years, months or even weeks, I was either a big loser or on the top of the world, above the sun or six feet under! (laughs) I have been there, everywhere, and I think I am pretty strong regarding the big swings from now on. In 2010, before my $50,000 title, I had some big money issues, because of bad invest-ments. Since then I’ve been trying to be more careful, as I now have a big family, which is the most impor-tant thing in my life. When someone talks to me about rollercoasters, believe me, I have ridden some of the craziest ones on earth! Some of them could have driven me mad, I could have not been able to come back. But I did, and that is why I am stronger than ever.

Has black Friday changed your life?

The main interest of online poker, for me, was to be able to stay at home with my family and not flying out of Miami. Now I have to travel to gamble, which sometimes keeps me away too long from my loved ones, and costs a lot of money. I know that some casinos have opened in Miami, but the games are not interesting for me yet. But regarding the number of billionaires out there, I am pretty sure it will soon be juicy! (laughs) They mostly play NLHE or PLO, with big swings induced, and I can get bored in those games. NLHE is pretty much always the same and I need at least four cards in my hand to have fun at the table.

Which players Championship title has been the more moving to win for you?

In 2010, for my first title, I was not financially at ease and it has been such a relief to win this at that time. Moreover, my brother was at the final table this day, and it was pure magic. But my mother was pretty much not at ease with it as she was angry at

michael mizrachi is the ambassador of a brand new poker event, the ISPT. The International Stadiums Poker Tour is a poker tournament that takes place every year in a world-famous stadium. It is the biggest poker tour-

nament in the world consisting of 30,000 players, a prize pool of 20,000,000€ and is broadcasted on the Television in more than 28 countries.Set up by bernard Tapie, Laurent Tapie and Prosper masquelier, the first edition of the ISPT will take place in London’s famous Wembley Stadium. It is the biggest stadium in england and one of the biggest in the world, with a seating capacity of 90,000 and a retractable roof.ISPT is one tournament midway between online and live. Players will start to play online in the stadium with their own laptops. Then the 3000 remaining players will play live. michael mizrachi was enthusiastic when he heard about the ISPT event, saying, “it’s a wonderful idea and I wanted to be in this project. as soon as I met Prosper in London last year I knew that the ISPT was going to be a massive success, and that I needed to be part of the project any way I could. The event has appeal across all nations, and Wembley is just the perfect location for a €600 entry tournament with a €20,000,000 guarantee.” That’s why he wore the ISPT’s colors during some events of WSoP 2012 and became the official ISPT ambassador worldwide.

AmbAssAdor of thE iSPt EvEnt


me for busting my brother! She was there to support me, and then my brother, then me, and as she wanted the both of us to win, she was not happy when he got busto! (laughs) After, when I won, she just burst into tears, and could not help crying… In 2011, my brother even bubbled this tournament.

How have your parents reacted to the fact that all their sons became professional poker players?

My mother has always been very supportive during all those years; my father was a little bit more scep-tical at the beginning because he was afraid it would drive us crazy. He is more an eastern type Israelite, where as my mother is New York style, and she loves to gamble. She wanted us to be happy, and when we began playing with the best players in the world, my father became con-fident in our level of play. Even my mother plays online or in Atlantic City! (laughs)

What memory do you have of your Main event final table in 2010?

The 2010 Main Event has been very hard to forget: with five players left, I was the chipleader and I really thought I could win it. I had this bracelet just a couple feet away from me and I seemed to master the table easily. But I ended up busting in fifth place, and it was all very frustrating. You do not play a Main Event final table every day, you know, and it might have been the only time on my life. Of course, I hope I will be able to give it another shot…

moreover, my brother was at the final table this day, and it was pure magic. but my mother was pretty much not at ease with it as she was angry at me for busting my brother

InTErvIEw


2012 tournament Result earnings

24 june

WSoP $ 50,000 The Poker Players championship (event #45)43rd World Series of Poker (WSoP) 2012, Las Vegas

1 1,451,527

19 may

WPT $ 25,000 no Limit hold’em championshipWPT World championship, Las Vegas

3 424,618


14 dec.

ePL $ 20,000 mix-max no-Limit hold’em - League main event entry restricted - 2011-12 epic Poker League - event 3, Las Vegas

4 174,640

12 oct.WSoP € 10,000 mixed no Limit hold’em - 2011 World Series of Poker - europe, cannes

1 448,861

27 june

WSoP $ 2,500 omaha/Seven card Stud hi/Lo42nd World Series of Poker (WSoP) 2011, Las Vegas

2 158,148


5 july

WSoP $ 10,000 World championship - no Limit hold’em41st World Series of Poker (WSoP) 2010, Las Vegas

5 2,332,992

3 june

WSoP $ 10,000 Seven card Stud championship41st World Series of Poker (WSoP) 2010, Las Vegas

6 68,949

28 may

WSoP $ 50,000 The Players championship event 8 game41st World Series of Poker (WSoP) 2010, Las Vegas

1 1,559,046


19 oct.$ 5,000 no Limit hold’emFesta al Lago, Las Vegas

1 120,036

27 april

[WSoPc] $ 5,000 no Limit hold’em - championship eventWSoP circuit - caesars Palace, Las Vegas

2 143,512


7 nov.$ 10,000 no Limit hold’em - Shootout - Dennis Phillips chipleader challenge, Las Vegas

2 73,480

29 june

WSoP $ 10,000 World championship Pot Limit omaha39th World Series of Poker (WSoP) 2008, Las Vegas

3 331,279

8 april

$ 3,000 no Limit hold’emSixth annual Five Star World Poker classic - WPT World championship, Las Vegas

1 154,960

Total earnings (career): $ 14,069,764

Total 2012: $ 1,986,104

25 mar.

WPT $ 7,500 no Limit hold’em - championship event2008 World Poker challenge - WPT, reno

7 74,931


12 may$ 2,000 no Limit hold’emmirage Poker Showdown, Las Vegas

1 85,031

9 feb.

$ 10,000 no Limit hold’em - heads-Up championships2007 1st annual heads-Up championships, compton

3 53,750

15 jan.

[WSoPc] $ 5,000 no Limit hold’em - championship eventWSoP circuit - grand Tunica, robinsonville

6 90,873


2 aug.$ 1,000 no Limit hold’embellagio cup II, Las Vegas

1 134,440

31 may$ 2,000 no Limit hold’emmandalay bay Poker championship, Las Vegas

1 114,850

10 feb.$ 2,425 no Limit hold’em2006 L.a. Poker classic, Los angeles

2 124,402

29 jan.

WPT $ 9,700 WPT championship event - no Limit hold’em2006 borgata Winter open - WPT, atlantic city

1 1,173,373

19 jan.

WPT $ 10,000 championship event - no Limit hold’em2006 gold Strike World Poker open, Tunica

2 566,352


3 dec.$ 5,000 no Limit hold’emFourth annual Five Diamond World Poker classic, Las Vegas

4 56,660

12 may

$ 1,500 heads-Up US nLh championship2005 mirage Poker Showdown, Las Vegas

1 203,700

18 april

WPT $ 25,000 main event (WPT) - no Limit hold’em championshipThird annual Five-Star World Poker classic, Las Vegas

11 94,355

18 feb.

WPT $ 9,603 main event - no Limit hold’em championship2005 L.a. Poker classic, Los angeles

1 1,859,909

24 jan.

WPT $ 10,000 World Poker open championship event - no Limit hold’emThe Sixth annual Jack binion World Poker open, Tunica

5 288,241

5 dec.$ 2,000 no Limit hold’emFive-Diamond World Poker classic, Las Vegas

1 273,040

prIzE lIsT

DOylE BRUNsON“texas dolly”

“sOmETImEs ThE bEsT hElpIng hanD yOu can gET Is a gOOD fIrm push”

DoYleisMe oF tHe DaY:


ThE gODfaThEr Of pOkEr

find Doyle brunson at www.pokerroad.com

I’ve been trying to write a blog for several weeks and couldn’t do it for some strange reason. I’ve heard of writers block but it has never happened to me before. I feel bad because when a friend took over www.DoyleBrunson.com I agreed to write one every week. My only excuse is that I’ve been playing poker every day, 10-14 hours. I guess I’ve been so focused that I couldn’t concentrate on anything else. The good news is I’m on the best “heater” that I’ve had for years. This blog might be a lot of rambling but the only thing I know to do is start writing. I remember the old saying, “The longest journey begins with a single step.”The 2012 WSOP was pretty uneventful for me. I played in four tournaments and went fairly deep in three of them but failed to cash in any of them. It used to be the most exciting poker of the year when the WSOP came around but now it’s too much to play the long hours day after day with no immediate results. I’ve never really gotten into the “bracelet race” and the tournaments are for younger players and I wish all of them good luck and hope they have good results.Another memory of the 2012 WSOP will be my losing another scooter. It flew off the lift on my Escalade as I was leaving the Rio after day 1 of the Main Event. It was about 2 o’clock in the morning and as I made a sharp left on Flamingo I heard a strange noise behind me. I looked back and couldn’t see anything but I suspected my scoo-ter had broken loose. The traffic was so bad I couldn’t turn back, so I continued home where I could see the lift had malfunctioned and the scooter was gone. This confirmed the “WSOP Scooter Jinx.” I’ve lost three scoo-ters since I started using them a few years ago because of my bad leg and all three were during the WSOP. One had slipped off similar to this year and I never found it. Another time I left the key in my scooter when I went into the restroom and someone drove it away, never to be seen again. So I’ll be extremely careful next WSOP.I liked the joke one of my Twitter followers sent me. This homeless guy was at the Pearly Gate talking to God. God asked him “What are you doing here? Your time on earth isn’t up yet.” The homeless guy replied, “I was just walking along Flamingo Avenue in Las Vegas when this scooter comes flying through the air and here I am.” I’m certainly glad this isn’t a reality!

I didn’t follow the events closely because I was playing most of the time. I did notice that Phil Helmuth had a good series and won his 12th bracelet. It was a non hold-em event and perhaps now he will get the respect he deserves. Nobody plays harder or plays more events than Phil and it is evident he is becoming an all-around player. I was also proud of my son Todd, as he came in second in a tournament. He almost got his second bracelet which in my opinion is the most important and most difficult to win.Another thing is quite clear. Vanessa Selbst is not only the best female player in the world, she is one of the top poker players, male or female. I’ve always been a bottom line guy and you can’t deny the results Vanessa has had the past few years. She is a stand out favorite to be the first female poker player to win the main event in a future WSOP.While playing at a cash game at the Bellagio a strange thing happened. Some kid who looked like he might not be old enough to be in the casino walked into Bobby’s Room. He looked at all the cash and large denomination chips, then turned back and walked to the door as if he was leaving. He made a quick spin and came back to our game and looked directly at me. He then looked again at the money, turned and went out the door where several players at a different game heard him say, “I’m going to come back with a gun and take that money.” Someone alerted the floor supervisors who called security. When security got there we told them what had happened and they got the surveillance tapes and put out an alert on the Kid. Both of the games broke up as nervous players wanted to leave. I told the security man if he would allow me to get my gun I always carry in my car I would stay and keep playing. They of course said no so I left. I didn’t like the idea of being a sitting duck for some nut case.In the cash games we have at the Bellagio there is nothing worse than some pro who thinks they play so well they can’t lose. Just because a guy is a winning player doesn’t mean he (or she) can’t have an extended losing streak. It completely disgusts me when a competent player whines about playing conditions, bad cards, dealers or the players who are winning. Oh well, as Hyman Roth said in The Godfather, “This is the life we have chosen.”May the flop be with you. n

The 2012 WSoP was pretty uneventful for me. I played in four tournaments and went fairly deep in three of them but failed to cash in any of them


TONy g.

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parIs, parIs

The olympics is over and I must say I had the time of my life as an official Lithuanian

attaché. I have always been a huge basketball fan and to be involved with the team is a dream come true. It is time for me to come back to reality, however (must say I need that after I went to the athletes after party in the village – what

happened to their inhibitions?!) Poker is on the agenda and to warm up for a spell

in europe I am now in minsk, belarus, where I firmly believe

the best cash games in the world are at the current

time.

I am back to playing poker for the rest of the year. First up I will be representing PartyPoker at the WPT Grand Prix de Paris from September 10th – 15th. I haven’t been to the Aviation Club for a while now – the last time I went was in February 2011 for the National Series event. All I can say is Bruno Fitoussi get your finest cognac ready – I also hope that waiter who is qualified and got a big tip from me last time out is still there. Last time there we played a sit-and-go where the intention was for me to show just how bad the French players are. I busted but I was the top pro (bike time for Guillaume Darcourt).Anyway, I am looking forward to this event which will be fully televised so look forward to seeing Mike Sexton. There are plenty of places to smoke the shisha and even being at the ACF gives me memories of the time I came runner-up to that rock Surinder Sunar there back in 2004. I heard the WPT have produced a series called ‘Greatest Moments’ based on the old episodes and this one is in there – in fact it is the final episodes! I know Surinder will be in Paris and he is haunted for life by that experience, despite the fact that he won. I do need to moderate my drinking somewhat at the ACF but being a finely tuned Olympic athlete like I am now I know there will not be a problem! Some of the guys have talked about me taking cooking lessons and spending the night as a chef at a restaurant of Joel Robuchon - we’ll see. I know how to cook the finest wagyu medium rare on the barbecue for my dogs Zasko and Nordas so I am sure I have potential to qualify for this. Anyway it is time for me to conquer France – didn’t a British guy win the Tour de France? You need my guiding hand to send you all on your bikes! What you also have to remember is that it was in Paris that Howard Lederer and I first refused to shake hands. It is a place of deep significance.On PartyPoker during September there is a special promotion on where you can win the contents of my house – by that I mean EVERYTHING I HAVE. This will not be available in France and not on .Fr. I can only think this is

because of my generally superb behaviour in Paris and the intensely positive attitude I have to French players.Straight after Paris I am flying direct to WPT Malta. If rumours I am hearing are true I am going to be there with a certain Mr Phil Hellmuth again. Malta is a beautiful island but being in the commentary with him for the live stream after his inevitable day one bust out isn’t my idea of great fun. Actually, I lie, of course it will be fun, it will be paradise – needling Phil should be an Olympic sport and Lithuania would get gold! If you check out on the net you will see what fun I had last year. Hellmuth was bitten by a spider on the ear and resorted to taking drugs to heal the infection. I personally think I just got to him and I made his ear bleed – he didn’t turn into Peter Parker (I’m sure if there was a poker player who could it would be Phil as he is probably pals with Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield as well as Michael Phelps, Hilary Swank as well as a zillionaire trillionaire friend who isn’t Mark Zuckerberg). Malta is great – there is a reggae bar and even for a guy who stays in as much as I do these days there is plenty of colourful nightlife. Let’s get Hellmuth on the basketball court, let’s get him swimming (probably not best as he is firmly attached to the behind of retired human dolphin Michael Phelps).After that my intention is to go to WSOPE in Cannes. I enjoyed this last year and made a decent cash. Damn, that was some of the hardest poker I had played in a while – I just kept fighting and fighting. Talking of fighting it was also where Andrew Robl didn’t hear the declared all-in because of those damn evil headphones. It will be nice to see him there – what price he doesn’t have headphones on if I am at his table though? I’m not sure if the Caesars Cup is on this year but I appreciated the selection by Elky last year – we got the tactics wrong though – you needed to make sure Hellmuth was unable to avoid me. If it is on this year, I would have beaten him so hard at WPT Malta then that he will be hurting real bad. Victory will be a formality.


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upcOmIng TOurnamEnTs

This fall, the beautiful city of barcelona and its gorgeous gran casino will host two of the greatest international poker tournaments: first the amazing €1,000 + €100 european masters of Poker series, from September 13-16, then the legendary €1,500 + 150 World Poker Tour national Series, kicking off on october 25 and ending on october 29. Players will be flocking to Spain for this double poker treat, so if you want to join the action, and take part in these two major events, the catalonian capital will definitely be the place to be!

By Philippe Aronson

TOurnamEnT

ThE caTalOnIan capITal TO hOsT TwO majOr pOkEr TOurnamEnTs

WoRlD pokeR touR & euRopean MasteRs oF pokeR baRCelona


TThis fall, Cannes won’t be the only place hosting major events, as Barcelona, Spain’s number one poker city, will be the meeting point of some of the best players on the scene, with two international series at the sumptuous Gran Casino. This seaside venue, set in the Port Olimpic, is one of Europe’s most prominent casinos, as it has for the last decade hosted some of the biggest international tourna-ments, such as the European Poker Tour and the Unibet Open. This year it will prove yet again that it is one of the most happening casinos on earth, with the fourth edition of the European Masters of Poker, and the brand new World Poker Tour National Series.

a new Wpt national series stopAfter five editions of the biggest international circuit, in which hundreds of players generated millions in prize pools, Barcelona is now part of the WPT National Series Tour, with a lower buy-in that is sure to attract far more players than last year — when Swede Lukas Berglund went home with €231,500 and the title after defeating 215 oppo-nents, including Frenchman Romain Matteoli on heads-up. This year, you will be able to enter the Barcelonan leg of the WPT for only €1,500 + €150. This WPT National Se-ries will run from October 25-29, with two Day ones and a Re-entry option. The side events schedule has not yet been announced, but you can check on the WPT official Internet

ThE caTalOnIan capITal TO hOsT TwO majOr pOkEr TOurnamEnTs

hOw TO gET ThErE? By air: Barcelona El Prat International Airport is located 12 km from the city center and serves many European and world destinations via most major air-lines. Train service connects the airport with Sants railway station every thirty minutes and the Aerobús leaves for the Plaza de Catalunya every fifteen minutes. Bus N17 operates all night. A taxi ride to the city center costs approximately 25€.By train: La Estacion de Sants has daily rail connec-tions to French cities Montpellier and Paris. There are connections to Zurich four times a week and three to Milan.By car: From France, take the highway AP-7 to Barcelona-La Jonquera.

everything is in place to offer you a great poker experience in barcelona this fall


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page for updates. By all odds this brand new configuration is going to attract one of the biggest fields of the WPT Na-tional Series circuit, with crowds of poker pros at the tables vying for their share of the huge prize pool.

and a huge european circuit seriesOne month before this WPT series, Gran Casino Barcelona will host the fourth season of one of the most popular and lively European poker circuits, the European Masters of Poker. The EMOP €1,000 + €100 Main Event will kick off on September 13, and at least 400 players will join the ta-bles for this fourth edition, trying to grab the title won last

year by Norwegian player Andreas Hagen, for €100,100, af-ter besting his 454 opponents. But if you get to Casino Bar-celona earlier, you will have the opportunity to take part in some attractive side events, beginning September 10, with buy-ins ranging from €100 + €15 to €300 + €30, including two satellites to the Main Event and a 2-Day €300 + €30 NLHE event, running September 15-16.

Perfect organization, attractive buy-ins, an experienced floor, an international field and a lovely setting — every-thing is in place to offer you a great poker experience in Barcelona this fall!


2007 Field: 226 players; prize pool: e1,665,500 1st markus Lehmann €562,000 2nd Ludovic Lacay €295,2003rd christer Johansson €151,000

2008 Field: 243 players; prize pool: e1,278,396 1st casper hansen €425,000 2nd Stefan matsson €220,0003rd Thiago nishijima €112,300

2009 Field: 172 players; prize pool: e860,000 1st mark Flowers €277,000 2nd Per Sjogren €143,0003rd Dan Pedersen €84,000

2010 Field: 326 players; prize pool: e1,043,200 1st ali Tekintamgac €278,000 2nd roberto garcia Santiago €139,0003rd mats Iremark €139,000

2011 Field: 216 players; prize pool: e691,200 1st Lukas berglund €231,500 2nd romain matteoli €118,0003rd Frédéric bussit Fuentes €64,000

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2009 Field: 399 players; prize pool: e399,000 1st anton Wigg €55,502 2nd maciej Swicarz €73,6553rd Kristian m. Per eriksson €65,565

2010 Field: 432 players; prize pool: e414,720 1st matias Knaapinen €93,000 2nd Lennart Konst €56,2003rd Sean Prendiville €37,150

2011 Field: 455 players; prize pool: e455,000 1st andreas hagen €100,100 2nd Kenneth appell €60,5203rd Daniel marin €40,040

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rEsTauranTsDos palillosThis inspired fusion of Asian cuisine and Spanish tapas is brought to you by chef Albert Raurich, ex-head chef at the mythical El Bulli. Gorgeous Japanese burgers, sweet cherry tomato tempura, shrimp and foie gras shiu mai will make you want to come back for more. Also the wine selection is fantastic.Degustation menus €55 and €75. Lunchtime menu €20Address: 9 C/ Elisabets08001 BarcelonaWeb: http://www.dospalillos.com/Tel: +34 93 304 05 13

enotecaDiscover the heart and soul of contemporary Mediterranean cuisine at the hotel Arts’ Michelin-starred flagship restaurant: inspired by the food and produce of the region, this innovative cuisine brings out the best of Spanish products, with an emphasis on seafood. The cellar features more than 500 wines.Tasting menu €65Addess: Hotel Arts BarcelonaMarina 19-21 – 08005 BarcelonaWeb: http://www.hotelartsbarcelona.com/en/Dining/EnotecaTel: +34 93 483 81 08

arolaThe tapas restaurant of the Hotel Arts is also a pure gem. Disciple of French genius Pierre Gagnaire, chef Sergi Arola offers here a fine “menú degustación pica-pica” that is a selection of tapas mixing the best of Catalogna, France and the Far-East. Be prepared for a surprise-filled meal.Testing menu of tapas €50Address: Hotel Arts BarcelonaMarina 19-21 – 08005 BarcelonaWeb: http://www.hotelartsbarcelona.com/en/Dining/ArolaTel: +34 93 483 80 90

hOTElsbarceló atenea MarThe 4-star hotel Barceló Atenea Mar is the perfect sea-side retreat after a long day of poker: located on the seafront in the Sant Marti district of Barcelona, it has direct access to the beach at Nova Mar Bella. Its modern and elegant rooms and fantastic facilities — including a fitness center, a Jacuzzi and a massage service — will have you nicely rested and ready to hit the poker tables.Special rates for EMOP participants.Address: Paseo Garcia Faria 37-4708019 BarcelonaTel: +34 93 531 6040Email: [email protected]

Hotel artsWhen playing at the Casino de Barcelona, you won’t have to look very far to find the most prestigious hotel in town: the Hotel Arts is situated next door. The building itself is a treasure of contemporary architecture, with its forty-four stories of blue glass and exposed steel soaring high above the seafront. The 483 elegant apartments, suites and bedrooms all have fantastic bathrooms and offer state-of-the-art entertainment; some even boast a stunning fireplace. This is definitely the place to relax in perfect luxury. Special rates for EPT participants.Address: Marina 19-21 – 08005 BarcelonaWeb: http://www.hotelartsbarcelona.comTel: +34 93 221 10 00

Hotel WConveniently located on the breakwater at the very end of Passeig Joan de Borbó, a stone’s throw from the casino, this brand-new 5-star hotel has the most stun-ning views of sea and city, and its 473 rooms are all equipped with a telescope. The décor strikes a perfect balance of modernity and simplicity for an exquisite stylish atmosphere. Rooms from €150.Address: 1 Plaça de la Rosa dels Vents08039 BarcelonetaWeb: http://www.whotels.com/barcelonaTel: +34 93 295 28 00


nIghT lIfEopium MarClose to the hotel Arts, this trendy establishment is one of the hottest hang-outs in Barcelona for dancing and drinking, with the best international DJs rocking the largest seafront terrace in town. The club has a license until 6 a.m.Address: 25 Paseo Marítimo de la Barceloneta08003 BarcelonaWeb: http://www.opiummar.com/Tel: +34 90 226 74 86

MarmaladeOne of Raval’s more sophisticated watering holes, Marmalade features an elegant but unpretentious ambi-ance that is sure to appeal to a diverse crowd. Original cocktails are served in a stunning contemporary décor, and hitting the superb matte-black billiard table is a great way to socialize with the locals.Address: 4-6 Riera Alta08001 BarcelonaWeb: http://www.marmaladebarcelona.com/Tel: +34 93 442 39 66

after the great success of the casinos austria Poker Tour since 2008, the series is back for a fifth season, offering six weeks of poker all over austria and a three-day €2,000 grand finale in baden from october 27-29. and there is more: from october 25 to november 3, the casino baden will also host the 23rd european Poker championship. In addition to its €4,000 Texas hold’em no Limit tournament, a 2012 european poker championship title in omaha Pot Limit will also be played, with a €3,000 buy-in. With three opportunities to win big in baden this fall, you have every reason to make a trip to austria!

By Myke Lunca

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ThE 23rd EurOpEan pOkEr champIOnshIp hIghlIghTs ThE bIggEsT ausTrIan pOkEr sErIEs

Casinos austRia pokeR touR baDen anD euRopean pokeR CHaMpionsHip


AAustria is very well known for poker in Europe. Having legal casinos since 1775 has instilled a culture of gam-bling that is still alive and thriving. Thanks to the suc-cess of the Casinos Austria Poker Tour, poker players are coming to Austria in hordes to play in the week of tournaments and cash games in Seefeld, Bregenz, Salz-burg, Innsbruck, Velden and Graz. And next October, they are all expected in Baden for a unique combination of tournaments.The 23rd European poker championship will begin on October 25 with a €500 two-day deepstack NHL event, followed by the €2,000 Main Event of the Casinos Austria Poker Tour, from October 27 to 29. On the 29th also starts a 3-day €3,000 Poker EM Omaha Pot Limit event; the win-ner of this brand new event will be crowned European champion, as well as the player who will dominate the €4,000 Texas Hold’em No Limit Freezeout event starting on October 31.

two Hungarian champions in 2011Last year, the CAPT Main Event was won by Hungarian Szabolcs Mayer, who went home with €81,435, besting a field of 157 players who had generated a prize pool of €298,300, and the happy European champion was anoth-er Hungarian, Zoltan Szabo, who won €150,425 against a field of 145 players for a total prize pool of €551,000. Who will succeed the Magyars?

For the 23rd edition of the European Poker Championship, as every year, the total prize pool is expected to reach over €5,000,000, so there is a lot of money up for grabs, and three great opportunities to win. But money is not the only motivation here. Austria in general and Baden in particular have a lot to offer.

the biggest casino in europeFor this exciting week of poker, the best Austrian and Eu-ropean players will sit at the tables of the Grand Casino Baden, located in the center of Austria, near Vienna. This Baden of Austria stands for fitness, culture and elegance, and its home of internationally renowned high-class spa and operetta theatre, perfectly combining entertainment and relaxation. With its magnificent surroundings near the vineyards, and its extravagant interior, the Grand Ca-sino, opened in 1934 in the Kurhaus and moved to the Kon-gresshaus in 1968 is one of the biggest in Europe, and wel-comes high profile personalities looking for entertainment in a wonderful setting, all year long. The casino might be a sumptuous venue, but the CAPT it-self is a breath of fresh air when it comes to Poker Tour-naments worldwide. Offering a highly trained staff that moves games along at a great pace while still remaining friendly, the tournament’s structure allows ample play time for everyone, and is so classy you will feel like you are in a James Bond movie. So if you want a taste of Austrian luxury and organization, and take your chances in three big events, pack your winter clothes — the Grand Casino Baden is waiting for you!

ThE 23rd EurOpEan pOkEr champIOnshIp hIghlIghTs ThE bIggEsT ausTrIan pOkEr sErIEs

hOw TO gET ThErE? By air: You will first need to fly to Vienna, whose international airport, Flughafen Wien, is served by two national airlines, Austrian Airlines and Austrian Arrows, and has regular connections to all the major cities in Europe and elsewhere on most major interna-tional airlines. Baden is about 20km south of Vienna. From there, you have several options.By car: Just take highway A2/Südautobahn and leave the highway at the exit Baden. By train: “The Badner Bahn” leaves to Baden opposite the Vienna Opera. It takes about one hour to arrive in Baden center. Otherwise, there are trains depart-ing from Vienna’s biggest train station Südbahnhof as well. These faster trains arrive in Baden in about 25 minutes. The disadvantage of this option is that you have to take a taxi or another bus from Baden train station to arrive in the center.By bus: There is a bus (direction Bad Vöslau) from the Opera house in Vienna to Baden as well. It takes about 40 minutes to arrive in the center of Baden.


rEsTauranTsDo & Co RestaurantsThe Grand Casino has some of the best restaurants in Baden, offering first-rate cuisine from DO & CO. All three of these establishments has a distinctive décor for a special atmosphere: Kuppelrestaurant is black and gold with a sumptuous cupola ceil-ing — and the smoking area is under the massive dome — Casinorestaurant is violet and red with a very modern touch, and Parkrestaurant is all white with fantastic views on the park of the Baden resort.Address: Haselstrasse 2 – 5400 BadenTel. +43 2252 43 502 [email protected]

schlosskellerIf you like the rustic atmospheres of the authentic Alpine style, then you’ll love the historic Schlosskeller, a beau-tifully curved cellar turned into a high-end restaurant serving traditional Austrian specialties as well as the best wines from the thermal region of Baden.Address: Hotel Schloss WeikersdorfSchlossgasse 9-11 – 2500 Baden Tel. +43 22 52 483 [email protected]

hOTElsHotel schloss WeikersdorfThe 4-star Hotel Weikersdorf Residenz & Spa is located in an impressive Renaissance palace in Baden, just a short ride from the Grand Casino. There, you’ll find quiet and gorgeous rooms and 1,000 square meters of fitness and spa facilities to get you in shape before — or after — a great day of poker: tennis courts and bowling alleys if you have energy to spare, swimming pools and scented baths if you just want to relax. Rooms from €99.Address: Schlossgasse 9-11 – 2500 Baden Tel. +43 22 52 483 [email protected]

Hotel HerzoghofDirectly across from the casino, with a view of the Kurpark and only a few steps from the historic town center lies the tradition-steeped Hotel Herzoghof. 4 stars, exquisite rooms and an in-house relaxation center make this establishment an excellent and very convenient place to stay for CAPT participants. Special rates for CAPT participants.Address: Kaiser-Franz-Ring 10 – 2500 Baden Tel. +43 22 52 872 970Fax +43 22 52 206 [email protected]

Hotel admiral am kurparkDirectly across from the Casino and the Kurpark, this luxurious 4-star establishment hotel is in the very heart of Baden. Tastefully furnished, climate-controlled rooms featuring the most modern facilities, will make your stay a genuine bliss. Relax and concentrate on poker! Special rates for CAPT participants.Address: Renngasse 8 – 2500 Baden Tel. +43 2252 867 99 0Fax +43 2252 867 99 [email protected]

nIghT lIfElipizzaner barThe rustic ambience of the Lipizzaner Bar is the perfect setting to take a cocktail or enjoy a cup of tea. Its cozy, casual atmosphere makes it the ideal place to relax after a rough game, and try the Tia Maria, Alexander, or Side Car, some of their signature cocktails, or let the creativity of the bartender surprise you: tell him your astrological sign, your favorite color and he will cre-ate an exquisite custom-made drink specially for you. Open 18:00 – 01:00.Address: Hotel Schloss WeikersdorfSchlossgasse 9-11 – 2500 Baden Tel. +43 22 52 483 [email protected]

W3This brand new cocktail bar is the new hot place in town. With its chic and modern décor, it’s the place to be and the best place in town to have drinks in a trendy atmosphere and mix with the young local crowds. 18:00-02:00Address: Pergerstrasse 11 – 2500 BadenTel: +43 681 81607874

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2008 Field: 117 players; prize pool: e222,300 1st Johann Fest €62,230 2nd Stefan heil €44,4603rd Vlado Sevo €31,120

2009 Field: 157 players; prize pool: e298,300 1st Wasi akhund €81,430 2nd Dragan galic €57,8703rd Serguey Pomeranzev €40,570

2010 Field: 126 players; prize pool: e239,400 1st harry casagrande €67,030 2nd Daniel Studeer €47,8803rd robert riedmann €33,515

2011 Field: 157 players; prize pool: e298,300 1st Szabolcs mayer €81,435 2nd clemens manzano €57,8703rd andreas Werner €40,570

2008 Field: 164 players; prize pool: e623,200 1st Sandra naujoks €174,500 2nd alexander Kravchenko €124,6403rd Stefan rapp €87,250

2009 Field: 189 players; prize pool: e718,200 1st martin Kabrhel €190,320 2nd besim hot €135,0203rd Jan bendik €94,800

2010 Field: 155 players; prize pool: e589,000 1st mihai manole €160,800 2nd Dragan galic €114,2653rd markus Feurle €80,105

2011 Field: 145: players; prize pool: e551,000 1st zoltan Szabo €150,425 2nd Stefan rapp €106,8953rd Khiem nguyen €74,935

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The biggest poker series in the world will be growing again this year, with two new additions to its busy schedule: mazagan in morocco and copenhagen in Denmark, these two lucky cities having been picked by the World Poker Tour to host fantastic new events. copenhagen will follow Jacksonville and precede mazagan, for a week of competition in casino copenhagen from november 12-17, with a 24,000 DKK + 2,250 DKK main event buy-in. Let’s see what the World Poker Tour has in store for this inaugural stop.

By Mathilde Dunn

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hOw TO gET ThErE? By air: Kastrup, 9km southeast of the city center, is Copenhagen’s airport and Scandinavia’s busi-est hub, with f lights from over 100 cities across the world. There are direct flights to Copenhagen from Europe, Asia and North America, as well as a handful of Danish cities.By boat: Daily ferries connect Oslo and Copenhagen, and Bornholm and Copenhagen.By train: Copenhagen Central Station has direct con-nections to all the main cities in Europe, especially in neighboring countries such as Germany or Sweden.By car: Getting to Copenhagen by car is convenient due to the excellent roads and motorways, especially if you come from nearby Germany or Sweden. But be careful: expensive bridge tolls are levied at the Great Belt Bridge between Funen and Zealand and at the Øresund Bridge between Zealand and Sweden.

IIt had stops in warm Mediterranean islands such as Cy-prus, in great capital cities such as Paris, un Eastern Eu-ropean beauties like Prague, or legendary poker kingdoms like Atlantic City or Las Vegas, but the World Poker Tour never had an event in Northern Europe — until this year. As Nordics are crazy about poker, it was high time to create a major stop for them; which is why, for the first time ever, this great poker competition will be played in Copenhagen.

a tough and diverse fieldFrom November 12-17, a whole week of poker will be played in Casino Copenhagen, the biggest international casino in North-ern Europe, and there is no doubt it will attract crowds of play-ers from all over Scandinavia, as well as neighboring Germany, the Netherlands, and beyond. We are expecting a very diverse field, but let us not forget that with the likes of Gus Hansen, Theo Jorgensen, Peter Eastgate, Lars Bonding, Philip Hilm, Al-len Baekke, Jesper Houggaard, Mads Andersen, Jan Sorensen, the Danes have some of the best players in the world… So be-ware of Copenhagen, things are going to get rough.However, Denmark having great players is not the only rea-son the WPT decided to create a new event there. The Eu-ropean Poker Tour and the World Series of Poker have had

stops in Copenhagen for years, and it was just matter of time before the WPT did the same. To tell the truth, you don’t need an excuse to want to stop in this beautiful Nordic city.

Copenhagen, a great city for poker... but not onlyFirst of all, Copenhagen, like any other Scandinavian city, is well organized. You can be sure that the new event of the EPT will run smoothly there, despite it being the first time: just leave it to the Danes’ sense of perfectionism. Second of all, the capital city has the biggest international casino in Northern Europe, which has been running for 110 years; with such a long gam-bling tradition, the Danes really know their subject. Last but not least, November is a great time to enjoy winter wonderland in the beautiful, clean and walkable city of Copenhagen, which features some of the best restaurants in the world, some of the greatest designers’ hotels, and magical amusement park Tivoli’s gorgeous 19th century charm. So even if you don’t make it to the final table, there is no way you will get bored in Denmark!

the usual structure for the new eventThe event will follow the usual WPT structure: on Novem-ber 12, the 24,000 DKK + 2,250 DKK Main Event (roughly €3,500) will kick off and the final table will play on November 17, with quite a number of satellites and side events before and in between. To know all the details of this brand new event’s schedule, check updates on the official website of the World Poker Tour: http://www.worldpokertour.com/Shared/Tourna-ments/Seasons/Season_XI/WPT_Copenhagen.aspxSo if you want to be the first ever to win the title of World Poker Tour champion in Copenhagen, pack your coats, hats and gloves as it is going to be freezing out there, and prepare your best game, because the Danes are sure to put up a ferocious fight. This is the kind of victory that won’t come easily, but the reward will definitely be worth it.

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rEsTauranTsnomaLet’s be practical. When in Copenhagen, you have to try the best restaurant in the world! Noma has been praised internationally for its inventive yet very local cuisine, mixing the best of the culinary treasures of Scandinavia such as salmon, scallops and crab, but you’ll have to book far in advance. 20-course menu from 1,500 DKK.Address: Strandgade 93 – DK-1401 CopenhagenTel: +45 3296 [email protected]

the Dining RoomThe highly acclaimed gourmet restaurant of the Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel features a panoramic view of the city in a chic, modern atmosphere. From tenderloin beef with truffles to lamb with white beans, the menu is an offering of the best of European cuisine. Menu from 455 DKK.Address: Hammerichsgade 1 – 1611 CopenhagenTel: +45 3396 [email protected]

alberto k at the RoyalConsistently rated among the top restaurants in Denmark, Alberto K at the Royal boasts an impecca-ble menu and outstanding views of Copenhagen. The gourmet restaurant offers a light, modern menu based on seasonal Danish produce. Alberto K also features a sleek design inspired by renowned hotel architect Arne Jacobsen. 5-course menu from 675 DKK.Address: Hammerichsgade 1 – 1611 CopenhagenTel: +45 3342 [email protected]

hOTElsRadisson blu scandinavia HotelUltra-modern, chic, and elegant, the most famous hotel in Copenhagen is perfectly situated if you want to get to the casino in a heartbeat, or if you’d rather discover the charms of the Nordic city. The spacious rooms feature the most ravishing pieces of Scandinavian design, both simple and elegant, and the facilities will introduce you to the cozy Danish lifestyle, in the most luxurious way. Special rates for WPT participants.Address: Hammerichsgade 1 – 1611 CopenhagenTel: +45 33 426 [email protected]

avenue HotelSituated within walking distance of the Copenhagen Casino, the effortlessly cool and friendly 5-star Avenue Hotel is situated in leafy Frederiksberg, Copenhagen’s answer to Notting Hill. This 19th-century townhouse has been a hotel since 1939, and has the feel of a very stylish private home. The 68 rooms are sumptuously decorated, and offer the best comfort in town. Single room from 1,100 DKK.Address: Åboulevard 29 – 1960 CopenhagenTel. +45 3537 [email protected]

CHp livingA stone’s throw from the casino but another world unto itself, CHP Living is a floating hotel. This spacious boat has been decorated with refined Nordic taste, and fea-tures comfortable rooms with a gorgeous sundeck, and is located in the very heart of the city, which is the most beautiful part of town and the most convenient to get to Casino Copenhagen. Quiet, scenic, extraordinary. Double room from 1,000 DKK.Address: Langebrogade 1 – 1411 Copenhagen KTel: +45 6160 [email protected]

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nIghT lIfEthe Royal barThe Royal Bar is the place to meet before or after dinner. Savor a cup of coffee and the “cake of the day” before the game or have a drink from the huge selection on offer, including the AJ cocktail, named after hotel archi-tect Arne Jacobsen. Opening hours: 11:00 - Midnight (Mon – Wed and Sun), 11:00 - 02:00 (Thu – Fri), 15:00 - 02:00 (Sat)Address: Hammerichsgade 1 – 1611 CopenhagenTel: +45 3342 6052

VegaDespite being one of the oldest clubs in town, Vega remains both a cutting-edge venue for the best DJs in Europe, and the preferred destination of global stars such as Prince, Jamie Cullum and Arctic Monkeys. Store Vega hosts the major live acts, while Lilla Vega is a great place to catch the up-and-comers of the music world and becomes the Vega Nightclub and Lounge on weekends. The Ideal Bar allows you to lounge in style with a cocktail, and plays easy listening grooves. Openin hours: Wed 7 PM-4 AM. Thurs-Sat 7PM-5 AM.Address: Enghavevej 40 – 1674 Copenhagen VTel: +45 3325 7011http://vega.dk/

the unionA dark, secretive space hidden behind a black door, the Union offers soft 50s music tinkling in the background, impeccable drinks and a decor reminiscent of a glitter-ing underground prohibition joint straight out of the Big Apple. Sophisticated and chic — and very trendy. Opening hours: Wed-Thurs 8 PM-2 AM. Fri 4PM-late. Sat 8PM-late.Address: Store Strandstræde 16 – 1255 CopenhagenTel: +45 4119 6976http://www.theunionbar.dk/

SFrom october 17-21, the casino de marrakech, located in the heart of the moroccan “red city,” will host the 27th edition of the marrakech Poker open — the perfect occasion to discover the treasures of morocco and enjoy the luxury of the es-Saadi gardens and resort, an 8-million-square-meter paradise.

By Nick Hornburg

Some places can combine poker action and refinement, and when poker players get the chance to take part in an in-teresting series held in a very special oasis located on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, they never forget it. The Es-Saadi Gardens and Resort, home of the Casino de Marrakech, is one of those rare paradises where, more than a game, poker becomes a complete experience. In the heart of the busy and cosmopolitan city, a few steps from the big-gest souk and one of the busiest squares in Africa, the Dje-maa el Fna Square, the complex faces the mountains of the Atlas. It features a sumptuous park, a hotel, a palace, villas, restaurants, swimming pools, spas, an outlandish casino, and the best nightclub in Morocco, the TheatrO. This is

the perfect place to live the dream of 1001 nights, a perfect combination of luxury and refinement with Moroccan tra-ditional hospitality. The Casino, established in 1952, fea-tures 100 gaming machines and 24 tables in an astonishing atmosphere, and since 2009 it has hosted the World Poker Tour, in which local players do battle with international poker pros for a massive prize pool. Casino de Marrakech is also known as the home of the Marrakech Poker Open, the oldest and the most regular poker series of the con-tinent, which thrice yearly attracts experimented players from Africa and Europe. French players always feel at home in Marrakech, as the last champion, Pierre Picherit, proved in May, 2012, when he won the 26th edition for €46,138.

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a brand new schedule for its 27th editionThis 27th edition, running from October 17 to 21, benefits some improvements, and it will be bigger than its predeces-sors, with no less than 15 events. For starters, the €1,350 Main Event with a €180,000 guaranteed prize pool will run over three days, from October 19-21, and will allow for the first time ever the re-entry option. Four €135 Satellites to the Main Event will be held on October 18 and 19, includ-ing a 1 rebuy or addon tournament, offering the chance to grab a ticket for a tenth of the price. Six interesting side events will also feature in this Moroccan series, with a ′500 2-Day Deepstack event on October 17 and 18, a €500 NLHE tournament on the 20th, and a €225 Short Handed event the day after. A new €135 bounty event will run on the 18th, and the €135 Mississippi tournament will be held on the two last days, as will the brand new €2,700 High Roller event and its re-entry option, which will surely see intense action at the tables on October 20 and 21. And, as usual, the cash games will run 24/7. Numerous packs are provided by

Casino de Marrakech, ranging from €500 to €2,000. Check all the details on www.poker-marrakech.com/marrakech-poker-open/mpo-oct-2012.Wonderful settings and facilities, experiences players and perfect organization, this 27th Marrakech Poker Open is the perfect opportunity to combine lazy holidays and intense poker action.

a hEavEnly aTmOsphErE aT Es-saaDI garDEns anD rEsOrT hOw TO gET ThErE?

Marrakech-Menara Airport is served by airlines from all over Europe, such as Easyjet, Ryanair, Thomson Airways, Norwegian, Iberia and TAP Portugal, which provide direct flights from major cities such as London, Manchester, Madrid, Lyon, Lisbon, Frankfurt, Alicante, Girona, Copenhagen, Oslo, and Stockholm. From out-side Europe, you’ll have to change planes in Casablanca Airport. Royal Air Morocco flights from the country’s major cities. 24/7 taxi service from Menara Airport to the city center (15 minutes).

For booking and information:Phone: +212 5 2433 8811Website: www.essaadi.com/EN


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chrIsTmas anD pOkEr magIc In ThE czEch rEpublIc

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The european Poker Tour is heading back to festive Prague for the sixth time this winter with a seven-day €5,300 main event from December 9-15. The greatest european series will once again attract players from all over the continent and beyond; the huge money prize is expected to be bigger than last year, when the popular event attracted a massive 722 players and was won for a first prize of €720,000 by martin Finger. Who will succeed the german champion? come to Prague next christmas and take your chances!

By Julien Morello

This winter, right before Christmas, the European Poker Tour is back in Prague for the sixth time with a €5,300 Main Event where a champion will be crowned after five days of play. Crowds of players will come from all over Eu-rope to take part to this amazing series and to enjoy the delights of this wonderful eastern European city during winter wonderland. You are guaranteed to have a snowy and beautiful stay in Prague, and hopefully a good run on the poker table.

the city of a thousand towersDivided in two parts by the Vltava River, Prague is one of the most beautiful capitals in the world. Its thousand-year-old history, its numerous architectural sights and attractions make the political, cultural and economical center of the Czech Republic an open-air museum. Since 1990, it has become one of Europe’s most popular tour-ist destinations. There is a lot to do and see in the “city of thousand towers,” and you can explore its intimate city center by foot, walking across romantic bridges and through small medieval streets.The main tourist sights are the Old Town Hall and the Tyn Church, the two major buildings of Staromestske Na-mesti, the central square of the city, the Old Town Bridge Tower, the Charles Bridge, symbol of the Czech Republic, and of course the Prague Castle, a collection of opulent palaces, picturesque streets and impressive churches on top of a hill, from where you can enjoy a great view of the entire city.

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Christmas markets and winter wonderlandContemporary cultural life is in itself an attraction in Prague, with many museums, operas, concert halls and galleries. The Czech National Museum, the Prague City Gallery, the Czech Museum of Fine Arts and the Museum of Decorative Arts are among the most visited institutions. For music lovers, the AghaRTA Jazz Centrum and the Un-gelt Jazz & Blues Club are the place to be, but you can enjoy good music performances in the street by swinging jazz bands.

Christmas season is the perfect time to visit this stun-ning city with its famed Yuletide markets featuring gingerbread, hot wine stalls, and a great atmosphere. From late November, Christmas Markets occupy the squares of the city, selling arts, craft, Czech specialties and Prague souvenirs — the perfect places to shop for Christmas presents.

a record-breaking field in 2011 to best in 2012From December 9-15, the European Poker Tour will bring

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action to the Hilton Prague Hotel, where a sixth champion will be crowned, one year after German Martin Finger’s success, when the young player — he’s only 21 — left Prague with the huge first prize of €720,000, besting a record-breaking field of 722. This year, the Main Event’s buy-in remains unchanged, €5,300, and we are expecting some great satellites and side events, such as the €3,200 Heads Up event, the €330 and €1,100 Pot Limit Omaha tournaments, the numerous NLHE events, with buy-ins ranking from €330 to €2,150, and the highly awaited two-day €10,300 High-Roller event, won in 2011 by American player John Andress for €176,400.

A lot of participants have come to the Czech Republic since 2007, such as Liv Boeree, Luca Pagano, Marcel Luske, James Akenhead, Kevin MacPhee, Anton Wigg, Dominik Nitsche, Theo Jorgensen, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Marcin Horecki, and Arnaud Mattern, who launched his poker pro carrier in Prague in 2007, overcoming 554 op-ponents for a €708.400 first prize. This year again, the first prize will be huge in the Czech capital!

hOw TO gET ThErE? By air: There are direct flights from just about every European capital to Prague Ruzyne Airport, including many with budget airlines such as Easyjet. There are also some direct flights from North America to Prague. Prague airport is located 20km northwest of the city. A taxi ride to the city center takes 20-25 minutes and costs around 700 CZK (€27).

By train: Prague is well connected to the European EC train network. It will take you 4 ½ hours from Berlin, 4 ¾ from Vienna, 5/6 hours from Munich/Nuremberg. Direct night trains connect Prague with Cologne, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Zürich, Basel, Krakow, Moscow, Kiev, Saint Petersburg and Odessa. All international trains arrive at Praha hlavní nádraží, the central station, abbreviated to Praha hl.n.

By car: Though Prague has highway connections from five major directions, driving to Prague is not the most convenient way to reach the city. Unfortunately, the highway network in the Czech Republic is quite incomplete and some highways are old and in poor condition. Thus, the highway connection from Prague to the border of the Czech Republic is available only in two directions: southeast and southwest.


hOTElsHilton prague Hotel Named best hotel in the Czech republic for four years running, the Hilton Prague Hotel is the most luxuri-ous establishment in town. 791 exquisite rooms and suites, gym, swimming pool, sauna, steam room, Jacuzzi and even indoor cycling and squash are all waiting for you in this gorgeous hotel that will host the EPT tournament — so you won’t have to rush to the poker tables, they’re right at home! Special rates for EPT participants. • Address: Pobrezni 1 Prague 186 00 Tel: +420 224 841 111 http://www.hiltonprague.com

prague Marriott HotelA few steps from Old Town Square and the EPT venue at the Hilton, this upscale hotel evokes clas-sic European charm and welcomes you with elegant accommodations: 293 guest rooms and 35 suites with a safe, 32-inch LCD TV and broadband Internet access. Rooms from €115.• Address: V Celnici 8Prague 110 00 Tel: +420 222 888 888http://www.marriott.com

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nIghT lIfECloud 9 sky bar & loungeCloud 9 sky bar & lounge is the Czech Republic’s premier sky bar. Located 40 meters above ground on the rooftop of the Hilton hotel, this cocktail bar offers stunning views of the city and the Vltava River. Sip on a Milky Way or Star Dust while soaking up spectacular Prague views through the glass walls or from the open terrace. Opening hours: 6 PM-2AM.• Address: Pobrezni 1 Prague 186 00 Tel: +420 224 842 [email protected]

karlovy lazne ClubKarlovy Lazne is the largest music club complex in Central Europe, and one of the coolest places in Prague to hang out. For party animals, this is the place to be! You’ll find five clubs on five levels, each floor with its own style, from disco to hardcore trance; enough variation to keep even the most passionate clubber entertained all night. Opening hours: 9PM-5AM daily.• Address: Novotneho Lavka 5Old Town, Prague 1Tel: +420 222 220 [email protected]

rEsTauranTsCzecHouse grill & RotisserieThe CzecHouse Grill & Rotisserie is the Hilton Prague hotel’s f lagship restaurant, renowned for its blend of contemporary European cuisine and traditional Czech specialties prepared in a modern way. Relax in a designer dining room featuring a show kitchen, watch professional chefs prepare signature dishes; with a great variety of local and international wines, you are guaranteed an exquisite dining experience. Full-course meal from €50. • Address: Pobrezni 1 Prague 186 00 Tel: +420 224 842 [email protected]

piano nobileThis restaurant is a genuine jewel worth trying even though it will be a little out of your way if you’re staying at the Hilton. Located on the top floor of Villa Richter, a classicist summerhouse dating from 1836, Piano Nobile is set amongst the extensive vines of one of Bohemia’s oldest vineyards. There, you’ll be able to enjoy gems of Austrian, Hungarian, Slovenian, Tyrolean, Croatian and Jewish cuisine, given a modern twist by the head chef, and the best wines of the region. Amazing. Full-course meal from €80. • Address: Staré zámecké schody 6/251118 00, Praha 1Pražský hradTel: +420 257 219 [email protected]


2007 Field: 555 players; prize pool: €2,530,2401st arnaud mattern (France): €708,4002nd: gino alacqua (Italy): €407,3003rd: Kristian Kjondal (norway): €235,300

2008 Field: 570 players; prize pool: €2,764,500 1st Salvatore bonavena (Italy): €774,0002nd: massimo Di-cicco (Italy): €445,0003rd: andrew chen (canada): €257,000

2009 Field86 players; prize pool: €2,842,100 1st Jan Skampa (czech republic): €682,0002nd: eyal avitan (Israel): €454,0003rd: Stefan matsson (Sweden): €255,000

2010 Field: 563 players; prize pool: €2,730,550 1st roberto romanello (Wales): €640,0002nd: emiliano bono (Italy): €435,0003rd: marcin horecki (Poland): €247,000

2011 Field: 772 players; prize pool: €3,501,700 1st martin Finger (germany): €720,0002nd: Danyel boyaciyan (netherlands): €535,0003rd: nicolas Levi (France): €270,000

ept pRague

lIsT Of wInnErs2010 Field: 26 players; prize pool: €254,0001st nichlas mattsson (Sweden): €127,0002nd: John o’Shea (Ireland): €76,0003rd: alexander Luber (germany): €51,800

2011 Field: 50 players; prize pool: €490,000 1st John andress (United States): €176,0002nd: mike mcDonald (canada): €112,7003rd: Philipp gruissem (germany): €68,600

hIgh rOllEr

christmas season is the perfect time to visit this stunning city with its famed Yuletide markets featuring gingerbread, hot wine stalls, and a great atmosphere


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sEasOn XI back TO ThE mEDITErranEan IslanD

WoRlD pokeR touR Malta

grab your bags! The beautiful casino at Portomaso will once again host the greatest international poker competition for five days, from September 16-20. This fantastic event is the perfect opportunity to play the legendary tournament under the late summer sun of this gorgeous mediterranean island, and maybe bring home a share of the massive prize pool generated by the €3,000 + €300 buy-in. So if you want to succeed last year’s winner matt giannetti who grabbed €200,000, come to malta; here is what to expect.

By Philippe Aronson


sEasOn XI back TO ThE mEDITErranEan IslanD

AAdded to the World Poker Tour European schedule last year along with Slovenia and the Czech Repub-lic, WPT Malta immediately became one of the mythical circuit’s most international stops. It will run once again this season for five days of intense competition, from September 16-20. Strategically lo-cated in the crystal clear waters of the Mediterranean Sea, between Italy and Tunisia, and (con-ven-iently) being an English-speaking country, Malta wel-comes international players in great conditions, and with poker still growing in popularity in the archipelago and Italy, its closest neighbor, no doubt this second edition of the WPT Malta is going to be packed!

Home of huge international eventsThe scenic Portomaso Casino in St. Julians is the hottest place in this small subtropical paradise. The elegant com-plex is an integral part of the unique marina located on the main island’s North-Eastern coast and is the biggest and most comfortable facility dedicated to gambling in the country. Now used to hosting big international events such as the GSOP (next edition in early September), the IPT and the Unibet Open, the Portomaso attracted 240 players last year for the first edition of its WPT stop, a €3,000 + €300 event, bringing together first-comers and some of the big-gest stars in the poker world and generating a €698,400 prize pool.

a successful first editionAmerican poker pros Tony G and Phil Hellmuth flew all the way to the small Mediterranean island to take their chances but were bested by a much tougher field than they had expected, as 2011 November Niner Matt Gian-netti produced an exceptional performance throughout the final day. The American player emerged victorious after his heads-up against Italian Cecilia Pescaglini, who nearly became the first-ever woman champion in WPT history, and the two best players returned home with respectively €200,000 and €116,700.

5 days of tough battleThis year, the buy-in will remain €3,000 + €300, and several online and live satellites to this big tournament will run until September 16. The starting stacks are set to 30,000 coins, for 60 minutes rounds, and the usual WPT Re-entry option will allow players who have been busted during the Day 1A to enter once again on Day 1B. Two side events will also run during this Maltese series, with a 3-Day €1,000 + €100 event, and a 2-Day €500 + €50 tournament. With a crowd of amateurs giving a big buy-in tournament a try for the first time and plenty of online qualifiers in the field, WPT Malta is a great op-portunity to achieve a breakthrough in a major interna-tional series. But beware of the card sharks, as factions of Italian, French, English, Swedish and American pros will be there too, making this event a thrilling poker experience!

hOw TO gET ThErE? By air: Malta possesses its own national carrier, Air Malta, with regular connections to many European, North African and Middle Eastern centers.Ryanair f lies from London Luton, Edinburgh, Eindhoven, Dublin, Madrid, Marseille, Trapani, Bristol, Pisa, Kaunas, Krakow, Stockholm, Malmö, Seville, Valencia, Venice, Wroclaw, Girona, Birmingham and Bari. Easyjet flies from Belfast, Manchester, Newcastle, Rome, Milan Malpensa and London Gatwick. The island’s international Airport is located at Gudja.

By ferry: There are frequent fast ferries to the Sicilian port of Catania (3 hours) and Pozzallo, Italy (90 minutes), but the seas can be turbulent. On large passenger ships, the ride takes twice as long. Other destinations include Livorno, Salerno, Rome, Palermo, Genoa and Tunis. However, dis-count airlines can be more convenient and the prices of their flights are often comparable to the cost of a boat trip.


hOTElsHilton MaltaThe Hilton Malta hotel is located in the prestigious Portomaso waterfront overlooking the harbor. This Malta hotel features five restaurants, three bars and four outdoor pools, two children’s pools and a heated indoor pool area. Just 15 minutes from UNESCO World Heritage Valletta, the Hilton Malta hotel is perfectly placed for poker players as it is a stone’s throw from the casino. Rooms from €125.• Address: PortomasoSt Julians PTM 01Tel: +356 2138 3383http://www3.hilton.com

le Meridien st Julian’s Hotel and spaLocated in the fashionable and architecturally rich Balluta Bay, and nestled on the former gardens of a 19th century Villa, this 5-star hotel features 276 contemporary rooms including 23 Junior Suites and eight Executive Suites, and an amazing Mediterranean spa featuring an indoor pool, a hot tub, a cold dip, a sauna, and a steam room. Rooms from €87. • Address: PortomasoSt Julians PTM 01Tel: +356 2311 [email protected]

rEsTauranTsthe Casino brasserieThe restaurant of the Casino at Portomaso offers an ample variety of exquisite flavors from all over the Mediterranean region. Special attention is paid to fresh ingredients and fish, which make each and every visit a memorable one. • Address: PortomasoSt Julians PTM 01Tel: +356 2138 3383http://www3.hilton.com

le Meridien CuisineDetached from the main premises of Le Meridien St Julians Hotel & Spa, this fabulous 19th century villa is one of Malta’s best fine cuisine restaurants. It offers a number of dining options in a setting of modern indoor design with traditional outdoors. The Villa Brasserie proposes contemporary à la carte Mediterranean cuisine, with a wide range of dishes featuring Italian, Greek, Spanish, Moroccan, Lebanese, Provençal and Maltese ingredients, prepared and presented with a distinctive French flair. • Address: 39 Main StreetBalluta BaySt Julians STJ 1017Tel: +356 2311 2273http://www.lemeridienmalta.com

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nIghT lIfElevel 22One of the most exclusive and elegant clubs in town, with great views from Portomaso tower, Level 22 is a very stylish and exclusive wine lounge and club located on the 22nd floor of the Portomaso Business Tower in St. Julian’s, boasting fantastic panoramic views of Malta. Have a glass of good wine in comfort and style, enjoying the amazing panorama or choose to have a few drinks and dance the night away to house music during the weekends.• Address: Portomaso Business TowerPortomaso PTM 01Tel: +356 2310 [email protected]

St. Julians is the hottest place in this small subtropical paradise. The elegant complex is an integral part of the unique marina located on the main island’s


2011 Field: 240 players; prize pool: €698,4001st: matt giannetti (United States): €200,0002nd: cecilia Pescaglini (Italy): €116,7003rd: Filippo bianchini (Italy): €76,820

Wpt Malta

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FROm 1st jAn 2012 tO 15th Aug 20122012 euRopean pokeR MoneY lists

everybody knew it and now it is a reality: the big one for one Drop has shuffled the ranking upside down, and the runner-up Sam Trickett is now in a great position, unreachable, with more than $10,000,000 added to his bankroll this summer... of course, there will be other big high-roller in the upcoming months, like a $250,000 (hK$ 2,000,000) in macau, with re-buys, this fall, but no one seems able to reach Trickett. antonius, second this year, has «only» near $2,000,000 and he plays very few tournaments... The german player marvin rettenmaier is fourth, thanks to his back-to-back WPT titles, in Vegas and cyprus.

rankIng

Ranking player Winnings (USD)

1 Sam Trickett 10,167,001

2 Patrik antonius 1,945,242

3 gus hansen 1,823,579

4 marvin rettenmaier 1,656,078

5 Igor Kurganov 1,576,402

6 Tobias reinkemeier 1,465,148

7 Viktor blom 1,456,683

8 Lucille cailly 1,401,352

9 bertrand grospellier 1,378,321

10 Vadim Kursevich 1,357,964

11 Leonid bilokur 1,268,579

12 Davidi Kitai 1,054,006

13 Jannick Wrang 888,446

14 Phillippe Ktorza 878,303

15 andras Koroknai 754,798


16 Paul guichard 744,209

17 bernard guigon 728,368

18 Jan Peter Jachtmann 727,633

19 Frederik brink Jensen 726,258

20 aubin cazals 700,312

21 mikhail Smirnov 688,483

22 Dominik nitsche 676,916

23 Tomas Junek 661,022

24 rocco Palumbo 650,456

25 gaëlle baumann 623,227

26 Kevin Vandersmissen 611,578

27 elisabeth hille 590,442

28 Sergio castelluccio 578,181

29 Stephen chidwick 575,551

30 Vladimir mefodichev 533,138

Gus HansenPatrik AntoniusSam Trickett



31 Wilfried harig 528,086

32 oleksii Kovalchuk 523,980

33 michael gathy 517,158

34 bruno Lopes 501,826

35 Philipp gruissem 500,208

36 mickey Petersen 495,760

37 craig mccorkell 483,266

38 Jeremy Quehen 44,926

39 Fabrice Soulier 443,711

40 Jan heitmann 441,209

41 mohamad Kowssarie 435,861

42 andrei Stoenescu 432,912

43 morten Lihn christensen 431,390

44 Vuong Than Trong 431,369

45 ruben Visser 428,374

46 neil channing 416,101

47 Luke Schwartz 406,736

48 Tom middleton 405,781

49 Kristijonas andrulis 404,408

50 Juha helppi 399,284

51 Pierre neuville 384,591

52 Fraser macIntyre 380,438

53 andre morath 379,125

54 artem metalidi 376,979

55 Yorane Kerignard 372,564

56 govert metaal 372,106

57 Dominykas Karmazinas 369,928

58 eric Sfez 369,396

59 Fernando Fontoura brito 355,683

60 Vyacheslav zhukov 345,993

61 rinat bogdanov 343,802

62 Paul Vas nunes 342,643

63 robert baguley 335,527

64 mario Puccini 334,883

65 Vincent Van Der Fluit 332,929


66 artem Litvinov 331,135

67 ognjen Sekularac 327,705

68 ercin corc 326,354

69 Stefan huber 325,745

70 christopher brammer 324,875

71 balazs botond 317,987

72 nicky evans 316,978

73 niels van alphen 305,864

74 John Paul Kelly 303,393

75 martin Kabrhel 296,542

76 Thomas beer 296,419

77 nicco maag 295,892

78 Talal Shakerchi 294,417

79 cesar garcia 289,233

80 Dave Shallow 289,032

81 andrea Dato 287,264

82 Tom alner 284,866

83 Samuel gerber 275,224

84 gordon robert huntly 274,872

85 chris moorman 273,141

86 Toby Lewis 271,223

87 Jonas Lauck 269,663

88 george Danzer 266,784

89 andreas eiler 265,545

90 adria maria balaguer 265,524

91 Konstantin Tolokno 265,217

92 bruno Jais 263,030

93 erik hellman 259,220

94 Vojtech ruzicka 251,259

95 alessandro Longobardi 249,411

96 ercan olgun 246,319

97 max Lehmanski 244,904

98 Tristan clemencon 243,893

99 Konstantin Puchkov 241,372

100 matthias De meulder 241,075


available at www.poker52europa.fr

All timE mOnEy liSt - EuROPEWith his big runner-up performance at the big one for one Drop, Sam Trickett jumps directly to the top of the all Time money List europe, totalling more than $16,000,000! Two Danes are behind him: gus hansen and Peter eastgate. elKY has also reached the $10,000,000 figure and is in fifth positions, after some bad run at the WSoP —and especially in the big buy-in tournaments. The WSoPe, as well as the new WPT and ePT seasons in europe should change this ranking in the upcoming weeks...

Ranking Country player Winnings (USD)


2 gus hansen 11,210,073

3 Peter eastgate 11,127,554

4 carlos mortensen 10,811,436


6 Pius heinz 8,893,098

7 eugene Katchalov 7,189,215

8 Ivan Demidov 6,773,227

9 David benyamine 6,247,203

10 Dave Ulliott 6,011,126

11 martin Staszko 5,589,365

12 roland de Wolfe 5,330,556

13 Patrik antonius 5,328,713

14 chris bjorin 5,292,481

15 Jeff Lisandro 4,974,548

Ranking Country player Winnings (USD)

16 Surinder Sunar 4,588,737

17 Juha helppi 4,438,330

18 andy black 4,423,333

19 Yevgeniy Timoshenko 4,406,257

20 Vitaly Lunkin 4,263,374

21 Fabrice Soulier 4,033,513

22 marcel Luske 4,006,735

23 antoine Saout 3,964,673

24 marty Smyth 3,876,139

25 alexander Kravchenko 3,864,463

26 annette obrestad 3,773,511


28 ram Vaswani 3,477,251

29 Filippo candio 3,463,266

30 Sebastian ruthenberg 3,457,185

rankIng

Sam Trickett Gus Hansen Peter Eastgate


tOP tEnAll timE mOnEy liSt


1 carlos mortensen 10,811,436

2 raul Paez corral 1,591,159

3 Juan maceiras Lapido Jr. 1,082,049

4 raul mestre 916,089

5 Dragan Kostic 827,975

6 Jesús cortes 826,264

7 Leonor margets-Perez 736,716

8 Juan manuel Pastor 691,276

9 adria maria balaguer 680,222

10 Santiago Terrazas 651,405


1 Jeff Lisandro 4,974,548

2 Filippo candio 3,463,266

3 max Pescatori 3,230,265

4 David Steicke 2,759,693

5 Salvatore bonavena 2,321,618

6 Luca Pagano 2,055,370

7 alessio Isaia 2,010,399

8 Dario minieri 1,861,016

9 Dario alioto 1,439,415

10 Sergio castelluccio 1,220,745



2 Dave Ulliott 6,011,126

3 roland de Wolfe 5,330,556

4 Surinder Sunar 4,588,737

5 ram Vaswani 3,477,251

6 neil channing 3,325,605

7 Tony bloom 3,308,051

8 John gale 3,301,782

9 Jake cody 3,146,605

10 James akenhead 3,106,616


1 Pius heinz 8,893,098


3 Sebastian ruthenberg 3,457,185

4 benjamin Spindler 3,134,924

5 marvin rettenmaier 3,026,541

6 moritz Kranich 2,932,396

7 andreas Krause 2,286,485

8 Philipp gruissem 2,127,048

9 Florian Langmann 2,018,653

10 Dominik nitsche 1,941,588

spain

italy england

germany



1 gus hansen 11,210,073

2 Peter eastgate 11,127,554

3 Theo Jørgensen 2,867,165

4 rehne Pedersen 2,299,640

5 Frederik brink Jensen 2,171,315

6 Jan Sorensen 2,162,419

7 Søren Kongsgaard nielsen 1,988,594

8 Lars bonding 1,836,215

9 Sander Lyloff 1,712,552

10 rasmus nielsen 1,418,747


1 chris bjorin 5,292,481

2 martin De Knijff 3,419,490

3 William Thorson 3,372,326

4 Johan Storakers 2,996,321

5 martin Jacobson 2,845,573

6 michael Tureniec 2,778,777

7 erik marcus Friberg 2,754,389

8 christer Johansson 2,161,275

9 mikael Thuritz 1,707,983

10 Kent Lundmark 1,653,828


1 annette obrestad 3,773,511

2 Jan olav Sjavik 1,839,863

3 andreas hoivold 1,654,064

4 Trond eidsvig 1,623,879

5 Dag martin mikkelsen 1,499,148

6 andreas Walnum 1,197,518

9 Johnny Lodden 1,125,214

7 bjorn-erik glenne 1,092,588

8 Kristian Kjondal 1,057,150

10 marcel bjerkmann 977,333


1 Ivan Demidov 6,773,227

2 Vitaly Lunkin 4,263,374

3 alexander Kravchenko 3,864,463

4 alexander Kostritsyn 2,915,269

5 max Lykov 2,803,200

6 Kirill gerasimov 2,563,108

7 Igor Kurganov 2,467,180

8 andrey Pateychuk 2,188,926

9 Konstantin Puchkov 1,666,598

10 Leonid bilokur 1,639,188


1 andy black 4,423,333

2 marty Smyth 3,876,139

3 eoghan o'Dea 2,522,625

4 Padraig Parkinson 1,648,429

5 Fintan gavin 1,397,235

6 John magill 1,209,798

7 Dermot blain 1,206,755

8 Donnacha o'Dea 1,201,017

9 noel Furlong 1,145,807

10 Liam Flood 1,142,446



2 David benyamine 6,247,203

3 Fabrice Soulier 4,033,513

4 antoine Saout 3,964,673

5 roger hairabedian 3,443,705

6 bruno Fitoussi 2,604,753

7 Jean-Paul Pasqualini 2,580,834

8 antony Lellouche 2,551,175

9 alain roy 2,381,666

10 arnaud mattern 2,151,928

rankIng

norway

irland France

DenmarkRussia

sweden


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ShOw And tAKE, lASt livE hAnd OR SPlit POt?

yOu ARE thE tOuRnAmEnt diREctOR SERiES 5

Jack effel The dealer should ask player B to show his/her hand in order to receive the pot. Some major tournaments do not require the “calling” player to show the winning hand, if the original bettor has folded. There are also times when all hands are mucked, and the only decision left is to award the pot to

the person who has the last live hand. I’m one of the few who does not believe that a player should only be required to show their hand if someone asks. At the WSOP, if a hand is played to showdown, then the winning hand must be “shown.” When there are millions of dollars at stake, it should not be easy for players to dump chips. If left up to suspicion, the best cheaters will fool you 9/10 times. I take the guess work out of it, and force the winning hand to show every time. Players who violate this rule at the WSOP will receive a warning/penalty.

Thomas Kremser In this situation obviously both players don’t want to show their hands. The fact is that Player A mucked his hand (dead hand) and Player B is the only player with cards and therefore he wins the pot.

David LambThe last live/active hand gets the pot. B would be awarded the chips; there is no reason to consider splitting this pot.

David LuzagoDealer should advise player B to show his cards even if he pushed them over the line face down, so he can show them and get the pot.

It amazes me how many places treat this situation differently and also how many different dealers act in this situation and I would welcome the TDs opinions on what they feel the dealers should/shouldn’t do in this situation: In an nLh tournament on the river Player a makes a bet and Player b calls the bet. Dealer says “Show and Take.” Player a throws his/her hand directly into the muck. Player b pushes their cards over the line face down. (I know the cards are still live unless the dealer has pulled them into the muck but I am interested to see what your panel of TDs feel the responsibility of the dealer is in this situation, having already said “Show and Take” and the cards have been pushed over the line face down. also I am interested to see whether your TDs feel the last “active” hand still wins the pot regardless, or whether the cards should be mucked by the dealer and the pot split... I have had both situations happen many times and it’s one of the annoying situations where consistency would be nice... sadly, this doesn’t happen!)


We absolutely agree that there is problem with consistency in this area. not only do different events rule differently but different dealers at the same event often seem to take varying approaches

matt SavageI agree 100% that there needs to be a rule, and we have instituted a new TDA that the last live hand wins the pot. See www.PokerTDA.com for the new 2011 rules.

Thomas LamatschBefore I make a decision, I have to explain another ruling from my side, because I know TD is making a different ruling here: if at the showdown player A mucks his hand, player B is also allowed to muck his hand, too! This because of fairness to the game! Why should one player have to show and not the other? If a third player is afraid of

collusion, he can call the TD to check the hands of the players. So, the situation in this case is very clear: player B has the last active hand and receives the pot!.

JP mccann (player)A has relinquished his claim to the pot, so Player B wins the pot because he has the last live hand. Player B doesn’t have to show his cards. Poker is a game of information. I think it is unfair for Player A to get information

about Player B’s cards when Player B is the person who has paid to see A’s hand.

FIDPa (The International Poker rules) ruling (marcel Luske)In order to win any pot you must have a hand

and showdown when there is a showdown situation! We do understand the player still in the hand might feel like there is nothing to beat and react by not showing automatically. However, it is the duty and obligation of the captain on the table (the dealer) to keep the players playing by the rules at all times. This is why written rules need to be in place, so consistency can be guaranteed and players can know up front what to expect in case of a ruling! If any question arises and there is no official rule, then the highest authority in the room should make a decision based on fairness to all players and add the correct rule as soon as possible! Naturally, (House) Rules dictate the outcome, and management decisions should be final. Other players on the table are of course entitled to see the winning hand in any showdown situation !

David Flusfeder (IFP - International federation of Poker)Player A has conceded the pot; it goes to Player B. From the wording of the question,

Player B pushing his/her hand over the line has happened after Player A has mucked his/her cards. Player B’s is therefore, as the questioner says, the last active hand and wins the pot. I don’t see how or why this could be ruled a split pot.

the Mob VerdictWe absolutely agree that there is problem with consistency in this area. Not only do different events rule differently but different dealers at the same event often seem to take varying approaches. The reason always cited for winning hands needing to be shown is to prevent chip dumping, but we feel that if not a complete red herring, this problem seems to be somewhat overstated. None of us can ever remember seeing a case of chip dumping being uncovered by enforcing a showdown, and while you may say this just proves that the rule works, it’s easy to see how it could be got round most of the time by the dumpee raising the dumper off the pot. We feel that if someone has genuine cause for concern they should be able to ask for the action to be stopped, to explain their concerns to the TD and to ask for mucked hands to be shown – showdown or not.

Our TDs are all in agreement about awarding the pot to the last active hand. There really is no room for ambiguity here and no reason to award half the pot to the player who – on being called – opted to muck their hand. However some cases may not be so clear (for example, if the dealer misses the fact that another player still has cards) and we think there is therefore a case for always showing cards in order to claim the pot. After all, you normally have to do this even when playing the board.

As we have said, there is no reason not to be consistent in this area. This allows not only to avoid errors and injustices but also to speed the game up and reduce the possibility of angle shooting. In summary, we would say that on showdown, players should act in turn from the last aggressive action; on their turn each player should fold or show... quickly. If a player mis-declares their hand without showing it, or pretends to muck in order to get another player to show first, or muck a winning hand, this should be subject to a penalty. Anyone wishing to claim any part of the pot should show their hand. However, if as in this case the calling playing is the last one with cards and mucks in turn, they should still get the pot. Repeated refusal to show cards (or muck/show in good time when it’s a player’s turn to declare) should be subject to warnings and possible penalties.


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Documents

Poker52 Europa - n7 - Septermber/October 2012