Phil Ivey Files for Divorce
In breaking news from TMZ, 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member Phil Ivey has filed for divorce from his wife of seven years, Luciaetta. Ivey finished seventh in the $10,000 buy-in tournament this year and earned $1.4 million.
On Tuesday, a report that appeared on TMZ read in part, “Ivey and Luciaetta filed the joint petition in a Nevada court on December 22 … three days before Christmas. The divorce was granted today – both parties were present for the ruling.” The couple wed in 2002 and has no children. TMZ added that Ivey has made $12 million over the course of his poker career. The “Tiger Woods of Poker” appeared on the cover of “ESPN: The Magazine” in November.
Ivey earned two WSOP bracelets during the 2009 tournament series to ratchet his total up to seven. Interestingly, none of the seven has come in Hold’em, as he has instead taken down Pot Limit Omaha, Limit Seven Card Stud, Limit Seven Card Stud High-Low, Limit SHOE, Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball, and Omaha/Seven Card Stud High-Low events. In the latter, his most recent bracelet win, Ivey trumped Ming Lee heads-up in a final table that also included Carlos Mortensen, November Nine member Eric Buchman, Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, and Dutch Boyd.
TMZ was quick to point out the irony of Ivey being compared to Woods. Its news story detailed, “Ivey is known in the card community as the ‘Tiger Woods of Poker’ – [insert your own joke here].” Woods was involved in a now-famous auto collision with a tree in front of his home. His wife purportedly smashed the SUV’s window with a golf club to help Woods exit safely. What led to the incident is anyone’s guess, but a handful of women are alleged to have had extra-marital affairs with the professional golfer.
Earlier this month, Woods announced that he was taking a leave of absence from golf. In addition, companies like Accenture and Gillette ended their advertising and sponsorship agreements with Woods. In fact, a Reuters article released on Tuesday noted that Woods’ infidelity could costs the shareholders of companies he endorses up to a colossal $12 billion. Researchers explained the enormous loss of value: “Our analysis makes clear that while having a celebrity of Tiger Woods’ stature as an endorser has undeniable upside, the downside risk is substantial, too.”
Ivey’s first eight in the money finishes on the World Poker Tour (WPT) were all for final tables and he picked up a win in the Season VI L.A. Poker Classic for $1.6 million. All told, Ivey has just under $3 million in career earnings from the WPT circuit.
Meanwhile, posters on the popular online poker forum PocketFives.com reacted to the TMZ story. “33mikemcg” noted, “I had no idea he was married. Nice life for that ex-wife I am sure she will get plenty to last a lifetime.”
Poker players, who travel around the United States and the world to live tournaments, seemed to be able to sympathize with Ivey. “ImaLuckSac” explained that the pro’s lifestyle may not have been conducive to a stable marriage: “All jokes aside, who can really be that surprised? These guys are constantly traveling, stressed, and still making the big bucks. Personally I think they deserve a lil’ strange.” Others jokingly speculated as to whether Ivey had any prop bets on how long his marriage would last.
Ivey is a member of Team Full Tilt, a group that also includes poker pros like Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow, and Jennifer Harman. He was the inaugural opponent on the NBC poker game show “Face the Ace” and seemed to strike up an accord with Maryland logger Darvin Moon at the final table of the 2009 WSOP Main Event.
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EPT Adds Poker Tournament in Berlin
The European Poker Tour (EPT) recently decided to change up the back half of its Season Six schedule and in lieu of the stop in Dortmund will instead be traveling to Berlin. The upcoming event promises to be the biggest poker tournament ever held on German soil and has a guaranteed first place prize of €1 million.
The tournament is set to run from March 2nd to 7th following EPT Copenhagen and preceding the new EPT Snowfest stop. The event will take place at the Spielbank Casino and the EPT’s new home appears eager to pull out all of the stops for its new addition. Play will be held in a two-story glass palace that will be situated adjacent to the casino in Marlene Dietrich Plaza. The palace will have more than 6,000 feet of space, which is more than enough space to accommodate the 1,000-plus players expected to take part. In addition to the Main Event, there will also be a number of side events that will get underway on the third day of play.
The buy-in for the Main Event will be €5,000 + €300. With the guaranteed first place prize of €1 million, there is potential for an overlay, but even without one, the stop is poised to offer one of the biggest prize pools on the tour. The entirety of Team PokerStars Germany will be attendance, including Sandra Naujoks, who won the Season Five stop in Dortmund last year, earning €917,000 for her efforts. Other players scheduled to play in the event include tennis star Boris Becker and Jan Heitmann.
Dortmund was a regular stop on the EPT starting in Season Three and last year it drew a rather large field of 667 players, putting it behind only San Remo and the Grand Final in Monte Carlo in terms of attendance. EPT staff is confident the new location in Germany is going to be even more popular than Dortmund, so Naujoks will likely have to contend with a larger field in order to defend her title. Last year, she bested a tough final table lineup that included online poker pro Michael “Timex” McDonald, William Thorson, Johan Storakers, and Luca Pagano.
Pagano already has an incredible six EPT final tables to his credit, including two in the most recent season. He logged a fourth place showing at EPT Warsaw and then picked up a sixth place finish at EPT Prague just over one month later. He is the current leader on the EPT Tournament Leaderboard with 3,419 points, but Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier is hot on his heels with 3,354.
The Berlin stop is the third new location on the EPT Season Six schedule. The other two cities, Vilamoura, Portugal and Kiev, Ukraine, already held events earlier in the season, drawing 322 and 296 players, respectively. The upcoming EPT Snowfest is also a new addition to the schedule and will get underway shortly after Berlin wraps up.
EPT Snowfest will be held at the Alpine Palace Hotel in the Saalbach-Hinterglemm area of the Austrian Alps. That series of events will run from March 21st to 26th.
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2009 Online Poker Year in Review
In 2009, the online poker world continued to provide excitement, drama, and controversy for the denizens that participated in the game. 2009 saw a great deal of changes in the number of rooms offered as the competition for customers became fierce. In addition, cash games – a long neglected area of online poker – became the featured event for online poker, outdistancing the industry’s multi-table tournaments.
At the beginning of 2009, online wunderkind Tom “durrrr” Dwan issued the Million Dollar Challenge to the online world. Dwan stated that he would take on anyone in a heads-up battle that would last 50,000 hands. Playing a minimum of four tables at $200/$400 Pot Limit Omaha or No Limit Texas Hold’em, the challenge was for Dwan’s opponent to come out on top after the required number of hands. If Dwan were ahead by $1 or more, his opponent must fork over $500,000. If Dwan’s opponent were ahead by $1 or more, “durrrr” would cough up $1.5 million.
While the only player excluded from the Durrrr Challenge was Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, there were plenty of players willing to take on Dwan. Phil Ivey and David Benyamine threw their hats into the ring, but it was another poker superstar, Patrik Antonius, who drew the honor of being the first to step up. Taking place on the virtual tables at Full Tilt Poker, the Durrrr Challenge set off early in 2009.
The play in the online event has been hit-and-miss throughout the calendar year, but each session has been crowded with railbirds watching the battle and online sites like DurrrrChallenge.com have been offering commentary on the proceedings. Due to their hectic live play schedules and the mid-year World Series of Poker (WSOP), there have only been 29,764 hands played between Antonius and Dwan as 2009 comes to a close. After Antonius started out with a lead, Dwan mounted a huge comeback. As the year comes to a close, “durrrr” has been able to amass a nearly $1 million lead over Antonius.
The other online poker headline that has captured the community’s attention is the phenomenon that is “Isildur1.” The Scandinavian came from nowhere to take on the biggest guns in the game at nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt Poker. Demonstrating great skill at the tables, the most confounding thing for online poker aficionados was the identity of the mystery Swede. While there has been conjecture by many, “Isildur1” has been able to keep his identity secret.
At the tables, “Isildur1” has played some of the biggest names in the game. He was able to take a few million dollars out of Dwan’s pockets before running into Antonius at the table. Antonius was able to take back much of what was lost by Dwan and, as the year closed, poker professional Brian Hastings depleted the remainder of “Isildur1’s” bankroll.
The defeat at the hands of Hastings has caused a tidal wave of debate in the online world, however. Hastings admitted to using datamined hands from other players to study “Isildur1’s” tendencies, resulting in a 30-day Red Pro suspension for fellow CardRunners instructor Brian Townsend. “Isildur1” is considering filing a complaint to regain the money lost in the session against Hastings. Even if the complaint is turned down, “Isildur1” has said that he will be back and 2010 should be a very interesting year in high-stakes cash games if he does.
Many may have thought that the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which had been slated to begin in December, would have caused people to leave the game. Online poker, however, refused to fall prey and continued on stronger than ever. With the delay of enforcement of the UIGEA until mid-2010 and the possibility of other legislation that would amend it, online poker continues to draw new blood into its ranks. According to PokerScout.com, the industry is growing at an annual rate of 30%.
Finally, the closure and consolidation of non-U.S. facing online poker rooms was a major story throughout 2009. Sites like Eurolinx and BetOnBet closed under mysterious circumstances that are still being investigated by police and Pitbull Poker closed its doors after an alleged superuser scandal. DoylesRoom, headed by the legendary Doyle Brunson, joined the Cake Poker Network, as did Third Bullet Poker.
This type of consolidation should continue through 2010 as the online poker world streamlines itself to maximize its earnings and create stronger competition against such online behemoths as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
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Parishioners React to Priest’s PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge Run
Over the weekend, 9/11 first responder Mike Kosowski took home the top prize on the “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge” after defeating Daniel Negreanu heads-up. Also in the running was Father Andrew Trapp of St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Garden City, South Carolina.
An article that appeared on the website of WMBF News on Monday relayed the tremendous amount of support that Trapp had during his run in the poker game show, which aired on five Sundays following FOX’s coverage of the National Football League. The church is preparing for a $6.5 million renovation and Trapp stated that he would have used his $1 million prize money for the makeover. The South Carolina news outlet remarked, “Overcrowding isn’t the only pressing issue at the Garden City church. Should a strong hurricane blow through the area, there’s a possibility St. Michael’s wouldn’t be standing in the aftermath.”
About $4 million has been raised so far for the renovations and Trapp’s $1 million win would have resulted in ground being broken. Trapp took home $100,000 on the show’s first episode and a portion of the money will be given to the church. Trapp spoke on the generosity of the congregation’s members, telling WMBF, “The parishioners have all been really generous and digging down deep – especially in a time of recession.”
Parishioner Candy Griffith told WMBF in a video interview, “Our church family has grown. We’re sitting at over 3,400 families.” Trapp told the news outlet that his six-figure payday would go a long way: “$100,000 will be a huge help… [The money will go for] a couple of beautiful stained glass windows, antique stained glass windows… It’s going to take some time and a lot more sacrifice. Hopefully sometime in the next couple of years, we’ll finish raising that money.”
According to the news outlet, Trapp mastered poker during his days in the seminary. He caught the industry by storm as a religious figure proficient in the game. He explained, “It’s kind of like if I were to go on ‘Jeopardy’ or ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire,’ but instead of trivia questions to win prize money, they’re playing cards.” Footage of Trapp analyzing other players during their journey to the Challenge of Champions aired. The final four-handed table saw Trapp battle Kosowski, liquor salesman Brian Barboza, and Iraq war veteran Denny Luna for a chance to play Negreanu heads-up for $1 million.
Trapp reached heads-up play against Kosowski and gambled in his final hand. Trapp called pre-flop with 6-7 and Kosowski checked his option holding 9-5. The action flop came 9-8-4, giving Trapp and up and down straight draw and Kosowski top pair. Trapp reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out a “Little Engine that Could” reference before Kosowski put him all-in. Trapp called with his tournament life on the line and, needing to catch a five, seven, or ten by the river, watched as an ace hit. His rosary appeared on multiple occasions throughout his appearance.
Trapp scooped the first pot of the Challenge of Champions after making trip sevens and told WMBF, “I wanted to start off being a little bit cautious, but a little aggressive as well. I was mainly trying to think good poker strategy, play smart, try to look at the other players to see what they’re doing, their faces and everything. I was definitely praying a lot too.” Kosowski went on to defeat Negreanu and earn $1 million. He plans to donate part of it to charity.
“PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge” has been renewed for Season 2, although no air dates have been released by the world’s largest online poker site. A representative of the show told Poker News Daily that format changes were being considered and it would likely be “a few months” before any further details were announced.
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PartyPoker Cash Machine Returns, Features Booster Bonus
In January, PartyPoker, one of the world’s longstanding online poker sites, returns the popular Cash Machine promotion. This time, hardcore grinders will earn additional cash as part of a Booster Bonus.
The Cash Machine promotion last ran during the month of September and shelled out a bevy of added funds to PartyPoker players. The promotion returns on January 4th and will run through the end of the month. All players have to do is earn 10 or more PartyPoints on at least 10 days during the 28-day period. Then, PartyPoker officials will take a look at the PartyPoint totals of the 10 highest-earning days and match the lowest one at the rate of $1 per point.
As an example, if a player’s 10 highest PartyPoint total days were 100, 100, 100, 150, 150, 150, 200, 200, 200, and 200, PartyPoker would award a $100 cash bonus, matching the lowest amount. The minimum payout is $10 and there is no maximum amount that PartyPoker will match. For those players who are unable to meet the $10 minimum, a generous consolation prize exists. Text found on PartyPoker’s website explains, “If you can achieve 10 qualifying days of one PartyPoint or more, but fail to earn the minimum cash reward, we’ll give you a seat in our $25,000 Cash Machine freeroll, which takes place at 15:00 ET on Wednesday, 3rd February.”
The Cash Machine Booster Bonus is available to players who earn at least 1,000 PartyPoints per day on 20 out of the 28 days of the promotion. Players who earn between 1,000 and 1,500 PartyPoints for 20 days will earn a $500 Booster Bonus. Players who rack up between 1,500 and 2,000 PartyPoints for 20 days will get a $1,100 Booster Bonus. Players who amass between 2,000 and 2,500 PartyPoints for 20 days will take home a $2,000 Booster Bonus. Players who earn between 2,500 and 3,000 PartyPoints will receive a $3,000 Booster Bonus and those able to surpass 3,000 PartyPoints for 20 days will nab a colossal $5,000 Booster Bonus.
The Cash Machine is an opt-in promotion and players can register for it at any time prior to its conclusion. Once they opt in, PartyPoker will credit players with all PartyPoints earned during the 28 days, regardless of when they sign up. Each qualifying day runs from 00:00 ET to 23:59 ET and days do not have to be consecutive in order to count. All funds earned will be dropped into players’ accounts within 48 hours of the Cash Machine promotion ending.
One day prior to the Cash Machine promotion kicking off, the PartyPoker Monthly Million will play out. The $640 buy-in tournament takes place on the first Sunday of every month and boasts a Championship blind structure. Players begin with 20,000 chips and blinds start at 25-50. The price of poker increases every 20 minutes and antes kick in at Level 6, when blinds are 250-500.
Qualifiers for the Monthly Million run constantly on PartyPoker. Popular ways to enter include a daily Monthly Million Qualifier, a $70 buy-in satellite with at least 19 seats on the line. A Mega Friday Satellite also takes place weekly, featuring a $55 buy-in and 20 seats guaranteed. On Saturdays, two qualifiers take place on PartyPoker offering a combined 18 seats. Country-specific freerolls and daily player point qualifiers also send players to the Monthly Million. Mark your calendars for Sunday, January 3rd, the next running of the Monthly Million.
According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, PartyPoker is the fourth largest site worldwide, with a seven-day running average of 4,500 real money ring game players. It is the second largest not to accept players from the United States, trailing only the massive iPoker Network.
PartyPoker claims World Poker Tour Host and new Poker Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sexton as its ambassador and is currently qualifying players for the L.A. Poker Classic.
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Poker Community Reacts to New TSA Airline Regulations
The events aboard Northwest Flight 253 disrupted many people’s holiday celebrations, as the attempted bombing by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria left many wondering just how safe their impending flights home will be. The poker community is also left to wonder just how much their hectic travel schedules will be impacted by the aftermath of the incident.
In the days following the attempted bombing, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) issued a number of new security measures intended to prevent anything like the Northwest Flight 253 incident from happening again. The official directive from TSA Acting Administrator Gale Rossides issued a number of new changes, including added security measures at the boarding gate. While travelers have grown accustomed to being home-free once going through the security checkpoint, the directive states that passengers must be patted down at the gate and attendants must inspect personal items prior to boarding.
There are new rules in place once passengers are on board the plane as well. As has been widely reported by television news networks, passengers must remain seated for the final hour of a flight. Passengers are also not allowed to have anything on their laps during the final hour, including pillows and blankets. The airlines will also be suspending in-flight internet and pilots will not be able to point out landmarks or make passengers aware of their approximate location on the flight path. Finally, passengers will not be allowed to access their carry-on bags during the final hour of a flight.
With these new rules and regulations, there will be inevitable delays in travel. Those taking to the skies in the coming weeks have been advised to allot extra time to pass through security. While this is the occasional inconvenience for many travelers, for poker players traveling the tournament trail, it adds up to countless extra hours in transit.
Many players find traveling to be one of the downsides of their chosen career and the new TSA regulations have them even more frustrated. “More reasons not to fly,” 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) winner Carter “ckingusc” King told Poker News Daily. Poker pro and spokeswoman Christina Lindley summed up her growing impatience with traveling with a simple, “Meh.”
Team PokerStars Pro member Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck vented her frustrations in a thread on popular poker forum PocketFives.com: “This + airport security is inf tilting. It really drives me insane I travel a lot, I get so doped on xanax to not YELL at them, and don’t get me started on the humiliation of taking shoes off OMG, there is a study on man hours/cost of this per year it’s TILT FROM HELL.”
One such study Mayrinck references is a 2007 effort by a team at the Harvard School of Public Health that concluded that there was no substantial evidence that the oft-lamented shoe removal at the security checkpoint prevented security incidents. Team Full Tilt member Andy Bloch also questioned just how beneficial these security measures are: “Where’s the cost-benefit analysis of all these security measures? Irrational fears of rare terrorist acts lead to excessive spending.”
Though Bloch and Mayrinck are making relevant points, it doesn’t change the fact that as players return home after their respective holiday adventures, they will have to contend with these new changes. Moreover, in less than a week, a couple of thousand players will be boarding international flights to Nassau to take part in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Those headed to the Bahamas for the event should be advised that even more time should be allotted to pass through security on international flights.
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Earn Cash as a Free Poker Affiliate for NoPayPOKER.com
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Lady Gaga – Poker Face – New Orleans
Lady Gaga performing Poker Face at UNO in New Orleans on 12-27-09.
Full Tilt Poker Crashes on Sunday
It was an unusual Sunday for online poker players all over the world, as Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker site, had its server crash during the heart of its heavy-traffic period. The site’s stoppage affected everyone playing on the site, including those still alive in Full Tilt’s flagship Sunday tournament, the $216 buy-in $750,000 Guaranteed.
The crash occurred at 7:45pm ET and players were booted from the site and unable to log back in. When attempting to open the Full Tilt client, players received a message saying, “Unable to connect to server.” This went on for hours and the poker community erupted.
Full Tilt posted the following message on its site shortly after the crash occurred: “Unscheduled Maintenance In Progress: We recently experienced a network outage. We expect to be operational shortly.” After failing to get the site back up in a timely manner, Full Tilt Poker cancelled all running tournaments at 9:41pm ET. Then, at approximately 11:15pm, ET, the site’s support staff sent the following e-mail to players who were still playing in tournaments:
When a tournament is cancelled before it reaches the money, according to tournament rule 31.2 (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/tourRules.php):
-All players still in the tournament at the time of the cancellation will be refunded their tournament buy-in and tournament fee. Players will have their buy-ins refunded in the tournament prize pool currency.
-In addition, the remaining prize pool will be divided and distributed according to chip count - (Remaining Prize Pool)*(Your Chip Count)/(Total Chips in Play) = Your Share of Remaining Prize Pool.
The reimbursement policy for rebuy tournaments is slightly different and several players expressed their confusion regarding Full Tilt’s procedure. PocketFives.com forum member “MattElsarelli” posted the following concerning a tournament he was playing: “Does anyone know their policy on refunding for rebuys? I’m like 15 buy in deeps in the $20 rebuy, do I get refunded all of them?”
He got his answer from a fellow poster who laid out Full Tilt’s Tournament Rules: “In a Rebuy tournament – the number of rebuys or add-ons a player has made does not affect the payout if a tournament is cancelled. If a tournament has not reached the money, all players will have their initial tournament buy-in and fee returned, as described in bullet 31.2. In addition, any other money in the prize and Cashout pools where applicable (excluding guarantees and money added by Full Tilt Poker), will be divided and distributed to the remaining players, based on their respective chip counts.”
For tournaments that awarded a non-monetary prize, such as a live tournament package (like a World Poker Tour event), Full Tilt Poker assigns a monetary value to the prize and distributes it in cash to the remaining players based on their chip counts. In ring games, the hand being played at the time of the stoppage was considered dead and all bets were returned at the point of the crash.
As of Monday morning, Full Tilt Poker was operating as normal.
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PokerStars Guinness World Record Attempt Attracts 149,196 Players
On a night when Full Tilt Poker’s software went down much to the dismay of players everywhere, PokerStars set the Guinness World Record for largest online poker tournament ever held. The event weighed in at 149,196 entrants.
The mark to beat was 65,000 players, set by PokerStars back in July, meaning that the site trumped the standing record by nearly 85,000. PokerStars was quick to put its record-shattering attendance into perspective, saying, “It would fill the Rose Bowl or Wembley stadiums and still have another 60,000 people with tickets waiting outside in the tailgating parking lot.” In addition, the attendance represented well over 20 times the field of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and 30 times the number of rooms at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
The Guinness World Record attempt was a $1 buy-in tournament that guaranteed $300,000 in the prize pool. It played out in less than six hours in a Turbo format and oskar69 earned an amazing $50,000 for first place, or 50,000 times his buy-in. Text found on PokerStars’ website admits, “We’re sure oskar69 is happy about the ROI from the win today, as no deal was reached and the entire $50,000.00 was awarded for besting this massive field.” Second place went to Bommel222, who earned a not-so-paltry $30,000. A total of 30,000 players finished in the money.
Others who made the final table in the historic poker tournament included TLWPB (third place for $20,000), willis59 (fourth place for $10,000), kruglay (fifth place for $8,000), madmick62 (sixth place for $6,500), DS1982 (seventh place for $5,250), denmil53 (eighth place for $4,000), and bigsnapper7 (ninth place for $3,000). The top 16 players grabbed at least $1,000 for their 100-penny contribution to the pot.
The PokerStars Sunday Million, the site’s hallmark $215 buy-in weekly high-stakes poker tournament, drew 9,344 entrants yesterday, creating a prize pool of $1.8 million. In the end, PokerStars member coach6999 banked $266,000 for the win, defeating BBOY3110 heads-up. The second place finisher claimed a $196,000 consolation prize and the top 1,350 spots paid out. Others who reached the feature table in the Sunday Million included tsakalias (third place for $139,132), schnaggels19 (fourth place for $93,440), mystinen60 (fifth place for $74,752), OBVAMENTS (sixth place for $56,064), robvleugel (seventh place for $37,376), plusmillion (eighth place for $20,557), and Mr Puckey (ninth place for $13,082).
The Sunday Warm-Up, another $215 buy-in online poker tournament that played out on PokerStars yesterday, generated a field of 4,605 entrants, shattering its $750,000 guaranteed prize pool. In the end, NinjasTyle87 banked $144,000 for first place, while .dmmarquez finished with a $107,000 bankroll boost for second place. The top 675 players finished in the money and others who could be found jumping for joy on Sunday afternoon included JBlaze20 (third place for $75,983), montjeu8 (fourth place for $52,037), Comeback2008 (fifth place for $39,143), Steinapride (sixth place for $29,933), haneferd (seventh place for $20,723), ReadOnYou (eighth place for $11,513), and pokerwille (ninth place for $7,368).
Appropriately, PokerStars is the industry’s largest online poker site, according to PokerScout.com, boasting a seven-day running average of 27,800 real money ring game players. During its peak hours, nearly 50,000 call the site home. PokerScout.com claims that PokerStars’ traffic has grown by 37% year over year and, at the time of writing, which is late morning Eastern Time on Monday, 36,000 cash game players are seated. That figure represents more than double the number of players currently found on Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest site.
Full Tilt Poker’s $750,000 Guaranteed, Sunday Mulligan, and Sunday Brawl, among other events, did not play out on Sunday due to a software malfunction. Players were refunded based on their chip counts at the time of the crash.
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