Rake Brain letting players play the tournament for free

Currently, RakeBrain.com is offering their players an opportunity to partake in the 2011 WSOP Main event absolutely free of charge. There are three seats in total on offer, and the lucky winners of each of these seats will have their airfare to the event, and their accommodation during the event itself, covered for them by RakeBrain.com

So, how do players take advantage of this fantastic offer? First, those who are not currently an existing member of RakeBrain.com must sign up and register with the site between now and May 31 2011. Then, to enter the competition, players must use their RakeBrain.com account to rake $1 minimum before May 31 2011.

For each dollar raked, players will receive one ticket. Players will also receive a ticket for registering with the WSOP Main Event giveaway promotion.

On June 1 each of these tickets will be entered into a draw; the players who are lucky enough to be drawn will be granted sears in freeroll Full Tilt Poker Event.

This event will take place on June 5, and its top six players will progress to the final stage of the competition.

At the final stage, these six players will play against six RakeBrain House players. The three players who finish the highest will receive the free WSOP Main Event seats, thus enabling them to compete in this amazing high profile tournament.

World Poker Tour

The playing field of this year’s $10k World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana is (97) considerably smaller than that of last year (143).

However, in among the competition’s diminished playing field sits Erik Seidel: the current all-time money winner leader and member of the poker Hall of Fame. And with the 97 playing field know reduced to 9, the experienced and legendary Seidel has put himself in an excellent position to take first place and collect the $273,664 prize money.

The event, which commenced on Saturday, is currently led by Steve Barshak with a stack of 601,000. William Reynolds, the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller victor, currently sits in second place with a 541,000 stack. Seidel trails Reynolds marginally with a stack of 526,000; the former eight WSOP bracelets and former WPT title-holder is clearly still very much in contention.  

From 1 p.m. ET on Tuesday, all 9 competitors will play until a T.V. table playing field of six remains. Then, on Wednesday, the winner of the World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open will be decided.

Jonathan Duhamel

Jonathan Duhamel made his first ever visit to the Chinese gambling capital Macau this week.

The 2010 World Series Poker Main Event champion travelled to Macau to compete in Day 1C of the Macau Millions at the Casino Grand Lisboa. Duhamel competed alongside 182 other players, and the young champion from Canada received a great deal of attention from the local Macau entrants.

Indeed, the manager of PokerStars Macau Marketing, Fred Leung, said that within just “10 seconds” of Duhamel’s arrival at his table in the PokerStars Macau poker room, local players were greeting and asking to be photographed with the Canadian poker star.

One lucky player even collected a signed Jonathon Duhamel PokerStars Macau jacket after beating the WSP champ in a coin toss (the jacket was bounty which had been previously placed on Duhamel’s head).

The Macau Millions is an event which guarantees HKD $1,500,000, and its organisers are hoping to make the event the first tournament in Asia to surpass 1,000 competitors. So far, 412 players have registered to play, and the tournament looks on track to surpass 2010’s record of 741 entrants.

Thursday will see the HKD €2,200 Day 1D event commence. The event will finish on April 10.

World Poker Tour

Next month’s World Poker Tour World Championship series at the Las Vegas Bellagio resort will run concurrently with another WPT hosted tournament at the same Bellagio resort: a Super High Roller Event with a recorded breaking $100,000 buy-in.

The WPT Championship runs from May 14-20, and the Super High Roller Event has been scheduled for May 18-19 with the aim of attracting the big name-high rollers who are already in town for the WPT Championship.

Indeed, WPT CEO, Steve Heller, explained that running the two tournaments concomitantly will help create a real challenge and chance for the “world’s elite players” to really “show their mettle.”

The high rollers are sure to step up to the plate and meet this challenge; the $100,000 buy-in is the largest in any WPT event thus far and will certainly attract some of the biggest names in competition at WPT Championship.

In fact, Erik Seidel, who recently became the all-time leading money winner for live tournament poker after putting in some excellent displays at the NMB National Heads-Up, the LA Poker Classic’s $25k High Roller, and the Aussie Million, has already confirmed that he will be taking part in the $100k Super High Roller Event.

Roberto Romanello

Roberto Romanello made himself €140,685 richer, and gave himself a great opportunity to earn a poker triple crown, as he emerged victorious from the WPT Title event in Bratislava on Sunday.

Indeed, Romanello won December’s EPT Prague event in December of year. Consequently, with this recent WPT victory in the Slovakian capital under his belt, a World Series Poker victory is now all that is required for the Welshman to achieve a rare triple crown.

The €2,500+€220 WPT Bratislava main event was hosted at the Golden Vegas Casino and saw a 211-strong player field create a €493,155 prize pool.

Alongside Roberto Romanello at the main event’s final table were two German players who had qualified for the event via a PartyPoker online qualifier event — Alexander Jager and Frank Dollinger — and Bodo Sbrzesny, A Team PartyPoker Pro.

Mayu Roca finished runner up to Romanello, taking home €71,000.

The World Poker Tour’s next stop will be the Lawrenceburg, Indiana, where the Hollywood Poker Open will be contested on April 9-13 at the Hollywood Casino.

Poker Stars

Las Vegas and the online poker market — two parties who both strongly advocate the legalization and regulation of online poker in the USA — will have been roused by reports this week that the world renown online Poker site PokerStars and the Las Vegas casino company Wynn Resorts have recently joined forces and are set to work together as a team to lobby for the legalization and regulation of online poker in the United States.

Steve Wynn, the owner of Wynn Resorts Ltd, has been quoted as saying that legalization and regulation for online gaming represents the only truly sensible progressive option. 

Online poker is currently the single most played game in the online game market: a market which takes in approximately $25 billion per year. Of this $25 billion total, 20% is generated by players in the US.

Wynn has argued that legalizing and regulating an industry which generates such large taxable sums as soon as possible would benefit the US hugely at a time when the country’s funds are currently in great need of replenishment. Moreover, Wynn claims a legalized and regulated online poker industry would create a vast amount of new jobs and could therefore play a part in reviving the US from its present economic slump.

PokerStars, Wynn’s new partners, are in complete agreement with Wynn and are also eager to make their plans for a legalized and regulated online poker industry come to fruition.

Currently, there is much optimism among advocates of legalized online poker that this may soon be the case. Indeed, recently moves have been made to reach agreements between online operators and land-based casinos in New Jersey and Nevada. However, although things may currently look promising, it is only after the proposed bills are passed as laws that such optimism will have been seen to have been justified.

Friday will see a televised €3,200+€300 main event commence. The playing field will include a group of PartyPoker online qualifiers alongside better-known players such as: Dave ‘The Devilfish’ Ulliott, Sam Trickett, Tobias Reinkemeier, Tony G, Dragan Galic, Leo Margets, James Bord, Max Pescatori, Roberto Romanello, Bruno Fitoussi, and Johannes Strassmann.

This event will run through until March 29 and will feature two Day 1 flights.

Another televised event, specifically the €9,700+€300 High Rollers event, will take place at Vienna’s Montesino on March 28-30.

Both T.V. broadcasts will include commentary from Mike Sexton, Kara Scott, and Jesse May.

Finally, players will be shuttled from the WPT Vienna to Slovakia, which is just 40 miles outside of the Austrian capital, to take part in a €2,500+€220 WPT Bratislava main event held at Golden Begas Casino from March 30 until April 3.

WSOP

The World Series Poker Circuit main even, held this weekend at Caesars, Atlantic City, was won by Brian Ali.

Ali, who hails from Brooklyn, New York, came out on top from a 442 player field in the $1,500 event, earning himself $139,284 in the process.

Reflecting on his victory as he spoke to WSOPC staff, Ali said: “This is so exciting for me to win this. I was just thinking about this last night that: I could win the same amount of money buying a lottery ticket or something like that. But it would not mean the same at all. This victory is something I really had to earn. I had to beat some really, really tough poker players, not just here but over the past three days. So, I’m flying high right now.”

At the final table, the initial chip leader was Patrick Houchins. Roland Israelashvili, the reigning WSOP Circuit Main Event champion, was also present, thus creating a chance for himself to become the first ever player in the tours seven-year history to win back-to back WSOP Main Event titles.

Israelashvili, however, eventually finished fifth, while victor Ali got off to an excellent start. Indeed, after just few hands, the Brooklyn native had doubled up after he rivered the nut flush while Houchins was held triple jacks.

Ali went on to register his victory in no time at all. The final table lasted only 3 hours and 55 minutes: the quickest final table played on the WSOP Circuit thus far this season.

As a result of his victory, Ali — a 51 year old telephone company retiree — earned himself a seat at the WSOPC $1 million National Championship.

The event will be held in Las Vegas this May. Ali will be joined at the event by Mun Nguyen: a Pittsburgh native whose first and second place finish in the two prelims of the WSOPC series earned him the tournament’s Best All-Around player title.

The WSOPC will stop next at Harrah’s Rincon, just outside of San Diego, California on March 27-30. Here, $10,000 will be up for grabs as the third WSOP Circuit Regional Championship is contested.

In Atlantic City, the final table finished thus:

1. Brian Ali $139,284
2. John Andress $86,071
3. Patrick Houchins $62,893
4. Ellis Frazier $46,698
5. Roland Israelashvili $35,213
6. Jeff Rowland $26,951
7. Jerry Van Strydonck $20,930
8. Albert Winchester $16,486
9. Joe Caffrey $13,168

Paradise Poker Tour

The Paradise Poker Tour Prague, held at the Card Casino in the Czech Capital this weekend, was won by Radoslav Průcha, a Poker magazine publisher.

Průcha, a Czech native, beat initial leader Luboš Galuška, also from the Czech Republic, in heads up. The Poker magazine publisher ultimately collected €30,000.

Reflecting on his first ever victory, Průcha said: “I’ve been playing poker for a number of years so to win an event like this is fantastic. In many ways the feeling of being the winner is even better than the money.”

Průcha commended the tournament’s format, saying: “I really enjoyed it; the event was really well-organised and I think it’s a great idea, giving normal players the chance to experience a big tournament like this.”

Altogether, the Paradise Poker tour Prague main event, which ran from March 2-6, drew 230 players. Its buy-in was €550, and its prize pool was a guaranteed €125,000.

The final table finished thus:

1. Radoslav Průcha €30,000
2. Luboš Galuška €21,300
3. Mariusz Chrusciel €14,000
4. Tibor Boros €9,150
5. Bernd Wachter €6,000
6. Salim Alibas €4,900
7. Ivan Buchbauer €4,100
8. Jiři Vojta €3,500
9. Petr Hlavaček €2,900

Seidel had made the final of last year’s event, yet the Nevada-born player ultimately lost to Annie Duke. However, Seidel went all the way this time.

Seidel defeated Allen Cunningham, Phil Gordon, Andrew Robi and Jennifer Harman to carve his way to the tournament final and collected the $750,000 first-place prize after beating Chris Moneymaker, a previous 2003 WSOP Main Event champion.

The tournament’s final 16 were each paid, while runner-up Money Maker took home $300k.

Reflecting on his victory, Seidel registered his delight at becoming the tournament champ and commended the high quality of the playing field, saying: “I have competed in the NHPC since 2005 and lost to Annie Duke in the finals at last year’s tournament, so my win today is truly special. It is always exciting to compete against my fellow poker players who showcased great skill on the tables this year.”

Seidel has had extraordinary start to 2011, earning an incredible $4.3 million thus far. Highlights include: two final table appearances at PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and the $100k High Rollers at the Aussie Millions; victory at the Aussie millions $250K Super High Roller; another victory at the $25k High Roller at the L.A. Poker Classic; and a fifth-place result in the $5k Heads Up in Los Angeles.

This recent NBC Heads Up victory, which NBC will broadcast over six Sundays starting on April 17, has enabled Seidel to reach a total lifetime earnings of $14.6 million: a figure which sees him overtake Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu to take the all-time leading money winner’s list top-spot.