Poker School and Poker News

Poker cheats using high-tech gear busted in France

2011-10-18T11:12:00.000-07:00

No, this story isn’t the plot-line for an upcoming Ocean’s Eleven movie, this actually happened. According to an article first published on FoxNews.com it seems that a small group of Italian poker players were cheating other players at the table by marking cards that was only visible to players wearing infrared glasses.

It seems that the perpetrators had some inside help, as a casino employee and a dealer were swept up in the sting operation that nabbed the three Italians on their second trip to Cannes. The three players, the dealer, and the casino employee were all arrested after the group won a further $27k. According to the FoxNews.com story the French newspaper Le Paresien stated that the Italians were linked to “Serious Organized Crime”.
The authorities first became suspicious when the trio pocketed over $60k on a trip to the French Riviera in August, and a sting operation was put in place on their next visit, which took place just prior to the World Series of Poker Europe’s first visit to Cannes, France. The group’s pictures are now being circulated to other casinos in Europe to see if they worked their scam in other locales.
This story comes soon after a pair of Argentinean poker pros were detained in Las Vegas after allegedly cheating the Wynn Casino out of a reported $70,000 playing craps, allegedly using a technique known as “sliding” to manipulate the dice. So, apparently cheating is not confined to online poker at all. Perhaps it’s safer to play online blackjack after all!

WSOP final table will air live on ESPN

2011-10-18T11:11:00.000-07:00

Apparently ESPN felt the ratings for their “live” coverage of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event this summer were strong enough to warrant the network to adopt the “near-live” format for the Final Table of the WSOP Main Event set to air in early November.

ESPN will air the entire final table, using a combination of ESPN and ESPN2, as well as providing the telecast online, which will be available at ESPN3. The coverage will be on a 15-minute delay, and unlike the lead-up to the final table (which was aired with a 30-minute delay) all of the players’ hole cards will be seen by the viewers –during the lead-up only the hole-cards of the hands that went to the flop were shown.
The coverage will now take place on Sunday November 6th (it was originally slated to air on Saturday November 5th) and will begin at 11:30 PM PDT. The remaining nine players (the November Nine) will play until the tournament is three-handed, at which point the tournament will be halted and the remaining three players will return on Tuesday 8th.
ESPN has long sought a way to keep the general public from knowing who the winner of the tournament prior to their coverage airing; something that originally brought about the idea of the November Nine, which even though the network aired the coverage the next day this proved to still be too long of a wait, especially in the Internet era.

World Series of Poker Europe Delivers in Cannes

2011-10-18T11:06:00.000-07:00

When the World Series of Poker decided to relocate the WSOP Europe to Cannes, France, instead of holding it at its four-year home in London, England, questions swirled regarding whether the series would be as successful as it was in previous years. With all of the preliminary events now wrapped up in Cannes and the Main Event field size known, we can now analyze the data and compare the 2011 WSOP Europe to previous years.

If you’ve been following PokerNews’ comprehensive, ongoing coverage of the WSOP Europe events, you’ll know that numbers across the board have risen. In fact, the largest WSOP Europe event was witnessed this year in Event #2: €1,090 No-Limit Hold'em. That event had a record-breaking field of 771 players and was won by Australian Andrew Hinrichsen.
Not only were numbers up across the board for these events, but the WSOP had implemented the most jam-packed schedule it has ever had for WSOP Europe. In 2007, the inaugural year, only three events were on the slate. In 2008 and 2009, there were four events. In 2010, the number of events was increased to five.

pokernews.com

Philipp Gruissem Triumphs At EPT London Hi-Roller

2011-10-08T03:26:00.000-07:00

German pro Philipp Gruissem has triumphed at the EPT London Hi-Roller, after defeating a field of 75 players to claim the title and the £450,200 ($696,800) first place prize.

Without doubt, the young pro from Aachen, Germany is having one of the hottest years of his career and his latest victory in London follows a 28th place finish at the WSOP Main Event for $242,636 and a win at the €10k EPT Barcelona for €234,500 ($336,394) in August.
In total, Philipp Gruissem has now amassed $1,408,092 playing live, as well as a further $2,128,318 playing tournaments online under the screen name “philbort.”
By the time the £20,500 Hi-Roller final table of eight had been reached at the Hilton Metropole Hotel, Philipp Gruissem found himself in 7th place with just a third of the chips of the table leader. As you would expect, the final also included a veritable whose who of top poker pros who lined up as follows:
Igor Kurganov (Russia): 854k
Rob Akery (UK): 622k
Adrian Bussman: 518k
Olivier Busquet (USA): 471k
Joel Nordkvist (Sweden): 365k
Sam Trickett (UK): 354k
Philipp Gruissem (Germany): 311k
Michael Tureneic (Sweden): 268k
First to exit the final table was short-stacked Michael Tureneic in 8th (£58,400) whose all-in shove with KJ was called by Olivier Busquet with A-J, followed soon after by Sam Trickett in 7th (£68,800) holding Kd-Jd to Kurganov’s Ac-9c.
Next, Philipp Gruissem dispatched Joel Nordkvist in 6th (£72,950), and Adrian Bussman in 5th spot (£102,250).
Finally, Igor Kurganov eliminated Olivier Busquet in 4th (£171,200) and Rob Akery in 3rd (£205,200) to enter the heads-up battle against Philipp Gruissem, with the German at a 2:5 disadvantage.
However, Philipp Gruissem levelled the score by winning three uncontested pots before badgering his Russian opponent with a barrage of three and four bets. Eventually, a short-stacked Kurganov found himself all-in holding Q-6 to his opponent’s pocket nines and with the board running out 5-6-J-K-A, Igor Kurganov collected £318,300 for his deep-run in the tournament.
Meanwhile, Philipp Gruissem was crowned the 2011 EPT London Hi-Roller Champion.

onlinepoker.net

$30 Million Poker Tournament To Be Held At Wembley Stadium

2011-10-08T03:19:00.000-07:00

If the stories are to be believed, then Wembley Stadium in London will play host to the “biggest poker event ever” starting May next year.

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) is a new project of the Bernard Tapie Group, which has recently been making the poker headlines, after being revealed as Full Tilt Poker’s anonymous potential investor.
This has lead many in the poker community to speculate that the announcement of an ISPT $30 million guaranteed tournament with a top prize of $10 million is a publicity stunt by the French investment group.

Nevertheless, billing the Wembley event as the first stop on a once a year mega poker tournament schedule, Laurent Tapie described the tour as follows:
“The ISPT is the largest poker event of all times and in the future will be held annually. The tournament series will always be held in famous stadiums in various countries.”
Apparently, a rental contract between Wembley Stadium and Group Laurent Tapie had already been signed back in September 16, 2011, with company president Laurent Tapie predicting a 20,000 to 30,000 player turnout for the mega-tournament come next May.
Explaining the event further, Day 1 will see up to 30,000 competitors playing on electronic terminals within the stadium, with 3,000 players then progressing through to real poker tables on Day 2. Day 3 will then see 1,000 competitors play down to 250 players, with the final table of 10 being set by the end of Day 4. Finally, on Day 5 the lucky finalists will share the remaining $17 million prize pool with a whooping $10 million going to the eventual winner.
A website is now up and running with a promotional video doing the rounds on various social media announcing that entries can be made by visiting its www.ispt.com domain. In the meantime, details on the site are still sketchy including a precise date for the tournament, or its buy-in. Consequently, many poker enthusiasts are treating the event with a certain amount of skepticism until a more concrete confirmation has been made.

onlinepoker.net

European Poker Tour London Day 1B Complete, Day 2 In Play

2011-10-03T05:56:00.000-07:00

Day Two play at the European Poker Tour stop at the Hilton Metropole Hotel in London is in full swing, with the final numbers for the tournament exceeding expectations and bringing new faces to the top of the leaderboard.
After 280 players stepped up on Friday with their £5000 buy in, a stunning 411 came to the tables on Saturday for action. This brought the numbers for the tournament to an impressive 691 runners, far below last year’s record field of 848 but strong for the current state of the tournament poker world. A prize pool of £3.35 million will be divvied up between 102 players who cash in this tournament, with the eventual champion walking off with a nice £750,000 payday.

World Poker Tour champion John Gale was the early leader on Saturday, but he was unable to maintain it throughout the day. Although he would make it through the evening action, he finished the day with 118,700 in chips, slightly more than what he had after the second break. While Gale was in the Top Ten for Saturday’s play, several other players were able to pass him for the Day 1B chip honors.
The most notable pros from Day 1B were Sorel Mizzi and Justin Bonomo. The two young pros were able to garner chip stacks of 129,100 and 126,100, respectively, which was good for fifth and sixth place among Saturday’s players. They were outpaced, however, by Benny Spindler, who took the Day 1B chip lead with a 160,800 stack, and Raj Vohra, who finished play Saturday night with 156,600.
Among the top professionals who were eliminated on Day 1B were Team PokerStars Pros Daniel Negreanu and Vanessa Selbst, while former EPT London champion Vicky Coren, David Williams and Jason Mercier came back on Sunday for play.
While Spindler and Vohra’s performance was exceptional, it wasn’t enough to knock off the Day 1A chip leader, Lukasz Golczyk. Golczyk started the day on Sunday with 211,600 in chips for the overall lead in the tournament. Once the 162 survivors from Day 1A and the 255 from Day 1B came to the felt today, Spindler and Vohra were in second and third place, respectively, while Umberto Vitagliano and Steven Warburton rounded out the Top Five.
Early play on Day 2 hasn’t been kind to some of the chip leaders from the dual Day Ones. Spindler has been able to increase his stack by almost double, currently sitting at 303K in chips. Golczyk, for his part, has only put another 17,000 in chips into his stack and is currently sitting at 228K, good for eighth place at this time. Some of the professional names on the leaderboard at the start of Sunday’s play have also been eliminated from the tournament.
2009 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Ville Wahlbeck was an early elimination, as his pocket Jacks were bested by Anton Ionel’s A-Q when a Queen came on the turn and, adding insult to injury, an Ace came on the river. Bonomo was another victim of the early action, busting from the tournament when his pocket fours were outrun by Mercier’s A-J. Joining Wahlbeck and Bonomo on the rail are other top pros such as Noah Boeken, Chris Moorman and Soren Kongsgaard.
With the final level of the day getting ready to start, Matthijs Remie has moved into the chip lead with 390,000 in front of him. Jonathan Layani (325K), Spindler (303K), Sam Grafton (280K) and Basile Yaiche (268K) round out the Top Five behind Remie. Mizzi (180K), Jake Cody (165K), Humberto Brenes (132K) and the legendary Doyle Brunson (playing in his first EPT tournament) are threats that are lurking down the leaderboard.
Currently there are 210 players remaining in the tournament, but expect that number to drop below the 200 mark before play ends this afternoon. The money bubble will most likely burst tomorrow, with the championship of this latest EPT stop determined on Thursday.

pokernewsdaily.com

EPT London Heads Into Day 3

2011-10-03T03:38:00.000-07:00

Day 1a and 1b at the EPT London managed to attract a starting field of 691 players to the £5,000 ($7,800) buy-in event to create a prize pool worth £3.3 million with £750,000 ($1,166,260) going to the eventual winner.

By the time Day 2 had been reached at the Hilton Metropole in London , 332 competitors still remained with just 159 players then making it through to Day 3.
Emerging at the top of the leader board was German pro Benny Spindler who was also Day 1b’s chip leader. He is currently sitting on a healthy 469,800 chip stack, with nearest rivals Jamie Rosen from the US (405,000) and France’s Basile Yaiche (403,600) close behind.

Notable names still remaining in the competition include Doyle Brunson whose been hitting some form at his first ever EPT event and is presently sitting with a 202,400 stack.
Also in contention are Jason Mercier, Roberto Romanello, Andrew Feldman, Humberto Brenes, James Akenhead, Brian Hastings, November Niner Eoghan O’Dea, Joe Ebanks and Freddy Deeb.
Players less fortunate and falling short of any cash payouts include Canadian pro Daniel Negreanu who was eliminated on Day 1b. Negreanu lost a big hand which left him with just 3,500 chips and was sent to the rail shortly after. As he tweeted:
“EPT London all in with 44 vs 57. Flop AK3 turn Q river 5. And that’s that! I “may” play side events for the 1st time ever. We’ll see.”
Also eliminated from the star-studded competition were a whole slew of pros including Jean-Robert Bellande, Dan “jungleman12″ Cates, Bertrand Grospellier, Justin Bonomo, Liv Boeree, Vanessa Rousso, Vanessa Selbst, Barry Greenstein, Joe Hachem, Eugene Katchalov and Ivan Demidov.
Day 3 of the EPT London Main Event will resume later today where the 159 players still remaining will be hoping to at least survive the 104 player cash bubble. The competition will then reach its ultimate conclusion on Thursday, October 6th.

onlinepoker.net

Viva La Full Tilt Poker?

2011-10-03T03:37:00.000-07:00

For almost 6 months now, Full Tilt Poker has been on the edge of a precipice with its legion of frustrated customers around the world cut adrift and owed around $300 million since the troubles first began in the US on Black Friday.

Now, however, there may just be some good news on the horizon for the beleaguered online poker room, despite having recently having had its gaming licence revoked by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC).
Apparently, French investment company ‘Groupe Bernard Tapie’ has signed an exclusive agreement with Full Tilt to acquire the poker room and its assets, while saying the repayment of customers was a priority for the investors.

Stating the credentials of their possible rescuer on a press release, Full Tilt Poker said:
“Groupe Bernard Tapie has over 30 years of experience in the salvation of financially distressed businesses, with over 40 companies acquired and managed to profitability, the most well-known being the sport equipment giant, Adidas.”
Nevertheless, before the deal goes through there would appear to be a number of caveats, which have the potential to scupper any future agreement. At the top of the list is the need for the company to conclude a settlement with the US DoJ, thus resolving its outstanding legal problems.
Groupe Bernard Tapie said they would start negotiating with the DoJ next week, and indicated that they would prefer not to pay the DoJ all at once but over time, instead. Despite a whole host of pitfalls which may sink the deal, the Bernard Tapie Group said if all went well then Full Tilt could be up and running by January of next year.
Commenting on the potential of the battered brand, Tapie said: “The brand is not in question, it’s a well-known brand and the technology is widely recognized as being possibly the best in the industry. The management of the company is being questioned and it will be changed (should the takeover be concluded). I believe we have the tools necessary to once again make the site one of the leaders in the online poker sector.”

onlinepoker.net

Full Tilt Sign Acquisition Agreement with French Investors

2011-10-03T03:30:00.000-07:00

The rumors of French investors buying Full Tilt Poker were confirmed true today when FTP announced it had signed an acquisition agreement with the Bernard Tapie Group.
The group, led by Bernard Tapie's son Laurent, has signed an exclusive agreement to not only acquire all of Full Tilt's assets but to repay all of its players worldwide.
According to a release which was sent to pokerstrategy.com earlier today:

'Groupe Bernard Tapie' has over 30 years of experience in the salvation of financially distressed businesses, with over 40 companies acquired and managed to profitability, the most well-known being the sport equipment giant, Adidas."
The executon of the agreement is still contingent on a number of factors, not the least of which is an agreement with the United States Department of Justice regarding the charges still pending from the indictments of Black Friday.
Discussions between the Group and the Department of Justice are said to be beginning immediately, according to the release.
The Tapie family is well known in the business world for turning around bankrupt companies, including Adidas in the early 90s, but is not without its own track record of scandal.
Bernard Tapie has been convicted of tax fraud in France and spent six months in prison for fixing a match during his tenure as president of the Olympique de Marseilles football club.

Laurent Tapie: "We Have the Funds Necessary to Repay Player Debts"

In Laurent Tapie's first interview since the acquisition announcement, he told iGaming France that the Group hoped to get Full Tilt back up and offering online poker by January 2012 and that the funds were on hand to pay back all players worldwide.
"We have shown that we have the funds necessary to repay player debts," Tapie says.
"We want to find ways where we don't have to put in all the money and will be talking to the US Department of Justice next week."
While he said there was a long way to go before the deal could be finalized, he did say the Full Tilt brand would continue to live on:
"The brand is not in question, it's a well-known brand and the technology is widely recognized as being possibly the best in the industry.
"The management of the company is being questioned and it will be changed (should the takeover be concluded).
"I believe we have the tools necessary to once again make the site one of the leaders in the online poker sector."

pokerjunkie.com

Amit Arrives in September High Stakes

2011-10-02T13:24:00.000-07:00

The stakes are rapidly escalating on PokerStars as millions were won and lost in the big games this September.
There were plenty of great stories with Israeli poker pro Rafi Amit proving why he’s one of the best PLO players in the world and Viktor “Isildur1” following up his incredible August with a disastrous September.
Although noticeably lacking cash game killers like Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, the nosebleed action on PokerStars is starting to compare with the games that were available on Full Tilt prior to Black Friday.

Prior to Full Tilt’s exodus from the U.S. it was common for the biggest wins on PokerStars to barely top $100k. These days there are more and more $300k nights with an odd half million-dollar victory every now and then.
The games on PartyPoker and Titan Poker are starting to escalate as well with some huge pots being traded back and forth.
Here’s a look at the all the action from the last month of high stakes online poker.
Top 10 Winners in September
It’s been an interesting year for Rafi Amit as he jumped up to $767k in profit on PokerStars in spring, took most of the summer off, then returned in late August to go on an absolute tear that would see him win $1 million in September.
Widely regarded as one of the best PLO players in the world, Amit has always been better known as a live player but no one doubts his online game now.
This month Amit passed Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen to become the biggest winner of 2011 with $1.8 million in profit.
Almost as impressive was Ilari Sahamies run in September. The Finnish pro racked up nearly $1 million in profit and is now up approximately half a million in 2011.
It’s especially impressive considering he was down over $800k on the site in mid-July.
It also one of the best months ever for young online pro Benny “toweliestar” Spindler who spun up $816k in profit. Prior to September, Spindler was only up a scant $17k in 2011.
Some of the other notable winners this month included Brian “$tinger 88” Hastings, Ben Tollerene and Jens Kyllonen.
Here is a complete look at the top 10 biggest winners
1. Rafi “refaelamit” Amit: +$1.05 million
2. Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies: +$922,000
3. socutiesf: +$899,000
4. Benny “toweliestar” Spindler: +$816,000
5. Ben “Ben86” Tollerene: +$460,000
6. Rob “Vaga_Lion” Akery: +$457,000
7. mikki696: +$350,000
8. Brian “$tinger 88” Hastings: +$330,000
9. Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen: +$285,000
10. tjbentham: +$269,000

pokerlistings.com

Wade Joins US Grinders for Post-Black Friday World Tour

2011-10-02T13:17:00.000-07:00

With the WSOP in the rearview mirror and poker tournaments upcoming all over the world, American grinders like Tristan Wade are flying the coop in droves in search of big scores and international adventure.
Western Europe is the place to be right now for poker players, American or not, with more than a month of high buy-in tournament poker already underway.
Kicking off with the ongoing EPT London main event and continuing with the WSOPE in Cannes and another EPT in San Remo, Italy there’s no shortage of opportunity for travel and tournament action.

And after Black Friday that’s exactly what many American pros are looking for.
Tristan “cre8tive” Wade is one such pro. 26 years old, from Florida, Wade is using Black Friday as an opportunity to combine work and pleasure.
On his first-ever trip to Europe, Wade spent today playing the EPT London main event. But that’s just the beginning.
“I’m heading down to Cannes after EPT London for World Series Europe and I only bought a one-way ticket so I’m not sure where I’ll go after that,” Wade told PokerListings.com on a break from his Day 1 heat.
“I’m planning on going to Amsterdam before the WSOPE and maybe a few other places that I’ve heard good things about and I’ve got some friends who play pro basketball in Japan and I’ve never been there,” he added.
Few careers afford that kind of lifestyle, not to mention the potential to earn this kind of money. To date Wade has earned over $700,000 playing live tournaments, with the summer of 2011 being particularly lucrative.
“It was lucky I had a good World Series because it gave me a lot of flexibility and freedom,” he said.
Wade is modest as his “good World Series” put more than $380,000 in earnings on his poker résumé.
“Poker definitely gives you a freedom that most occupations can’t offer and that’s the best part about it,” he said.
“You don’t have to answer to anyone and you can play where you want and when you want which is amazing because there are just more and more tournaments happening all around the world.”

pokerlistings.com

280 players register on Day 1a of EPT London

2011-10-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

Over the past few years the PokerStars EPT London tournament has grown into one of the most prestigious tournaments in the poker world; with a huge prize-pool and attracting some of the most notable poker players from across the globe, the 2011 running of the EPT London, which began Friday, is expected to be the biggest yet.
With two scheduled starting days, the EPT London got off to a decent start Friday, as 280 players registered for the Main Event; leaving the tournament plenty of work to do if it plans on surpassing last year’s 848 total entrants. Last year, a total of 339 players registered on Day 1a, leaving the 2011 EPT London about 60 players of last year’s pace –but as we’ve seen in other recent tournaments Day 1b’s can have very, VERY, large turnouts. Tournament officials are preparing for at least 500 entrants on Day 1b, which would challenge last year’s record.

At the end of Day 1a a number of notable names managed to bag up a considerable amount of chips, including Barry Greenstein, Nick Binger, and Jake Cody, all three of whom ended the night in the unofficial Top 10.
Of the 280 original entrants, 175 survived the day, including Doyle Brunson, who was playing in his first-ever EPT event, and is likely staying in Europe for the WSOP Europe in Cannes, considering he was named as part of Phil Hellmuth’s 2011 Caesars Cup Team. Other big names who managed to bag-and-tag their chips Friday night were: Sebastian Ruthenberg, Roberto Romanello, Darren Elias, Pierre Neuville, Arnaud Mattern, Mickey Petersen, Nacho Barbero, Jonathan Karamalikis, JP Kelly, Luke Schwartz, Fatima Moreira De Melo, Andre Akkari, Lex Veldhuis, Chris Bjorin, Chris Moorman, Ville Wahlbeck, Theo Jorgensen, Andreas Hoivold, Ana Marquez, Ludovic Lacay, Anton Ionel, Tobias Reinkemeier, Ram Vaswani, Johnny Lodden, November Niner Samuel Holden, Randy Dorfman, last year’s champion David Vamplew, Barny Boatman, McLean Karr, Joseph Cheong, and James Akenhead.
Here is a look at the unofficial top 10 chip counts at the end of play:
1. Lev Marymsky — 155,000
2. Nick Binger — 138,000
3. Jeremy Kottler — 137,000
4. Umberto Vitagliano — 136,000
5. Mustapha Kanit — 108,000
6. Marcelo Simonesmesqueu — 107,000
7. Steve Billirakis — 90,000
8. Barry Greenstein — 79,000
9. Jake Cody — 75,000
10. Philipp Gruissem — 68,000
Day 1b will kick off at Noon local time, with eight levels scheduled to be played before players head off to bed for the evening. On Sunday the two starting days’ fields will be combined for official Day 2 of the tournament.

http://pokernewsboy.com

Top online poker winners and losers for 2011

2011-10-02T08:49:00.000-07:00

With the 2011 online poker year entering the fourth quarter, I figured it was time to take a look at who has been prospering at the online poker tables in 2011, and who have been the contributors to those prosperous players. So without further adieu, here are the biggest winners and losers over the first nine months of 2011.

I’ve listed both the overall winners (from all the sites) as well as PokerStars on its own. This was done because it’s unclear if the Full Tilt poker players (the winners anyway) will receive their funds –let’s hope they, and the rest of us average stakes players do!

Winners (Overall):
1. Gus Hansen — $3.941.703
2. Daniel “jungleman12” Cates — $1.952.994
3. NoPasaran — $1.875.348
4. Rafi “Refaelamit” Amit (PokerStars) — $1.695.113
5. Matt Hawrilenko — $1.440.095
6. Bixiu — $1.406.194
7. Phil Ivey — $1.336.313
8. Andreas “Skjervøy” Torbergsen (PokerStars) — $1.283.598
9. Patrik Antonius — $1.157.800
10. Seb86 — $1.146.423
Losers (Overall):
1. Tom” Durrrr” Dwan — $-2.474.309
2. fishosaurusREX — $-1.399.950
3. kagome kagome — $-1.377.281
4. cadillac1944 — $-1.336.308
5. Esvedra — $-1.182.259
6. UarePileous — $-837.803
7. Cole South — $-778.457
8. DrugsOrMe — $-746.193
9. David Benefield — $-742.419
10. Anton “Antonionel” Ionel (PokerStars) — $-703.103
Winners (PokerStars Only):
1. Rafi “Refaelamit” Amit — $1.695.113
2. Andreas “Skjervøy” Torbergsen — $1.283.598
3. Alexeimartov — $1.046.038
4. gavz101 — $1.030.874
5. Rui “PepperoniF” Cao — $1.007.236
6. Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen — $922.334
7. L0ve2playU — $858.431
8. verve.oasis — $856.916
9. mikki696 — $808.925
10. 0Human0 — $797.187
Losers (PokerStars Only):
1. Anton “Antonionel” Ionel — $-703.103
2. MamaOsa55 — $-696.593
3. Zypherin — $-646.306
4. Richard “Nutsinho” Lyndacker — $-636.302
5. nasud 11 — $-602.682
6. seghei007 — $-551.577
7. venced0r — $-538.100
8. Niki “RealAndyBeal” Jedlicka — $-479.844
9. Daniel “KidPoker” Negreanu — $-447.151
10. Kiiski — $-393.934
Amazingly, the players who were mainly playing on Full Tilt Poker before the site went belly-up are amongst the highest earners, which just shows how high the stakes were on Full Tilt. Even when the high-stakes players moved to PokerStars, the games have not increased to the level they were on Full Tilt Poker.
These statistics are accurate as of September 26th, 2011.

http://pokernewsboy.com

What is the ID check?

2011-10-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

After passing the quiz and creating an account, new members may be asked to complete our ID check.

The ID check requires the new member to prove that they really are who they say they are, by providing an official document (for example, a passport, ID card or other official identification). The ID check is performed at random and is a necessary step to prevent individuals from receiving starting capital more than once.
This isn't aimed at people who may have lost their starting capital and want to give it a second and more serious chance. It's more about avoiding large scale fraud, which unfortunately, has been attempted in the past. After attempts to receive the starting capital occurred 1,000+ times, we had no other choice than to introduce the ID check at PokerStrategy.com.
A lot of people are hesitant to share private documents. Our privacy policy is clear: All private data remains private. We only use this information for the purpose of confirming a person's identification with the ID check.
It is of course a simple matter of trust, but in this case understanding why the ID check is necessary helps.

Why is there a quiz?

2011-10-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

The starting capital you get from PokerStrategy.com can be seen as an investment for people who have an interest in playing poker and want to learn poker strategies. So why do you have to pass a quiz to get the starting capital?

Passing the quiz proves that you have the potential to become a good poker player; theoretically at least. Beginners also learn basic strategy, meaning they can go straight to the tables after passing the quiz and aren't in danger of losing all of their starting capital right off the bat.
The quiz isn't just for fun and it's not meant to make things difficult; it's a way of making sure new players will be able to get free starting capital in the future, and prevents new members from taking money to the tables without really knowing what they are doing.

"Free starting capital from PokerStrategy.com" only works when the majority of players don't gamble away their starting capital, but seize this one time opportunity and use the capital to make a profit.

How does PokerStrategy.com help people?

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Or even more importantly: What do I stand to gain by registering?

The $50 starting capital allows you to give poker a try without having to take any risks yourself.
Our educational material teaches you to play poker successfully.
You can also find direct support from the world's largest poker community and from its 4,000,000 members.
And it is all free of charge.

The unique learning material and community, coupled with the starting capital and the chance to develop into a good poker player with the help of PokerStrategy.com, are the main advantages you have when you register at PokerStrategy.com.
And it's all free. You can also unlock more advanced learning materials as you play!

What is PokerStrategy.com?

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PokerStrategy.com is one of the oldest and most successful online poker schools in the world. This refers not only to our size (more than 4,000,000 members), but also to our members' success, which is well beyond that of typical online players.
The site, along with the articles, videos, coaching sessions, forums and starting capital are all financed through our 'affiliate agreement.'

PokerStrategy.com is partnered with the biggest poker rooms, such as Mansion Poker, Titan Poker and Party Poker. When a member registers at one of these partner rooms, PokerStrategy.com gets a portion of the rake that a member pays that poker room as he plays. Since rake is always taken, the only difference is that now part of the rake returns to PokerStrategy.com and is used to pay for the authors, coaches, moderators, videos, etc.

How do you become a PokerStrategist?

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There are four steps in the registration process at PokerStrategy.com:

Step 1: Register
Step 2: Learn the poker strategy of any one format
Step 3: Pass the quiz for your chosen strategy, to receive your starting capital
Step 4: Set up an account at one of our partner rooms