https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/2013/08/ Betfair Poker's talented team of poker enthusiasts bring you the very latest poker news from around the globe. Covering both online poker and the live poker scene, the Betfair Poker blog is your one-stop site for the very best in poker related news, views and gossip. Along with select poker news stories, visitors will also find detailed reports and results of major online and live poker tournaments, interviews with some of poker's key figures and players and bespoke poker articles and editorials. Join Betfair Poker Now en Copyright 2026 Thu, 29 Aug 2013 15:50:00 +0100 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification The poker world's attention was directed toward south Florida over the last week where the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, FL hosted two noteworthy tournaments with big prize pools that attracted many of poker's elite. One was the inaugural World Poker Tour Alpha8 event, a "super high roller" $100K tourney in which Steven Silverman won the $891,660 first prize. The other was a $10 million guaranteed event with a $5,300 buy-in that saw Blair Hinkle take away the top prize of $1,745,245. Silverman the Man at Alpha8 Florida On one side of the Seminole Hard Rock over in the "Hard Rock Live" concert arena the first ever WPT Alpha8 Florida event played out on Monday and Tuesday, a $100,000 buy-in event that ultimately attracted a total of 18 players. Three of those would choose the option to re-enter the event on the first day, thus making for a total of 21 entries and a $2,206,500 total prize pool. Nine of those 18 players survived the first day of play, with Daniel Perper having bought in two times and busted twice. Others failing to survive that first day of play included Andrew Lichtenberger, Jason Koon, Tom Hall, Chris Klodnicki, Brandon Steven, Dan Shak, Erik Seidel, and Philip Gruissem. Players returned on Tuesday with Matt Glantz the chip leader and Bill Perkins the short stack among the final nine. Perkins soon was eliminated, thus setting up the official eight-handed final table, although only the top four finishers in the tournament made the money. Jason Mercier had begun Day 2 second in chips, but he suffered a sequence of unlucky hands to fall in eighth, with Daniel Alaei and Joseph Cheong following him to the rail thereafter. Isaac Haxton then became aggressive on the huge money bubble at five-handed, and enjoyed the chip lead for a time before he, too, experienced some misfortune to become the fifth-place finisher. Both Haxton and Alaei joined Perper as the only players to buy in twice into the event, with none of the three cashing. Glantz would then go out in fourth after falling in a hand versus Jeff Gross, and after the dinner break Gross would next go out in third after losing the last of his chips to Silverman. That set up heads-up between Steven Silverman and a player who is having a heck of a year, current 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event chip leader J.C. Tran. The pair were almost dead even in chips to begin heads-up play, and Tran even nudged out in front before Silverman won a big preflop all-in when his 9d-9c held against Tran's Ah-Jh. Just three hands later Tran was all in with Qs-8c against Silverman's Qd-9h, and when the flop came 8s-Td-5h Tran had gained the lead in the hand. But the 9s fell on the turn to give the advantage back to Silverman, and after the Qh fell on the river, Silverman had won. $100,000+R WPT Alpha8 Florida results: 1st: Steven Silverman -- $891,660 2nd: J.C. Tran -- $526,890 3rd: Jeff Gross -- $364,770 4th: Matt Glantz -- $243,180 Huge Score for Hinkle in SHRPO Main Event Meanwhile over on the other side of the casino the 30-plus tournament, three-week long Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open was coming to a big finish with the completion of the $5,000+$300 buy-in Main Event, a much-hyped tourney featuring an eye-popping $10 million guarantee. That guarantee meant the tournament needed at least 2,000 entries to avoid an overlay, but with three Day 1 flights and unlimited re-entries (including the option to abandon one's stack from an earlier Day 1 flight and re-enter with a full starting stack on a later one), the chances of reaching that goal were increased. Ultimately the goal was met, with 1,605 unique players and 2,384 entries total. There were 779 re-entries all told, with one player re-entering eight times. The total prize pool added up to $11,920,000, split among the top 338 finishers. Justin Bonomo re-entered five times during those Day 1 flights. He'd end up with a top five stack to start Day 2 and would remain among the leaders all of the way to yesterday's six-handed final table where he began play in second position behind chip leader Blair Hinkle. Ultimately those two made it to what became a lengthy and exciting heads-up battle that lasted almost six hours. Finally Hinkle edged out in front to a more than 6-to-1 chip lead, then a hand arose that saw Bonomo check-raising all in on a Qd-9s-5c-Jc board and Hinkle calling immediately. Bonomo had Qs-8c but was already drawing dead as Hinkle had a king-high straight with Ks-10h. The win gave Hinkle a first prize that nearly equaled his career tourney winnings of $1.77 million going into the event. Bonomo also earned a six-figure prize for his finish, pushing his career earnings up over $7 million. $5,300+R Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open ME results: 1st: Blair Hinkle -- $1,745,245 2nd: Justin Bonomo -- $1,163,500 3rd: Mukul Pahuja -- $872,625 4th: Ray Qartomy -- $639,925 5th: Samuel Bernabeau Guilabert -- $494,490 6th: Greg Lehn -- $378,138 Join Betfair Poker Now. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/blair-hinkle-steven-silverman-big-winners-at-seminole-hard-rock-290813-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/blair-hinkle-steven-silverman-big-winners-at-seminole-hard-rock-290813-77.html News Thu, 29 Aug 2013 15:50:00 +0100 With the bulk of the 2013 World Series of Poker having completed and the long wait for the November Nine and finish of this year's Main Event having begun, other tournament tours have gotten back into action, with the 2013-14 World Series of Poker Circuit and Season XII of the World Poker Tour having gotten underway. Both tours crowned their first champions of their new seasons this week, with Jason Strasser claiming the first WSOP-C Main Event ring in Foxwoods and Alexey Rybin taking the first WPT title of the year in Cyprus. Strasser Snares First 2013-14 WSOP-C Title The Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut was among the final stops of the 2012-13 WSOP Circuit, but Foxwoods was positioned as the very first of 22 stops for the 2013-14 season.   The first $1,675 buy-in Main Event of this year's WSOP-C attracted a total of 591 entries altogether, creating a total prize pool of $888,568. After three lengthy and intense days of poker, it was Jason Strasser of New York City earning his largest ever live score by winning the title and $186,600 first prize. Among those making relatively deep runs but coming up shy of the final table were Raj Patel (13th, $11,373), Leo Wolpert (18th, $9,418), and Aaron Massey (29th, $4,975). As reported by the WSOP Live Updates team, Strasser was in the middle of the pack among the final 11 players who made it to the third and final day of the event, though had edged up into a virtual tie for the lead with Wes Wyvill by the time John Ting (11th) and Forrest Mansur (10th) were eliminated, each earning $13,861 for their finishes. It was an all-American final table. As it would happen, Strasser and Wyvill would be the ones to make it to heads-up. However, while Wyvill would maintain a big stack throughout the final table, Strasser would slip all of the way to short-stacked status and be fifth of the final five for a time before earning a couple of double-ups through Joe Morneau, then another through Bryan Leskowitz to climb back into contention. Wyvill would knock out Morneau in third, using 10d-10h to best Morneau's Ac-Kc after the board came Jd-Js-10s-5h-Jc, and thus enjoyed a lead versus Strasser to start heads-up play with just over 7 million while Strasser had a little under 5 million. Strasser would battle back to even the score, however, then had about a 2-to-1 chip lead when a hand arose that saw Wyvill call a preflop button raise from Strasser, then check-raise Strasser following a Qh-5c-3d flop. Strasser called, and Wyvill then check-called a bet from Strasser following the 6c turn. The river brought the 5s and another check from Wyvill, and when Strasser shoved Wyvill called all in.  Strasser showed Kh-5h -- he'd made trip fives on fifth street -- and Wyvill showed he'd had a queen as he mucked.  2013-14 WSOP-C Foxwoods Main Event final table results: 1st:  Jason Strasser -- $186,600 2nd:  Wes Wyvill -- $115,069 3rd:  Joe Morneau -- $84,414 4th:  Bryan Leskowitz -- $62,555 5th:  Mike Guadano -- $47,095 6th:  James Rubin -- $35,898 7th:  Scott Baker -- $27,545 8th:  Keith Donovan -- $21,770 9th:  Frank Pezzullo -- $17,357 Besides the first prize and WSOP-C gold ring, Strasser also earns a spot in the season-ending WSOP National Championship at Caesars Atlantic City in May 2014. Rybin Goes Wire-to-Wire at WPT Cyprus The other big Main Event to play out this week happened at the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic in Kyrenia, Cyprus where the World Poker Tour launched its 12th season. A field of 262 players entered the $4,400 buy-in Main Event in Cyprus, with Russia's Alexey Rybin prevailing to earn $258,000 worth of the tourney's $1 million prize pool. Rybin ended Day 1a as the chip leader among those who survived from the 137 who started that flight. There were 125 more who played Day 1b, with Bernard Samaha ending that day with the chip lead both for the flight and overall in the tournament. Rybin was thus third overall in chips among just over 100 players who began Day 2, but ended that day in first position among the 31 survivors, then was first to end Day 3 (of 14), to end Day 4 (of six), and at tourney's end, too.   By leading at the end of every day he played, Rybin is being regarded as a "wire-to-wire" winner, which according to the WPT Live Updates team makes him the first player to accomplish such a feat on the WPT since Kevin Saul won his WPT title at the Bellagio Cup in 2007. (Saul, incidentally, was the last winner at WSOP-C Foxwoods earlier this spring.) Rybin did lose the lead during the six-handed final table yesterday, surrendering the top spot for a time to fellow Russian Andrei Nikonov. Rybin would battle with a short stack for a while, but had chipped back up by the time he knocked out Nikonov in third when the latter's Ac-Jh failed to improve versus Rybin's Ad-Qs. Rybin and Albert Daher were close to even to start the heads-up match, but Rybin won a huge double-up early on in a strange hand that saw him moving all in on a Ad-Kh-Jh-2d board and Daher tanking before calling the shove. Rybin showed Ah-Kd for top two pair, and Daher actually mucked his hand before the river card was dealt, having been knocked down to just 315,000 while Rybin was up to 7.4 million. Daher battled for a while after that, but ultimately lost a preflop all-in with Ks-9c versus Rybin's As-5h when an ace flopped and Daher failed to catch up. Season XII WPT Cyprus Main Event final table results: 1st:  Alexey Rybin (Russia) -- $258,000 2nd:  Albert Daher (Lebanon) -- $160,200 3rd:  Andrei Nikonov (Russia) -- $103,700 4th:  Kayhan Tugrul (Turkey) -- $75,600 5th:  Sergey Rybachenko (Russia) -- $56,600 6th:  Pierre Sayegh (Lebanon) -- $46,000 Like Strasser, Rybin enjoys an extra bonus thanks to his victory, in his case earning a seat in the $25K WPT World Championship that will end the tour's season next May at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.   Join Betfair Poker Now. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/the-week-in-poker-strasser-rybin-kick-off-tours-with-titles-220813-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/the-week-in-poker-strasser-rybin-kick-off-tours-with-titles-220813-77.html News Thu, 22 Aug 2013 17:31:00 +0100 "Come downstairs and watch Dexter with me," demanded the Mrs a couple of nights ago, before adding, "you play too much poker." https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/9-signs-you-play-too-much-poker-200813-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/9-signs-you-play-too-much-poker-200813-162.html News Tue, 20 Aug 2013 14:41:00 +0100 Unhappy with where you currently live? Fancy moving to pastures? Then check out our little guide to the 8 best places to live that allow you to play Betfair Poker. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/nine-places-that-are-perfect-to-play-betfair-poker-130813-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/nine-places-that-are-perfect-to-play-betfair-poker-130813-162.html News Tue, 13 Aug 2013 14:38:00 +0100 Poker's most revered figure celebrates a milestone of a birthday today as Doyle Brunson turns 80. While his presence and participation in poker's explosive growth over the last decade has helped make him an internationally known figure, Brunson's career as both a player and ambassador of the game extends back a half-century, thus inspiring the entire poker community to celebrate the day along with him. As Brunson tells in his 2009 memoir The Godfather of Poker (reviewed here), he was born in Roby, Texas and raised in nearby Longworth, a small town of 100 residents a couple of hundred miles west of Fort Worth-Dallas. During his youth Brunson became an accomplished athlete, excelling in both track and basketball and earning a scholarship to play the latter at Hardin-Simmons University. Brunson continued to impress as a college basketball star and by his junior year had helped lead Hardin-Simmons to an NCAA tournament berth while also winning MVP of the Border Conference. He'd even begun to attract the attention of a scout from the NBA's Minneapolis Lakers who were eyeing him as a possible shooting guard. Alas for Brunson, a career-ending injury while working a summer job at a sheetrock manufacturing company spelled the end of his basketball career, and his life took a different path as he finished out his bachelor's degree then earned a master's in administrative education and business administration at Hardin-Simmons.  Brunson had already begun playing poker and during graduate school had discovered a both a talent for the game and a significant supplement to his income. "Those weekend poker games were my financial aid package, my scholarship for getting through graduate school" explains Brunson.   From there he'd take a job selling adding machines for the Burroughs Corporation in Fort Worth, though soon realized he was earning money at a much higher rate in underground poker games. "I didn't need one of Burroughs' machines to tell me those numbers didn't add up," writes Brunson, who'd soon quit his job to embark on what has now become a half-century long career in poker. After spending time amid the sometimes dangerous games of Exchange Street in Fort Worth, Brunson soon took to the road, "fading the white line" with Amarillo Slim Preston and Sailor Roberts with whom he pooled resources and traveled for the next several years playing games throughout the American South. That partnership would eventually end following an unsuccessful trip to Las Vegas, although the trio would remain friends and forever be linked as early World Series of Poker Main Event winners and future Poker Hall of Famers. Brunson married in 1962 to Louise with the pair still together today, their 51st anniversary coming later this month. Shortly after their marriage, Doyle suffered a major health scare after a malignant tumor was discovered in his neck and in surgery the cancer had spread throughout his body. Given months to live and with Louise newly pregnant, it appeared certain that he'd not live to see the birth of his first child. Brunson recovered, however, with baffled doctors' only explanation being the rare occurrence of "spontaneous remission." Later in Super/System (originally published in 1978 under the title How I Made Over $1,000,000 Playing Poker), Brunson wrote of his leaving the hospital and returning to poker "with a zest and appreciation for life I'd never had before," going on to leave a winner after his next 54 straight sessions. "Before the surgery I would have classified myself as a slightly better-than-average player," Brunson writes in Super/System. "However, after that ordeal something happened.  Everything seemed to click.... My playing became almost instinctive. I was reading my competitors more accurately and I felt a self-assurance I had never experienced. My brush with death had apparently triggered innate abilities that had never surfaced before." Such aspects of Brunson's story help provide underpinnings for his almost mythic stature in the poker world, with the many accomplishments he'd go on to to achieve at the tables over the next several decades further establishing his position as one of poker's elite. Brunson would be back in Las Vegas in 1970 to participate in the first ever World Series of Poker at Binion's Horseshoe Casino, with Louise and their three children Doyla, Pam, and Todd eventually moving out a few years later. Sadly Doyla would die of a heart condition at age 18, while both Pam and Todd would become poker players themselves with Todd earning a WSOP bracelet in 2005. Since the 1970s, Brunson would accumulate more than $6 million in career tournament winnings including two WSOP Main Event titles and 10 WSOP bracelets altogether, although the tourney winnings only scratch the surface of his earnings as a cash game player over the years.   Brunson participated in the WSOP again this past summer, playing in both the $50K Poker Players Championship and the Main Event, cashing in the latter for $28,063 after finishing 409th. That finish marked Brunson's fifth decade of cashing in the WSOP Main Event following his two victories in 1976 and 1977; cashes in 1980 (2nd), 1982 (4th), and 1983 (3rd); one in 1997 (16th); and one in 2004 (53rd). Brunson was honored at this summer's WSOP with a bronze bust capturing the cowboy-hat wearing poker icon (pictured above), the moment reminding everyone there not only of Brunson's significant contributions to the tremendous growth of poker over the last decade, but of the way he helps connect the contemporary scene to poker's storied past. Near the end of The Godfather of Poker Brunson writes about his longevity as a player. "It may sound strange," he says, "but to some degree I attribute my overall good health to poker, and my poker longevity to my health," adding that his competitive spirit -- first nurtured long ago as an athlete -- "keeps me going physically as well as mentally." Happy birthday, Tex Dolly!   Join Betfair Poker Now. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/happy-birthday-tex-dolly-doyle-brunson-turns-80-100813-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/happy-birthday-tex-dolly-doyle-brunson-turns-80-100813-77.html News Sat, 10 Aug 2013 15:06:00 +0100 Poker has always been a favoured game among U.S. presidents, perhaps in part because of the many ways the strategies and challenges afforded by the game tend to overlap with those of politics. Stories of poker-playing presidents are well known, despite the efforts by some of them not to let their interest in the game become publicized because of the potential political damage. While being a card player certainly can help a president connect with some citizens, moral objections to gambling by others can make being associated with poker a potential deficit, too. For instance, when current president Barack Obama was initially running for the office a few articles appeared reporting how Obama was an avid poker player, noting how as a state senator Obama found poker a ready means to network and get to know fellow Congressmen as he made his rise through the political ranks. However, stories of Obama's card-playing have been less frequently told since he has taken office, no doubt because of the higher political "stakes" (so to speak) associated with his every move. Still, many have argued persuasively that the skills one develops as a poker player can serve a president particularly well. Being able to weigh risk and reward, to be calculating enough to think several steps ahead, and to read others' bluffs are all part of both poker and being a president. Many presidents in U.S. history are known to have been poker players, even though the game really didn't begin to spread until the early-to-mid 19th century. Here listed in reverse order are the top five presidents according to their reputation as players. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/the-top-five-poker-playing-presidents-070813-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/the-top-five-poker-playing-presidents-070813-77.html News Fri, 09 Aug 2013 09:08:00 +0100