The Final Table

If you are a keen reader of our poker news then you’ll know that Bobby Oboodi started out as the chip leader in the final table of six and managed to keep things that way up until the end. The most impressive thing about the final table is that Oboodi, while maintaining his chip lead, even managed to eliminate four of his five opponents during play. The first one to get eliminated was the day’s short stack, player Ricky Hale. Right after two hours after Hale was sent down the rail by Oboodi, Darren Elias was then the second to go by Oboodi’s hands and another couple of hours later, Fred Goldberg was eliminated by, yet again, Bobby Oboodi. Bobby’s A and 9 hearts proved to be superior compared to Goldberg’s 10 diamond 9 clubs and help from the community cards did not arrive to save Goldberg. A few moments later, player Daniel Buzgon was eliminated by Jin Hwang, which started the heads up between the two remaining players, Hwang and Oboodi. At the heads up play, Oboodi managed to take down Hwang with in only 18 hands. At the 18th hand, Hwang eventually went all in, gambling his chips. Oboodi called and Hwang’s gamble did not pay off, which made Oboodi the WPT Borgata campion.

The Final Rankings

First on the list is Bobby Oboodi, who was able to take down four of his opponents. He sits on first place with a total of $922,441 to take home and the title of champion for the 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open. Next on the list is Jin Hwang with a pretty solid $554,303 as he ended up being the runner up of the event. On third place, to take home a total of 335,433 is Daniel Buzgon. Following Buzgon is Fred Goldberg with a pretty good $280,925 on fourth place. Darren Elias sits on fifth place with a total of $230,610. Lastly, we have Ricky Hale, who sits on sixth place with a pretty good $186,585 to take home.

Day 1B

Day 1B was a pretty fast paced day for the UKIPT as tons of players, some of whom qualified for the tournament at online gambling sites, were eliminated as compared to the day 1A of the event where eliminations were noticeably a lot slower. A steady stream of players eliminated came on even during the earlier parts of the day 1B. these eliminations include David Vamplew, Jude Ainsworth, and Kevin MacPhee. It was an interesting day for Max Silver as he shined late in the game due to a couple of hands. He eventually took the lead in terms of chip counts on to the next day of the series. There are also a number of players who managed to do well in the later parts of the day. Kevin Williams was one of these players as he sat quietly in the background as the day went on. He then started with his double ace hand against a double Q hand. Another player that shined near the end of the day is Dave Mauldin. Mauldin was up against an aggressive Robert Murphy. Mauldin ultimately made an all in against Murphy and Murphy called. The thing is that Mauldin was holding a straight in his hand, which let his stack grow to a huge amount.

Chip Count Day 1A and 1B

It was an overall exciting day for the UKIPT as Max Silver takes the chip lead with 195600 for use on the next day. Another late bloomer in today’s battles is Kevin Williams, who is sitting right next to Silver with a total of 167,800 chips. On third is yet another late bloomer, David Mauldin with 148,500 chips in total. On fourth place in chip holdings is Stuart Samuels with 145,200 in total. Jason Tompkins strongly sits on fifth with a total of 136,400 chips. Rory Curtis sits on sixth with a nice 128,300 chips to be used for the next day. Nik Kamal does well on day 1B and manages to sit on seventh in chip holdings with 122,500. Patrik Kaltrud is on eighth place with 121,800 chips in total as James McManus and Gavin O’ Rouke sits on ninth and tenth with 112,600 and 110,200 chips respectively.

Fast Paced Plays

As mentioned, the day quickly passed as the total number of hours for the fourth day of the EPT only went about six and a half hours in total. Eliminations were swift and harsh and casualties include Benjamin Jujasz and chip leader for day two of the tour, Xavier Carruggi who ended up in 24th and 23rd position respectively. Things progressed a whole lot faster as level 24 came along and Miikka Anttonen was taken down by Isabel Baltazar. An hour later, level 25 kicked in and yet another couple of players were eliminated from the tables. Russian player Evgeny Zaytsev, who had a nice A, K got taken down by Martin Schleich with his double Q’s as a third Q flopped. The second player was Javier Contreras who was eliminated from Eugene Katchalov. With the few remaining players, Gomila, Saar Wilf and Raul Mestre strengthened their leads by chipping down their opponent’s chip counts. This gave them a very significant advantage over the rest of the players who were just hanging on trying to survive the day as they moved on to the final table. As level 26 came along, a number of players were eliminated including Marcos Fernandez, Massimilano Martinez, Marton Czuczor and Matthias De Meulder.

The Final Table Rankings

As the six and a half hours passed, the eight players who survived the day will be led by Gomila for the final table. On first place in chip holdings is Tomeo Gomila with 6.985 million chips. On second place is Saar Wilf with 4.555 million and not far behind him is Raul Mestre with 4.260 million in chips. On fourth place to enter the final table is Isabel Baltazar with 2.270 million and sitting just right behind her on fifth position is Martin Schleich with 2.260 million chips. Dragan Kostic, who is a fan of bestpokersite.com, is on sixth place with a total of 2.155 million chips. On seventh is Juan Manuel Perez with 1.090 million chips in total and sitting patiently at eighth is Eugene Katchalov with 690k chips.

What Loveman Thinks

As of today, you can still play online poker legally but the problem lies within the online poker companies as no US based companies involved with poker are in operation at the moment. There are of course offshore companies that are operational but most of these have closed their doors to US citizens from playing. US players also have to take a risk in playing at offshore sites as they are given no protection whatsoever. Gary Loveman believes that the Congress wishes to correct this through cleaning up the regulatory and policing environment. Loveman thinks that the Congress will want to do so since legalizing online poker has a number of benefits including a new source of tax revenues and more job opportunities to the American people.

What’s Happening Now?

Back then when the European online poker operators fled the US market, PokerStars and Full Tilt took the bets from the US players. Now that these are shut down, European operators are again targeting the US market. Although the operators of the land based casinos in Vegas initially disagreed to the legalization of online poker, most of them now support its legalization including Ceasars Entertainment which is one of the world’s largest casino groups. There are also many different organizations that support the legalization of online poker in the US including the recently formed coalition aimed at educating the policymakers and the public about what’s legal and what’s not – FairPlayUSA.

The future of online poker is starting to look brighter compared to the past few months when online poker seemed to be doomed. The legalization of online poker in US soil is slowly coming to, which is great news to those online poker players who have been waiting patiently for the good news.

About Margets

For those who don’t know who this charming lady is, here’s a little summary of her career as a poker professional. Margets first made herself known in the industry when she finished deep in the World Series of Poker Main Event and earned the coveted title of last woman standing. What was even more amazing was the fact that 2008 was actually her first year in the World Series of Poker. That finish netted her a sizeable $352,000. Two years later, she was still making waves in the poker scene. Margets finished third in the Aussie Millions No Limit Hold’em Six Handed event. Her most remarkable win, though, was at the Full Tilt Master Series No Limit Hold’em Event. She’s currently at the 26^th place in the women’s all time money list with her $640,000 in tournament earnings.

Margets and Lock Poker

Marget’s timing in signing with Lock Poker couldn’t be better timed. Lock Poker is becoming quite a force in the poker industry now, especially with the major poker sites out of the way thanks to the Black Friday incident. Margets said in an interview that she is “proud to be part of a family with so extraordinary players” and that the ‘new era’ for poker is a huge motivation for her. Lock Poker is also very lucky to have Margets on board. Jennifer Larson, CEO of Lock Poker, called Margets a “dream come true” for the company and said that Margets is “brilliant, driven, and incredibly talented”. The Lock Poker Team is also pretty excited to welcome their newest member. Indeed, this is a great time for Lock Poker. It’s poised to take a huge chunk of the market if it manages to mozey into the US if and when poker is legalized. The fact that it’s gathering pros right now further proves that the site is moving up in the ranks and that it’s nigh impossible to stop.

About the Tournament

If you’ve a mind for making history, then listen up because this is your chance to be part of something big. On the 20^th, there’s going to be a huge poker tournament to be held in Delaware Park. If everything goes well, the tournament should last for 36 hours straight, creating a new world record for the longest continuous poker tournament ever. Worried about compensation? Don’t worry, there’s a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000, with the one in first place guaranteed at least $24,000 as prize money. The buy-in will only cost $500 + $50, so it’s going to be a pretty profitable if you’re going to join and play to win. You have to be quick, though, because there are only 350 seats available. If you want to jump at this opportunity to be part of poker industry, then it would be a nice idea to visit www.delawarepark.com for more details. You can also register online if you so desire.

Making History

The tournament will be pretty huge, especially if you’re one who hunts for poker tournaments around the world. The prize pool is certainly tempting, and the chance to be part of something big is a huge bonus. Of course, it’s going to be difficult to last for a whole 36 hours without giving up. As such, it’s only apt that the sponsor of the poker tournament is the energy drink Red Bull. Few drinks can get you through such a grueling task as this. Of course, you might want to get lots of shuteye first so that you’ll be prepared physically and mentally as you try to conquer this tournament. If you think that you’re not up for such an endurance test, though, but still want to see how things go, you can always watch the live broadcast which will be hosted at Delaware Park’s site.

Brick and Mortar Casinos

There are professional poker players that still want to pursue their chosen career and they have found ways to do this. There are poker players that, in order to continue make money playing poker, have decided on visiting brick and mortar casinos on a regular basis. This however is a pretty rash move as the players suffer from an inconvenience of traveling to Vegas every now and then as opposed to just turning on their desktop computer at home and connecting to the internet for a game of poker. Also, in Vegas casinos, you’ll have to stand in line before you can start which lets you play fewer hands than usual. Is this really an alternative to the already alternative to playing poker? Well, a very inconvenient one at that at the least.

Moving Away

Of course, there are those who think that the inconvenience of traveling every now and then to a Vegas casino is not at all worth it. In order to continue pursuing their chosen career, they have thought of moving to a different place where playing online poker is fine and legal. Some have thought of moving to Canada, Australia and other parts of the world. The thing about it is that these poker players are having trouble doing so since, let’s face it, you don’t exactly see people getting a working visa for professionally playing poker very often. Another reason is that some countries won’t allow people to move in just in order to move around the laws of the US so professional poker players who are on a pinch in their career aren’t exactly having the best time of their lives.

The future of professional poker players doesn’t look very bright as of now. Of course, there are still things that could possibly fix the problem in the online poker world such as the FairPlayUSA which aims to identify safe and legal poker sites for these players to go to for their games, but when exactly will the issue be resolved as more and more players are starting to lose hope as days go by.

The First of Its Kind

Full Deck Hold’em Poker is a brand new application released by GRL games and you won’t see anything like it elsewhere as it is the first poker application that lets you see your opponents’ faces while playing against them. The application takes advantage of iPad 2’s front camera and players will be able to play with up to 4 others. There is also the option of taking the AI opponents which will gradually perform better as you play more hands, but seriously, the best thing about the game is that you can play with your friends and see each other’s reactions, gestures, and poker faces. This is a great application for those who are looking forward to bettering themselves at the game by practicing their skills and intuition. The game can also be played through the iPad 1, but your opponent won’t be able to see you. The application can be downloaded which will only cost your wallet a humble $2.99 and is now available at itunes.

GRL Games

GRL Games is owned by games developer from California run by Graeme Devine. Graeme Devine is a long time gaming industry veteran and is already partially responsible for the creation and programming of the games 7th Guest and 11th Hour. Devine is also the lead designer of Quake 3 and Halo Wars. He then dedicated himself to making the best games possible for the iOS and Mac platforms. The Full Deck Hold’em Poker is the third Full Deck game card game from GRL and it has a very promising impression in the poker world.

Playing poker with your friends online will no longer have to be a dull imitation of the real thing. Now, you’ll be able to practice on your poker face and your detection skills as you’ll be able to view your opponent’s reactions and behavior patterns thus sharpening your poker playing skills. Poker is a game of human interaction and bluffing of course.

The Bad Beat

As always, the bad beat was a story that made everyone certain that fate has a sick sense of humor. OmgoMgomGo had managed to acquire a hand that should have won. Quad Kings – it’s incredibly difficult to top something like that. In fact, it’s incredibly rare that one would manage to get such a powerful hand. But what’s even rarer is the possibility that somebody would have a better hand at the same play. One should never underestimate fate, however, because that’s exactly what happened at Poker Heaven. OmgoMgomGo had Quad Kings, so of course, he went all in just like any reasonable person would. However, much to his surprise, his opponent revealed Quad Aces. Fate, however, was dealing him a blessing in disguise, because he ended up winning much more than what he would have won in the first place.

OmgoMgomGo’s Future

It’s really kind of funny that the winning player jumpstarted his fortune by losing at poker – but that’s just how life is sometimes. OmgoMgomGo will now be able to fulfill some of his biggest dreams. In an interview, he mentioned that he would buy a house, a car, and that he would party hard. Considering that he just joined a couple of months ago because he was enticed by PokerHeaven’s neat new sign up deals, it’s really amazing that he won the jackpot. It wasn’t just any jackpot either because it managed to break last year’s Bad Beat Jackpot record at Carbon Poker, which was worth $1.2 million. This jackpot was worth €1,265,583. Surely, everyone on the table who participated in the hand was ecstatic over the prizes that they got because of a twist of fate. Indeed, we can only hope that we may be as fortunate. The head of Poker Heaven was equally happy over the recent development, especially since their site got to a record-breaking amount.

Newly recognized poker star Sam Holden has already secured a substantial amount of $785,115 worth of payout and it’s already a pretty impressive feat for a new face. Sam is pretty much expecting to purchase a flat in London for him and his girlfriend once the tournament is over.

Holden’s Earlier Days

Holden started playing the game right after he was inspired by a few aired matches on television. He then gathered enough experience in free poker games on the internet and as he went to attend university he started playing for real cash, small amounts at that but he gradually became more skilled in the game. The young Sam Holden even resorted to playing poker for his part time job and he did pretty well with it. Then right after his graduation, he decided to give the game a shot. He then did so well with poker that he turned pro playing the game. Now, Holden has pretty recently turned 22, his performance in the game is exceptional as he survived this year’s WSOP and made it to the final table.

Sam and the Final Table

Holden has without a doubt gotten very skilled in the game, but the game also demands a bit of luck. It’s a mix of both, really and things are looking pretty good for him. Sam has been playing in a very careful manner and it proved to be the right strategy as he reached this year’s final table. Holden says that he has gathered enough experience through his past games and that he’ll be relying on the skills he has developed. The final games will surely make Sam’s day his most exciting as of yet and the young poker star has indeed a pretty bright future ahead of him if he plays his cool and do his best.