17 Jan 12

Daily Rewind: PokerStars CEO Steps Down, Joe Hachem's Charity, LA Poker Classic

Today we hear news about PokerStars CEO Gabi Campos stepping down from his position. We report on the Joe Hachem/Shane Warne charity tournament at the Aussie Millions and hear about the upcoming LA Poker Classic.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we bring the following stories to you:

PokerStars CEO steps down

PokerStars today released the following statement regarding the resignation of CEO Gabi Campos:

"Gabi Campos has decided to step down from his position as Chief Executive Officer, effective February 1, 2012,  to pursue other opportunities.

"The company thanks Gabi for his hard work and commitment and wishes him the best in all his future endeavours.  A search for Gabi's replacement is underway."

Campos was brought on board in October 2010, having run 888's B2B arm, Dragonfish.

He becomes the third high profile departure from PokerStars in recent times, with long term EPT tournament director Thomas Kremser and creator of the EPT and Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie both having split with the company within the past nine months.

Campos has left the building

High stakes corner

The past 24 hours has seen some solid action at the $50/$100 PLO tables over at PokerStars. 

Ben "Ben86" Tollerene leads the charts, having banked a tidy $91,878 for the day with Rami "arbianight" Boukai suffering the most, dropping close to $50,000. 

High stakes railbirds will be pleased to know that HighstakesDB have announced they will now be tracking high stakes mixed games.

One player in particular will be followed closely once HSDB's tracking comes into force; "RaiseOnce", rumoured to be the account of a certain Phil Ivey, is a $486,000 winner in the HORSE games so far. He hasn't fared so well in the draw games however, having dropped $395,000 since tracking was initiated.

Hachem crushes his own charity tournament

Former WSOP Main Event winner Joe Hachem and cricket legend Shane Warne have become well known faces at the Aussie Millions where they ran their 5th annual charity poker tournament this week.

Australia's sporting and media celebrities were out in full force to support the charity effort, and it seems that there was no softplay from the event organisers, with both Warne and Hachem making the final table.

Shane Warne departed in 8th place and Joe Hachem managed a spirited third place. Let's hope the winnings went into the charity pot!

Warne and Hachem doing it for charity

LA Poker Classic kicks off

With the PCA now a distant memory, all eyes are set on Los Angeles as the LA Poker Classic begins today.

One of the WPT's most prestigious stops, the Commerce Casino holds a five week poker extravaganza, starting today with the lowly employee's NL Hold'em and culminating in the $10,000 WPT Main Event.

Last year, Gregory Brooks took down the Main Event for $1,654,120.

Daily Signoff

Joe Hachem makes the news today so we thought we'd share a Hachem hand from yesteryear.

Hachem is renowned for having several 'one-times'. Here's a hand where we see the Hachem luckbox in full operation!