Daily Rewind: PokerStrategists Aussie Success, WPT London, Merson's Blog
In today's Daily Rewind we congratulate PokerStrategy coach Rupert Elder, look forward to the WPT's London leg and get Greg Merson's thoughts on heads-up poker.
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 discovered the following topics for you:
PokerStrategist wins Aussie Millions Opener
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| Elder's win (Source: Poker Asia Pacific) |
PokerStrategy coach Rupert '
RupertE' Elder has become the first championship ring winner at this year's Aussie Millions.
After the opening event collected a record-breaking number of entries over the course of three opening days, Elder and his fellow finalists were playing for a top prize of $250,000.
While Elder was one of the favourites going into the finale, German Black Member Martin
However, once Rubie exited in fifth, it became a battle of the PokerStrategists as Elder and Finger tussled for the title. Having both tasted EPT success in the past, neither player was going to buckle under the pressure.
The experience couldn't help Finger, though, as Elder's chip lead proved insurmountable and Finger's hopes were finally thwarted after Elder's broadway straight sent the German to the rail in second place.
Aussie Millions Event 1
Final Rankings
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| Place | Name | Prize | ||
| 1st | Rupert RupertE Elder |
$250,000 | ||
| 2nd | Martin '0piggybank' Finger | $160,000 | ||
| 3rd | Fabian Craib | $120,000 | ||
| 4th | Dusan Stoevski | $96,000 | ||
| 5th | Brendon Rubie | $81,000 | ||
| 6th | Ted Nguyen | $66,000 | ||
| 7th | Marwin Nassif | $52,000 | ||
| 8th | Phillip Libeau | $38,000 | ||
| 9th | Ashley Warner | $25,000 | ||
| 10th | Nali Kaselias | $13,500 | ||
| Players: 1 (708) | Prize pool: $1,338,000 |
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Aspers to host WPT London
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| WPT London's venue |
The World Poker Tour National Series' first trip to London will take place between March 15 and 19 inside Aspers Casino.
As one of the UK's largest casinos, the recently built Aspers complex will welcome some of Europe's top players for the WPT's £1,650 National Series event.
The tournament has two scheduled starting days and players will be allowed to re-enter on Day 1B if they bust during the opening session.
Expectations for the event are high, as large turnouts at Dusk Till Dawn and UKIPT Edinburgh have set a positive precedent for the UK tournament scene in 2013.
Merson's heads-up thoughts
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| Merson's perfecting his game |
He might not think there's any value left in the online world's heads-up games, but Greg Merson couldn't resist NBC's invitation.
Being named as one of the 64 competitors for this year's Heads-Up Championship, the 2012 WSOP Main Event winner will be able to test his skills against the likes of Phil Ivey, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom and Olivier Busquet.
However, according to his latest blog post, he doesn't care much for his heads-up game at the moment. Despite admitting to falling behind the virtual crowd, Greg still enjoyed some online success during the PCA:
"I spent all my time down there playing on PokerStars in basically every game from $5/$10 to $50/$100."
Throughout the blog Greg also outlines his thoughts on the current state of heads-up poker and why he thinks there's a vast divide between "who's good and who's average".
High stakes corner
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| Casey loving Sundays |
Our high stakes corner is usually reserved for the online world's biggest cash game winners. However, in the last 24 hours tournament grinder Casey "bigdogpckt5s" Jarzabek has completed a $334,156 haul.
His impressive start to 2013 is even more noteworthy as the bulk of his earnings have come from back-to-back appearances in PokerStars' Sunday Million.
His third and fourth place finishes were complimented by an outright win in PokerStars' $1,050 Super Tuesday on January 8.
While Casey was completing his tournament grind, "Poker_KaMI" was busy scooping $409,867 at the cash tables.
The unknown player topped yesterday's high stakes chart after taking money from the likes of Patrik Antonius (-$323,588) and "punting-peddler" (-$195,166).
Daily Signoff
Patrik Antonius might have had a rough return to the online world in the last 48 hours, but if this classic clip is anything to go by we don't think that will affect his desire to gamble.
