Daily Rewind: UKIPT IOM, 'Odd_Oddsen' offers a $170K freeroll, Team Online grows

Today we recap yesterday's UKIPT IOM action, challenge the Norwegian government with 'Odd_Oddsen' and create two new poker stars.

O'Kearney leads UKIPT IOM

O'Kearney on top

Despite prior fears that the inaugural UKIPT Isle of Man would struggle to attract participants, a total of 113 players took to the felt inside the island's Villa Marina yesterday. 

Featuring the likes of Mickey Petersen, Andre Coimbra and Dara O'Kearney, as well as a wave of PokerStars employees, Day 1A eventually came to a close with 54 grinders still with a hope of clinching the title.

Of the surviving pack it was O'Kearney who led the way with 112,100 chips, just ahead of Jamie O'Connor (105,900) and other notables including Dominik Nitsche (48,800) and the aforementioned Petersen with 46,200 chips.

Day 1B kicked off earlier and among the luminaries vying for a slice of the £500,000 prizepool was Jake Cody, Daniel Negreanu and Liv Boeree.

'Odd_Oddsen' vs. Norway

Ola confident

High stakes pro Ola 'Odd_Oddsen' Amundsgard has issued a "HU4ROLLZ" challenge to the Norwegian government in an effort to prove that poker isn't a game of chance.

At present the law in Norway states that poker is a game of luck and therefore illegal, but Amundsgard, along with many of the country's grinders, disagree with this assumption.

Whilst the majority of players aren't in a position to challenge a group of politicians, Amundsgard is and during a recent interview with pnn.dk he offered them a $170,000 freeroll.

The rules of the challenge are simple: if any government minister can beat him over the course of 10,000 HU PLO hands he'll give them the money.

There will be no cost for anyone wanting to play and Amundsgard has stated that if he wins he'll take on more ministers that want to back their convictions.

Team Online grows

Millar now a star

With Team Online Week in full swing at PokerStars until November 3, the executives behind-the-scenes have decided to add two more names to the site's pro roster.

Announced earlier this week, Alexander 'Kanu7' Millar and Marc-Andre 'FrenchDawg' Ladouceur will now join the likes of Isaac 'Ike' Haxton, Randy 'nanonoko' Lew and Mickey 'mement_mori' Petersen as part of Team Online.

Millar and Ladouceur will now assume the role of site ambassadors as well as representatives at live tournaments across the globe.

With action hard to come at the virtual felt in the last 24 hours, 'RealMonies' was able to top yesterday's profit leaderboard with the only six-figure profit of the day.

After racing through 295 hands the online pro banked $149,861 to finish his session ahead of Ben 'Sauce123' Sulsky ($95,670) and Kyle 'KPR16' Ray ($87,988).

At the other end of the spectrum, ragen became yesterday's biggest loser after an unsuccessful 548 hands of poker resulted in a $149,104 loss.

Caption Competition

For today's caption competition we'll let you speculate as to what's made Liv Boeree look so happy in this photo with Jason Mercier and David Williams.

Discussion forum: Caption This

Daily Signoff

'Odd_Oddsen' might be keen to prove poker is a game of skill through the medium of PLO, but if the politicians are able to run like Andrew Robl in this clip then he could be in trouble.