High stakes star in car crash

In today's Daily Rewind we report on a high stakes player's drunken car crash and find out why Nacho Barbero dislikes Badugi.

Northug loses control

Northug's wreck

Professional skier and part-time high stakes poker player Petter Northug found himself in trouble with the police recently after crashing his car and fleeing the scene.

Northug, who plays under the handle 'NorthugJr', crashed his Audi A7 late last week after consuming too much alcohol.

After hitting a barrier in Trondheim, Norway, Northug left the scene but was later picked up by police at his home whilst still intoxicated.

The poker playing Olympic medallist initially denied he was the driver, but later admitted his mistake and apologised to his fans and sponsors in a public statement.

Barbero's SCOOP outburst

PokerStars' latest SCOOP festival saw another slew of players bank big scores last night, but one of the main stories causing a stir involved Argentina's Nacho Barbero.

After entering the $215 Badugi event and making his way past more than 300 players, it seems the pressure of variance became a little too much for the PokerStars pro as he played for the title.

Despite outplaying his opponent, Barbero's bad luck caused him to lose his cool and question the randomness of PokerStars' shuffle machine: "How can I destroy you and lose? It's so rigged."

While it's pretty clear Barbero doesn't believe his employer's site is rigged, it does show that the pressure of a SCOOP final table can affect even the most experienced pros.

Following the comment 'kuhns89' replied with a simple 'cmon' before raking in the last of Barbero's chips to claim the $12,129 top prize and his first SCOOP title.

Barbero unhappy

Stars join UKIPT Nottingham

Chris in action

Nottingham's Dusk Till Dawn card room welcomed a slew of international stars on Tuesday as the latest UKIPT festival got underway.

PokerStars' UK series has grown in stature since launching four years ago and last night a number of stars, including Sam Trickett, Vicky Coren and Chris Moneymaker, were out to show their support for the event.

Seen by many as a tune-up event before the WSOP, UKIPT Nottingham will feature a £1 million Main Event and a £300,000 High Roller which kicked off yesterday and saw the likes of Ludovic Geilich and EPT Grand Final runner-up Jack Salter join  the first session.

Question of the Day

"Given Nacho Barbero's comments, do you think sponsored pros should be held more accountable for their actions than the average player?"

Daniel Junglemandan Cates enjoyed a healthy upswing last night after banking $438,012. Thanks to successful battles against Gus Hansen and Viktor Blom, the US pro managed to top the high stakes leaderboard ahead of 'hasufly' and 'Call_911' who each raked in six-figure sums.

Thanks to the dominance of Cates and 'hasufly', Gus Hansen was unable to enjoy another day in the winners' column yesterday. After grinding through 943 hands the Dane dropped $383,853 to finish ahead of Blom and Paul Phua on the daily loss leaderboard.

Daily Signoff

For today's Daily Signoff we bring you another example of Nacho Barbero's competitive side, this time with a throwing contest against Johnny Lodden.

Yesterday's Daily Rewind: Deeb plays OFC whilst his wife gives birth

Daniel Smyth has been working in the poker industry for six years as both a player and writer. He currently has a costly penchant for PLO and provides daily content for PokerStrategy.com. You can learn more about Daniel by clicking here. Follow Daniel Smyth on Twitter l Follow Daniel Smyth on Google+