News: Poker World News Review

It's the third Advent and thus time for Part III of the Poker World News Review: The final table of the WSOP was only one of many highlights during the period from July to September.

Not only the WSOP delivered live poker of the finest: different events of the tournament series like the World Poker Tour (WPT), the PokerStars European
Poker Tour (EPT), the Asian Poker Tour (APT), the PokerStars Asia
Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), the PokerStars Latin American Poker Tour
(LAPT) or the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) made sure to keep every poker fan entertained.

Naturally, a lot of action also took place online – many exciting High Stakes matches took place on Full Tilt Poker.
As so often, it were Gus Hansen and Patrick Antonius amongst others who played for the biggest pots on the highest limits. Furthermore, a PokerStrategist busted the biggest PartyPoker Bad Beat Jackpot of all times so far.

In the third quarter, a computer also managed to defeat a human opponent in a FL heads-up for the first time ever.

World Series of Poker 2008 - November Nine

Nine relatively unknown poker players remained from the field of 6,844 starters. These 'November Nine', namely Dennis Phillips, Ivan Demidov, Scott Montgomery, Peter
Eastgate, Ylon Schwartz, Darus Suharto, David Rheem, Craig Marquis and
Kelly Kim were the first ones to play a WSOP Main Event final table months after the last card had been dealt in the Rio.

Our PokerStrategy member Felix 'LawDoc' Osterland was even the most successful German at the Main Event and took $150,000 back home for his 38th place.

Erick Lindgren became the 'Player of the Year' at the WSOP 2008 – with only a 10 point lead over Barry Greenstein – and finally won his first bracelet as well.

WPT – Events and economical Situation

While the WSOP was on break until November, the World Poker
Tour (WPT) kicked off. In July, the 'Bellagio Cup IV'
took place, and Mike Watson grabbed the title and the prize money of $1,673,770.

Afterwards, the 'Legends of
Poker 2008' were played in the Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles between the end of July and the end of August. The highlight was the $10,000 Main Event which John Phan was able to win, earning $1,116,428 in the process.

However, the "WPT Enterprise" also had its share of bad news. The share price hit rock bottom in August after the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) created a negative trend in the USA. The much-vaunted online room of the WPT turned out to be a flop. Due to this slide, the NASDAQ threatened with an expulsion of the 'WPT Enterprise Inc.'.

EPT Barcelona

In August, the European Poker Tour (EPT) was on the road again as well. 619 participants paid the €8,000 + €250 in Barcelona to take a shot at the Main Event. After PokerStars.de ShootingStar Sebastian Ruthenberg (picture on the left) managed to win his first WSOP bracelet this year, he also showed a great performance in Barcelona, winning the title and €1,361,000.

Asian Poker Tour

Meanwhile, the Asian Poker Tour had a stop in Macau. The Russian Yevgeniy Timoshenko won the event and the $500,000 in prize money. Community member Moritz 'trader'
Schmejkal had a great 13th place finish, earning him $18,750.

Pokerstars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau

The PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) in Macau began very successfully for our community. Coach André 'HoRRoR'
Wagner finished the first day of the APPT Macau as chip leader. The good start, however, would not be enough for a top finish. On the third day, HoRRoR had to join the rails as 28th for $8,104. Other community members, namely Marko 'infinity1000' Neumann and Matthias 'kingmatthi'
Körber tried their luck as well, but didn't finish in the money. Edward Sabat from the USA won the event and $453,851.

Latin American Poker Tour Punta del Este

The Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) made a halt in Punta del
Este, Uruguay in August. 351 participants played for their share of the $851,175 in the prize pool. The biggest one went to the Spaniard José Miguel Espinar, who defeated Alex 'The Shark' Brenes in the heads-up, ending up with $241,735.

Gosvenor UK Poker Tour

The Gosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) had its second edition in August as well. Five community members with HoRRoR, trader, Julian 'crazytalent' Peschel, Unam and Francesco 'BAndelfAnIE'
Gitz made their way to England to start the Tour in Luton. crazytalent was able to get the biggest cash with his fifth place for about £4,000 in the £500 NL Hold'em event. HoRRoR finished fourteenth in the same event for £670. BAndelfAnIE and trader were able to cash in the £200 NL Hold'em 1 Rebuy or Add On. BAndelfAnIE finished on 13th place for £580, trader had to join the rails as seventh for £1,800. The Main Event, however, was rather a failure as each of them got eliminated without reaching the money ranks.

Asia Pacific Poker Tour Seoul

Near the end of September, the APPT was a guest in Seoul. PokerStrategy was also represented by Julian 'RaffaNadal'
Gries, but he didn't make it in the money. The Japanese Yoshihiro Tasaka was able to win the tourney.

Online Scene

After Full Tilt Poker turned more and more into the platform for the High Rollers, a lot of action also took place in the third quarter. Amongst other events, the FTOPS IX took place. The young up-and-coming talent Yuval 'yuvee04' Bronshtein managed the seemingly impossible by winning two events in a single day, namely the $500 H.O.R.S.E Event
as well as the $200 NL Hold'em Turbo Event! Bronshtein thus earned more than $170,000. The Main Event was won by 'dubbeemin', who saw his bankroll increase by $432,400.

Nevertheless, a lot of money was also made on the Cash tables on Full Tilt Poker. Amongst others, Tony G could also be found at the High Stakes tables again, but also the other 'usual suspects' sat down regularly at the highest online tables Full Tilt Poker has to offer. Interested railbirds were able to watch the likes of Tom 'durrrr' Dwan, John Juanda and Gus Hansen on a regular basis. Juanda lost about $300,000 in a single weekend.

Phil Ivey, however, was one of the biggest winners after he increased his online playing time again. Within only three days, he made a profit of $1,300,000.

In September, PokerStars organised the World Championship
of Onlinepoker (WCOOP) once again. The guaranteed prize pool doubled up in size, so that $30,000,000 were up for grabs in 33 events overall. The Main Event was decided by a 5-way deal, in which 'ckingusc' ended up with $1,265,432.

However, it was Josh 'JJProdigy' Field who made the headlines in September. Despite the life-time ban by PokerStars, he once again created new accounts and played different tournaments with them. Accounts of friends who transferred money to him, were also banned after the exposure.

Bad Beat Stories

The third quarter was the period of the Bad Beats. First, it was Tigga
who won the biggest PartyPoker Bad Beat Jackpot of all times when he lost with quad nines against a royal flush. This beat earned him $350,000, which is a record sum so far. Only 12 days later, it was bauerbyter
who busted the Jackpot on PartyPoker again when he lost with quad queens against quad aces. $65,000 were transferred to his bankroll.

The PokerStrategists online

In the third quarter of the year 2008, many other PokerStrategists were also involved in big online cashes. Nani74 finished second in the $530 High Roller Event on PokerStars for $10,000. TAK47
finished fourth twice, and won about $5,000 in the $530 High Roller Event and about $8,000 in the $90,000 GTD $322 tournament on Full Tilt Poker.

crackpfeife received about $10,000 when he finished second in the $35,000 GTD on Full Tilt Poker. Nightfly also had a second place finish for over $10,000 after a deal in the Daily Fifty Grand on PokerStars.

Our BlackMember pokersellers was the runner-up in the $250,000 GTD on Titan Poker whch earned him $27,500. A few weeks later, it was P0lak who won the same tournament for $58,344.

The biggest online cash was won by an international community member: The French PokerStrategist axp15 won the $2,500,000 GTD for $500,000.

Many more successful community members with top finishes in the third quarter joined the previously mentioned players, but this article would become too big if we mentioned them all.

The phenomenon Maddyhh

Time and again, one was able to see 'pokerccini' aka Maddyhh
in the upper ranks of the big tournaments on PokerStars. No other player showed such a consistent performance over a longer period of time. His MTT successes impressed the community repeatedly. His sample size as well as his winrate show his class, and he is quite rightly counted amongst the elite of the online MTT players.

The future of the poker world

In early July, we reported about the poker bot Polaris 2.0 who faced a Stoxpoker team at the Gaming Life Expo. It was the first time that a bot emerged victoriously against a team of top players.

The regulation in the USA was also under debate for a short time. The USA did not attend a scheduled negotiation dialogue with the EU. Instead, the representatives of the American government put off the meeting indefinitely and thus created a negative atmosphere.

A slightly different future could be watched in the Excalibur Casino:
as a forerunner, the Excalibur outfitted its cardrooms with completely automated poker tables.

World Series of Poker Europe 2008

At the end of September, the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) also took place.
Many stars came to England to participate in the European version of the WSOP and battle each other in the four scheduled events. The Low-Buy-In event went to the Dane Jesper Hougaard. The H.O.R.S.E event
was won by Sherkhan Farnood from Afghanistan who prevailed over a few top class players in the supreme discipline. Another title went to Denkmark when Theo Jorgensen won the Omaha event.

The Main Event also took off in the third quarter. Our coach Florian 'Morgoth'
Langmann managed to get into Day 3 and was thus amongst the Top 60 of the WSOPE.

Preview: Poker world news Review - 4th Quarter 2008

On the fourth Advent, you will receive a recap of the happenings in the poker world during October to December 2008. Until then, we wish you a happy third Advent!

The recap of the months January to March 2008, as well as April to June 2008 can actually be found here:

Poker World News Review - 1st Quarter 2008
Poker World News Review - 2nd Quarter 2008