- Annie Duke won it!

Annie Duke, famous Poker player was the winner if the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship. The tournament lasted three days and Annie wone the title and about winning the title and about £335,000!

- The rumours that poker will be approved as a sport by the International Olympic Committee, came as a hope for all poker players that poker will become a member of the International Mind Sports Association in the coming weeks.

The IPF chariman , Anthony “Holdem” Holden, is making efforts to achieve it, as a genuine poker lover. We wish them all best!

- PokerStars Tournaments | Sunday Million

Event Info:

Buy-in: $200+15
Prize Pool: $2,024,600
Entrants: 10,123

Latest winners / Top 5 Ranking
1. MAE9690 – $260,000
2. camillo30 – $176,959.80
3. reelhugefish – $150,000
4. asturiano – $150,000
5. AA TURON AA – $80.984

- Full Tilt Poker – Tournament News

The player having the nickname “shiftzerg”,won the $750,000 Guarantee, scoring a total of $147,629.24.
Second was “kwickfishycake”, believed to be Paul Wasicka.

- Sky Poker Tour – Luton

Ross Jarvis, an editor for PokerPlayer Magazine, won the event, followed by Tony Stroud and David Crane.

-PartyPoker – Tournament News

Play in PartyPoker to qualify for WPT, $1 million guaranteed and $1 million bonus!

- Ladbrokes Poker announce 1 year deal with Boyzone star Shane Lynch!

Many believe and seismologists attest to the presence to two tectonic plates sliding past one another. While it is known that Port-au-Prince might be sitting in the middle of two earthquake fault lines, there appears to be no disaster monitoring activities being done in the region. Add the poor condition and lack of building material standards; it surely is prone to disasters like the January 12 earthquake and the aftershocks that follow.

Because of the need to help rebuild Haiti and to put a roof above Haitians’ heads, the online poker world is reacting positively. These poker sites are not deaf and are doing their share to help the Red Cross help Haiti.

In fact, several poker websites has already created their own programs and tournaments that will lead to helping the disaster-stricken country of Haiti.

Aside from the food, shelter and infrastructure projects that needs to be undertaken in the country and its neighbors, the scientific studies necessary to help avoid future disasters is likewise necessary.

Thus, all the funds that will be pooled towards helping Haiti are necessary.

Poker sites like PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, the Cake Poker Network and UB.com have already organized fundraising efforts. Lately, Mansion Poker, which is part of the iPoker Network, is likewise doing their share.

There are online tournaments and Holding Tank lobbies already created to dedicate for Haiti. Because of this project, poker players online will have a chance to continuing enjoying their poker gaming while doing their share to help rebuild Haiti.

Aside from the money that will be pooled from players, Mansion Poker will match up that money before sending them to the Red Cross.

Even if you are not going to play in the tournament, you may still give help to this fundraising effort. You can use the Holding Tank lobby to donate money ranging from $1 to $500. The money pooled at the Holding Tank will likewise be match by Mansion Poker, so it will be bigger.

For our part at Pokerice, we believe that ice melting is likewise connected with these tectonic plates moving in various directions. Thus, we want to invite you to play in the pokerice application at Facebook.com to help build funds to avoid iceberg melting in the Antarctic.

There is a study that glacial pressure causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions in unexpected places. The mere weight of the icebergs in the Antarctic cause pressure to the earth’s surface and when these icebergs melts, it will cause movement of the earth’s surface.

We, at pokerice, believe that if we can help avoid melting of the ice caused by global warming, we may help delay, if not truly avoid disasters like earthquake, tsunami and volcanic eruptions.

Thus, we invite you to play poker at poker sites hosting fundraising projects to help Haiti and also, play at the pokerice application on Facebook to fund efforts to help combat global warming.

The world we live in is facing major problems; let us do our share to help it survive.

The youngest ever PCAA champion is named on Monday after toppling over a field of 1,500 in the Bahamas, he is Harrison Gimbel.

At 19, he is bringing home to Florida the First prize money worth $2.2 Million. What is this young man going to do with it? He sure does not know yet but of course, he said, he may buy a new car and may be a home for himself.

How would his older and more experienced opponents feel? Surely, they are all happy with him.

Harrison Gimbel as mentioned is the youngest PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Champion. Do you remember that last year’s WSOP Champion is also the youngest?

You will surely believe that poker is getting to be a well-rounded game enjoyed by the young, the not so young, women, men and even older ones play poker.

The next tournaments may need to be watched out for. Will Gimbel’s record be surpassed next year?

Did you remember how Peter Eastgate was the youngest when he won the 2008 WSOP Championship but the year after that, Joe Cada who is much younger won the 2009 WSOP.

Is this going to happen again next year? We will have to find out.

In the meantime, while Gimbel is already the Champion of the $10,000 Final Table games at the 2010 PCA, the games are not yet over.

Elky Grospellier will still have to defend his title as the High Stakes Champion of PCA.

We will also follow the games. So, get back on the site from time to time for some action in the Bahamas.

Ryan D’Angelo is starting the final table with 10,090,000 chips. Is this chip lead going to make him bring home the bacon? Possible, but of course, the experience of the other players in the final table is not to be dismissed. We may have to wait until the games are over before we decide if he is the best this year.

The next player who may possibly give Ryan D’Angelo some fight is Tyler Reiman. He is playing the final table with 9,350,000. He climbed from twelfth position at the beginning of Day 5 to the second in chip count at the end of Day 5. This young man has several tournaments in his belt, is his experience enough to win the 2010 PCA final table?

Barry Shulman comes in third with 6,805,000 chips. He climbed from the fifth place to the third place with respect to chip count. Barry Shulman is the CEO of Card Player Magazine. Will his knowledge of the game and tournament experiences him bag the $2.2Million by Monday?

The fourth placer in chip count is Harrison Gimbel. He is holding on to 6,000,000 chips. He is fresh from his 2009 Florida State Poker Championship. How is he going to fair in the 2010 PCA?

Thomas Koral is fifth with 5,370,000 chips. Thomas Koral has many tournament experiences where he was able to earn $656,538 by this time. Is he going to add $2.2 Million this year?

Benjamin Zamani is the sixth USA entry who made it to the final table of 2010 PCA. He is holding on to 3,700,000 chips at the start of the final table. He climbed from the ninth position in chip count at the start of day 5 to the sixth when the day is over. Good form. But will this form make him better the rest of the field?

Zachary Goldberg is the seventh USA entry to the 2010 PCA final table. He has 2,340,000 chips. He maintained his seventh position in chip count, is he going to rally for the first place on the final table?

The eighth player to seat on the final table is Aage Ravn from Norway. He is facing an all American field on Monday. He is holding on to the shortest stack, which is 1,690,000 chips. He went down in the chip leader board but he is sure poised in giving the Americans some fight. While he has only one tournament under his belt, the fact that he bettered about 1,500 players is good enough showing that he can make it through.

The top eight players who will battle it out on the final table have tournament experiences and each is to be followed closely.

We will await the results and hopefully, your favorite player makes it through to the $2.2Million First Prize.

Before that, let us look at how day 5 will start by checking how day 4 ended.

Day 4 at PCA started with 62 players. The aim is to get to the top 24 players before the day ends.

Indeed, 38 players will now hit the beach rather than return tomorrow for the games.

The 24 players is a mix of nationalities and player experiences. You can choose your favorite from among the 24 players but in this update, we will give you the top ten players with respect to chip count.

These ten players are poised to hit the final table on January 11, this is of course, if their fate will not chance when day five ends.

Playing on tournaments with huge piles of chips gives players a boost in the moral. Luck and confidence is a good mix when you are heading for the final table.

They may be able to ensure their entry to the final table if luck does not change its course.

Here are the top ten players with respect to their chip count at the end of day 4.

• Ryan D’Angelo, he is the chip leader with 7,483,000
• John Duthie who is not showing any signs of slowing down is next in chip count with 5,304,000
• Wayne Bentley who ended up as the chip leader in Day 1, third in chip lead at Day 2 but is struggling on Day 3, ended Day 4 as third in chips with 2,878,000. Is he off for the big win? We will check it out tomorrow.
• Thomas Koral, another PokerStars pro is fourth in chip count with 2,438,000
• Barry Shulman, 2009 WSOPE $10,000 No Limit Hold’em winner is fifth in chip count at the 2010 PCA with 2,433,000
• Aage Floenes Ravn, a Norway PokerStars qualifier is sixth with 2,282,000
• Zachary Goldberg who rallied in Day 4 will start Day 5 with 2,195,000 chips
• James Tolbert of the US is eight with 2,016,000 chips
• Benjamin Zamani another USA Poker Stars qualifier hangs on with 1,905,000
• Robert Mizrachi, an Omaha Pot Limit bracelet winner in the 2007 WSOP is the tenth in chip count with 1,823,000

Several of the players to battle it out on Day 5 for a chance at the PCA final table are new in live tournaments. Is their newness going to be a challenge on the final table or is their luck going to chance the history of PCA?

These questions will have to be answered tomorrow as the last qualifying day for the final table hits Bahamas.

Who among the 24 players starting day 5 will not hit the felt on Monday? This, and a lot more action will have to be decided tomorrow.

So, we await the games and hopefully, your favorite is going to make it through.

Is Wayne Bentley going to continue rallying for the final table? We will have to find out tomorrow.

If some people are itching to go to the Caribbean for the beach, these guys and gals go to the Caribbean to hit the tables. Of course, if you do not do well at the tables, the beach will be waiting for you.

About 50 events are expected to happen in this year’s PCA. On the first half of the day, there were already players who were busted out of the tables. Some of whom are seasoned poker pros who would need to settle for the beach as they lost their chance at the table.

One of them is the 2003 World Series of Poker Champion, Chris Moneymaker. In 2003, he set the record as the first ever online player to win a championship. This year, at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, he was one of the players who are busted out on the first day. After several hands, he has to leave the table and head for the beach.

Chris Moneymaker left the room at level 3. Moments from this, he was down in his last 6,000 when he pushed all in when his K-10 was ran over by his opponents A-8 with a flop of 10-8-8.

Many other stories like this happened on the first day. As in fact, the field that started the Day 1 was about 668 players. However, only 432 survived the first day. Tomorrow, we will start again.

In the meantime, here is the chip count for the top 10 players in the current field.

• Wayne Bentley, a PokerStars online qualifier from UK with 329,500.
• Amnon Filippi, an American Poker pro who placed fourth in the 2006 World Poker Tour held in Borgata, with 220,100 chips
• Kevin Saul, World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup Champion, with 175,500 chips
• Eric Froehlich, known as the youngest WSOP bracelet winner, with 166,000 chips
• Dustin Borrance-Bowman, a PokerStars qualifier with 163,700 chips
• 2009 WSOP 4th Place Finisher, Eric Buchman with 159,100 chips
• Garar Geir Hauksson, a PokerStars qualifier from Iceland, battling the table with 138,900 chips
• PokerStars players, Jacob Avital with 137,700 chips
• Christian Schwarz, a PokerStars qualifier from Spain with 133,200
• Rafal Michalowski, another American PokerStars qualifier with 129,300 chips.

Daniel Negreanu is also one of the first players to enjoy some winning and some losses but he is still alive with 124,000 chips.

Barry Shulman is likewise playing in the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Poorya Nazari and Barry Greenstein are likewise continuing tomorrow at the 2010 PCA.

Other poker pros are expected to arrive at day 2. Let us wait, who among them will hit the finals.

You surely are looking for some more big names in the poker world, will check on them tomorrow.

You surely know that PokerStars usually sponsors live poker tournaments. Most of which, the final tables are televised and that makes PokerStars the most trafficked poker site online.

However, its close competition, Full Tilt Poker is not too far when you speak of traffic. While some of these televised poker tournaments have been sponsored by PokerStars, the fact that the several of the players on the field wear Full Tilt Poker gears makes this site compete well in terms of poker site popularity. The reason for the many Full Tilt Team members in the tournament is the large stable of poker professionals in the site.

Additionally, Full Tilt Poker is never behind when you speak of tournaments because Full Tilt Poker offers satellites games to these poker live tournaments as well. Full Tilt Poker also has its own poker tournaments to sponsor and this makes the competition close.

Full Tilt Poker likewise almost snatched the Guinness World Record from PokerStars in last year when Full Tilt Poker beat the PokerStars record of the biggest online poker tournament field. However, the same day, PokerStars gained it back when it offered a $1 buy in tournament and this was played on by more than 65,000 players giving them back the Guinness World Record on the same day.

What are the chances that the Team PokerStars Online will create a larger stable of online poker professionals? Huge and this is because PokerStars commit to increase the number of its members as this New Year progresses.

It may be worthy noting that PokerStars have chosen from among 2,000 online players applicants before reaching the 23 names of online poker players.

Here is the list of the 23 members of Team PokerStars Online

• Alvaro ‘VARICO’ Blanco
• Amanda ‘ROXY24’ Thomas
• Anders ‘Donald’ Berg
• Andre ‘acoimbra’ Coimbra
• Andres ‘lobojiji’ Alisievicz
• Andrew ‘Kid Nebraska’ Goetsch
• Alexey ‘LuckyGump’ Makarov
• Boumaaza ‘Chiren80’ Bachir
• Diego ‘vgreen22’ Brunelli
• Grayson ‘spacegravy’ Physioc
• Grzegorz ‘DaWarsaw’ Mikielewicz
• Jorge ‘JorgeArias’ Arias
• Karlo ‘elmagopr’ Lopez
• Keiran ‘K_Man2307’ Harris
• Kristian ‘CharismA3’ Martin
• Martha ‘marene’ Gonzalez
• Mathew ‘chipstar1’ Didlick
• Nichoel ‘NicP’ Peppe
• Randy ‘nanonoko’ Lew
• Sebastien ‘Seb86’ Sabic
• Steve ‘stevesbets’ Jacobs
• Ta-Chih ‘socutiesf’ Geeng
• Thomas ‘Boku87’ Boekhoff

This new development and the planned enhancement in the PokerStars lobby will allow players to follow their favorites online.

Is this going to snatch more players from Full Tilt Poker, we may have to find out later but for now, for players who wants to become part of the Team PokerStars Online, you have to start practicing.

Remember that from a list of 2,000 applicants only 23 are chosen. Thus, you have to prove your worth before thinking of applying.

Daniel Alaei is a professional poker player from Sta. Fe Springs. He has six money finishes and one final table. This is his first title, the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic that netted him the first prize winning of $1,428,430. He toppled over more than three hundred players, many of which are WSOP bracelet winners themselves including the tour’s namesake Doyle Brunson himself who was eliminated on the third day of the tour.

The six players who entered the final table on Saturday, December 19 were the following:

Ranked in terms of finishes:

• Daniel Alaei
• Josh Areih
• Faraz Jaka
• Shawn Buchanan
• Scotty Nguyen
• Steve O’Dwyer

Many poker professional are there in the game to cheer for Steve O’Dwyer. While he was not a popular pro, he has been an online professional poker player for a long time already. Thus, his friends want to be there at the final table to cheer him on and to support the biggest leap in his career.

However, his time on the tour is cut short when his A-6 of diamonds ran into Scotty Nguyen’s pocket jacks. This is because when the flop came, it was a jack-high offering a set of jacks to Nguyen. The ace on the turn provided O’Dwyer with some hope if the river will turn out to be an ace. Unfortunately, it was a four that came out of the river and then, Nguyen’s set of jacks prevailed. This game ended the final table race for Steve O’Dwyer.

The exit of Scotty Nguyen is another story on the final table of the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. He contributed to providing more chips to the then chip leader, Faraz Jaka.

After Josh Areih raised, Nguyen shoved over. Jaka, who has all the chips to wager on moved all-in, Areih folded. Nguyen continued with his pocket nines. Unfortunately, Jaka was holding on to pocket kings. The board came with A-J-8-2-8, which made Jaka scoop the pot giving him 7,050,000 chips entering hand No. 105.

After this, it was Shawn Buchanan’s turn to be eliminated as the 4th place winner with cash prize of $333,302 at Hand No. 109 of the final day.

He is holding on to K-8 hole cards but his opponent, Alaei is holding on to A-K. The board comes out as 9-7-3-9-J. The board did not offer any improvement to the players and thus the advantage of the hole cards held by Alaei led Buchanan to the exits.

The third to be eliminated was Faraz Jaka who won the third Prize money worth $571,374 at Hand No. 122.

Faraz Jaka entered the hand with the lowest chip count of 2,605,000. He is holding on to an A-6 against pocket kings of Alaei. He moved all in pre-flop hoping to stay alive. Unfortunately, the board comes out as K-10-5-8-4, which developed a set of kings for Alaei. This made Faraz end his run for the title in the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

The heads up table started with a 12,990,000 chip count for Josh Arieh while Daniel Alaei only has about half of it or a chip count of 6,780,000.

Thirty-one hands after the heads up game started, Daniel Alaei is holding on to 10-8 against the pocket sevens of the chip leader, Josh Areih. The flop came 10-5-2 giving Alaei advantage with pair of tens. The turn card is a six and the river is an eight. This game Daniel the first title with two pairs and Josh Arieh settle for the second place with $952,290 cash prize.

The next stop of the WPT Season 8 will be on January 24, 2010 entitled “Southern Poker Championship” to be held at the Beau Rivage, Biloxi, Mississippi.

We will follow the games there as well, so hold on and keep coming back in the site.

The game is on its way to the fifth day before it reaches the final table on Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 4:00 p.m. Day 1 was held last December 14 with a field of 329 players. Many of whom are professional poker players and some are qualifiers from online games.

At the end of Day 4, Curt Kohlberg was awarded Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day Award. Not really an award to be proud about but it is an award given by a sponsor, may be that means a lot as well.

During the game there are heartbreaker actions. One of which is that of Brent Hanks. His pocket 2’s all in bet made him the 17th player to be eliminated in the game. He is quite bold when he pushed all his chips against a stable player like Chad Batista, but that is how game’s end. Some people win and some people loose. Hanks however brought home $38,092.

Another exciting story on the 4th day of Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic was the biggest pot to be won by Faraz Jaka sending him to the second spot in the chip leader board.

Scotty Nguyen holds a Kh Js. Jaka holds to pocket tens. When the flop come out it was a QC 10d 3s. Jaka made a bold move all in for 1,022,000 when the turn came out 8s. Nguyen calls Jaka because he has an open-ended straight draw anyway. However, the river was a 7s which did not do good to either of them. Then, Jaka wins the biggest pot so far in the tournament at 2.2 million chips with his set of 10s.

At the start of day 4 Nguyen was actually the chip leader. Now, he is clinging on to a measly 339,000 as he enters day 5 of the tournament. Can he get back and come up victorious? Will have to find out tomorrow.

Here is the chip count status

1. Curt Kohlberg with 2,856,000 chips
2. Faraz Jaka with 2,768,000 chips
3. Daniel Alaei with 2,422,000 chips
4. John Juanda with 1,851,000 chips
5. Chad Batista with 1,550,000 chips
6. Joe Cassidy with 1,445,000 chips
7. Josh Arieh with 1,067,000 chips
8. Shawn Buchanan with 1,007,000 chips

There are 16 players set to start day 5 of the eleventh event of WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. However, only 8 of them hold chips more than 1,000,000. This can be an obstacle but these players are experienced, they would know what to do.

In a statement during the hearing before the House Financial Services Committee, Parry Aftab, Executive Director of WiredSafety said that US consumer are currently unprotected by the attempt of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) to ban online gaming. The organization where Mr. Aftab is the Executive Director is an organization dedicated to protect internet users from fraud, cyber harassment and child exposure to inappropriate sites.

While the ban is still in place, there is still significant number of US consumers, young players, in particular gamble online at least once a week. In a survey, which Mr. Aftab showed proves that about 300,000 US young gambles online once a week and this numbers doubles in a month’s time. Who is protecting this young people and who monitors where activities? Nobody knows.

Without regulations that will protect these US players, underage gambling, addictive gambling, fraud, collusion, malware and malicious code, privacy and data protection, criminal involvement, disputes and online security threat will continue to jeopardize the American gamers.

In addition, if regulations will be passed, it will create a technology to allow safe online gaming for US Players. While the UIGEA is still being enforced in the US soil, consumers are forced to take advantage of offshore sites which US courts will not be able to prosecute in case of fraud.

Likewise, legalizing and regulating internet poker gaming will help the government secure millions of dollars from internet gaming sites in terms of taxes. They will therefore afford to develop ways to monitor and protect consumers playing online.

Furthermore, the government will be able to set parameters and systems in monitoring online gaming activities. Underage gambling and addictive gambling may be controlled.

While there is no foolproof system that will ensure 100% protection of internet poker players, having a regulatory body and ways to monitor activities online will lessen risk for the US consumers.

Likewise, because it is unclear in UIGEA which among the online gaming activities are illegal and which once are not, all online betting activities suffer. In one complaint, horse race betting which is believed to be exempted from UIGEA is suffering from this bill as well.

It is therefore necessary that parameters are set, regulatory systems be in place and eradicate the ill effects of UIGEA.

The next few months are sure to be important to many Americans who would like to distress by playing poker online.

You surely know that when poker players want to enjoy the game, they will need to travel to brick and mortar casinos; this is quite costly for them.

On the other hand, those that have resorted in playing in offshore run online poker sites are however being able to play but are unprotected by the US government.

The 63 co-sponsors of the bill to regulate internet gaming will be very important especially that June 1, 2010 is not too far from now.

Let us cross our fingers and hope for the best.