The Nightly Turbo: A New Man in the Top Spot, Tatjana Pasalic's New Sponsor, and More
President Obama may have a good poker face, but we doubt he'd be able to take on the number one player on ESPN's The Nuts rankings. We'll tell you who's in the top spot, which online poker site Tatjana Pasalic is repping now, and more.
In Case You Missed It
Internet connections on the tournament trail aren't always reliable, so poker pros that want to get their grind on need to go to extreme measures sometimes. In the latest edition of the Sunday Grind, we check out where Liv Boeree has set up shop at EPT San Remo.
The World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown is down to its final table of six players. Who's leading the way? Find out in the WPT recap.
FTOPS XX ended Sunday night with Ariel "ArielBahia" Celestino taking home the title. Who else was victorious in the Sunday Majors? You can find the results in the Sunday Briefing.
Did you miss the latest High Stakes Poker episode that aired over the weekend? Well, you missed Phil Galfond hitting the ground running. Check out the HSP recap to find out if he kept his momentum throughout the entire episode.
The final table of the PokerStars European Poker Tour San Remo is set. Play resumes again on Tuesday and Rupert Elder will be leading the way. The EPT recap has all the action from Monday's play.
Winning a major poker tournament on your birthday is a great present. Antonio Esfandiari did just that at the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Part II of FSN's coverage aired this weekend and this is what you missed.
A New Number One
The latest installment of ESPN's The Nuts is back. The monthly blog post ranks the best players in poker at the moment. The Panel this month included PokerNews' Managing Editor Elaine Chaivarlis, PokerNews' Tournament Reporting Manager Don Peters, ESPN's Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, among others.
Most of us thought we'd see Phil Ivey in the number one spot on The Nuts rankings for a while, but in stepped the U.S. Department of Justice, and shutting down online poker in the U.S., as well as a certain someone finishing second in the WPT's Hollywood Poker Open, and boom - a new player in the number one spot. It really shouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it's Erik Seidel. Mr. Ivey sits just under him in the second spot and Jason Mercier hasn't given up third. Vanessa Selbst moved up to fourth with her back-to-back win at NAPT Mohegan, leaving Tom Dwan to fill her spot in sixth.
Newcomer to the rankings this month is last month's bubble boy, Eugene Katchalov. Andrew Feldman wrote, "I think that Katchalov's jump to seventh is a make-up attempt by some who have omitted him in the past few months. He's been deserving of a spot on the list, but No. 7 might be a little too high."
Want to know who else made it on the list? Head on over to ESPN.com.
Sporting the Bodog Patch
Last week, we told you that Team Bodog's Evelyn Ng had renewed her sponsorship with the online poker site. This week, we have more Bodog news. The site has signed European poker hostess Tatjana Pasalic.
According to the press release, other than reporting on and playing poker, she is a "passionate cook," loves answering every question sent to her Facebook page, and is a fan of Chanel No. 5 (but is "currently sporting Jean Paul Gaultier").
"Bodog's brand is the one that fits me best — from the photo-shoot onwards everybody at Bodog has had a wicked sense of fun which is what I am about too so the synergy is obvious. They've all shown me great support already so it's now just up to me to take down the World Series," she said.
Find out more about Pasalic at Bodog.com.
Get Your Vote On
In April, we told you about the World Series of Poker Rematches that would be taking place this summer at the WSOP. Two of the rematches have already been decided: Chris Moneymaker vs. Sammy Farha and Johnny Chan vs. Phil Hellmuth. The third rematch will be voted on by the fans, and voting began Monday, May 2.
- 1988 WSOP Main Event: Johnny Chan vs. Erik Seidel
- 2004 WSOP Main Event: Greg Raymer vs. David Williams
- 2006 WSOP Main Event: Jamie Gold vs. Paul Wasicka
- 2010 WSOP Main Event: Jonathan Duhamel vs. John Racener
The above list shows the match-ups that are up for a vote, but that's not stopping fans on the WSOP's Facebook page from writing their own recommendations in the comments box. We personally liked Matt Decker's "Online players vs Department of Injustice. Make it a team event" comment.
Voting takes place on the WSOP Facebook Page, so head on over there and pick your favorite rematch and maybe you'll see it in a two-hour special on ESPN on July 26.
Rumor Mill: High Stakes Poker Sponsor
Rumor has is that GSN's High Stakes Poker has procured a new presenting sponsor in the wake of the indictments by the U.S. Department of Justice against three of the world's top online poker sites. We don't really like to fuel rumors, so we reached out to GSN, and so far, we cannot confirm anything. As soon as we hear anything, we'll be sure to let you all know.
Seiborg
SrslySirius and DRybes in conjunction with The Micros released the song Seiborg last week in the TwoPlusTwo PokerCast. They released the video to this epic song last Friday, and if you haven't seen it, do yourself a favor and click play.
Party Time
We are all about a good party, and it seems like a partying kind of day, so to celebrate, here is PokerNews' Laura Cornelius at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Welcome Party.
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