The Nightly Turbo: Tony G on the Jungleman Challenge, Poker Featured on CNN, and More
While we all continue to wait for further details regarding Full Tilt Poker and Groupe Bernard Tapie, the Nightly Turbo brings you a CNN story about online poker players, comments from pros about the Jungleman Challenge, and more.
In Case You Missed It
A champion was crowned at the first European Poker Tour Main Event in Greece. Learn about the newest EPT champion in our Loutraki recap.
What can be taken from the Internet poker hearings on Capitol Hill last week? PokerNews' Matthew Kredell breaks them down for you.
How did Team PokerStars Pro member André Akkari get his start in poker? Find out in the latest edition of the Seat Open With series.
Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Jacksonville Main Event saw only 42 players survive. Vitor Coelho emerged as the chip leader nearing the money bubble.
How did the Sunday Majors play out on PokerStars? Who took home the biggest win? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.
The second episode of the Epic Poker League was shown on CBS over the weekend. Read about Mike McDonald's triumph in our recap.
Only 11 players returned for Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Circuit Harveys Lake Tahoe Main Event. Get all the details in our Day 2 recap.
Online Poker in the Mainstream Media
On Monday, CNN Money ran a story about online poker in the U.S. and the players who relied on it as a source of income. According to the piece, about 8 percent of online poker players made their living from the game before Black Friday, and some have since moved outside the country to resume their careers.
Among the players featured in the story is 2010 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Shawn "jordankickz" Busse, who says in the interview that he considers the $60,000 stuck in hisFull Tilt Poker account to be lost. Busse made more than $300,000 playing online poker in the past three to four years and used his winnings to pay for the necessities in his everyday life. He says getting the money in his Full Tilt account back would be a "nice bonus."
The interview with Busse likely came before last week's news that French investment firm Groupe Bernard Tapie had signed a deal with the Department of Justice to purchase Full Tilt Poker, allowing for the potential repayment of players all over the world. While some outlets, including CNN, initially jumped the gun by reporting that all aspects of the deal were finalized, the agreement still must be approved by FTP investors.
The full CNN story can be viewed here:
For more of CNN's coverage of online poker, visit money.cnn.com.
Who Wants to Challenge Jungleman?
Dan "Jungleman" Cates issued a challenge to the world last month, but it doesn't appear as though anyone is willing to make the trip to Prague to face the online superstar.
The match on Dec. 6 would pit a challenger against Cates in a heads-up match at stakes of €200/€400 with a minimum buy-in of €100,000. Cates confidently offered the challenge to anyone who had the "nerve" to take him on but didn't offer an incentive like Tom Dwan did with the Durrrr Challenge.
Is the whole thing just a publicity stunt? Have a look at what Tony G. and some other well-known pros think:
Get more of Tony G's thoughts on the challenge in his blog at PartyPoker.com.
Raul Mestre Wins IFP World Championship
Spain's Raul Mestre won the International Federation of Poker World Championship on Sunday, besting a field of 135 players to take home a prize of $250,000. Mestre began the final table as chip leader and went on to defeat the U.K.'s Victoria Coren heads-up for the title.
The event, dubbed "The Table" by the IFP, saw the field trim down to nine after more than 11 hours of play on Saturday. Three women advanced to the final table as Coren was joined by Australia's Marsha Waggoner and Germany's Sandra Naujoks. Coren was the only woman left standing after she eliminated Waggoner in fifth place, and the Team PokerStars Pro ground a short stack all the way to the heads-up match against Mestre. From there, the cards fell in the Spaniard's favor as he won a crucial flip with ace-jack against Coren's pocket fives to put the match out of reach.
The IFP World Championship event followed the inaugural IFP Nations Cup, which was featured as part of the London Mind Sports Festival earlier in the week. Naujoks, along with Tobias Reinkemeier, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Moritz Kranich, Hans Martin Vogl, and Tim Reese, formed the German team that won the unique event that was played in a format intended to minimize the luck involved in no-limit hold'em.
Here's a look at the final results of the IFP World Championship:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Raul Mestre | $250,000 |
| 2 | Victoria Coren | $100,000 |
| 3 | Igor Trafane | $50,000 |
| 4 | Slavko Tomic | $25,000 |
| 5 | Marsha Waggoner | $20,000 |
| 6 | Sandra Naujoks | $17,500 |
| 7 | Takuo Serita | $15,000 |
| 8 | Tim Reese | $12,500 |
| 9 | Kinichi Nakata | $10,000 |
Read more about the event at the IFP's website.
Celebrate History in Prague
If you happen to be in Prague during the European Poker Tour event next month, PokerStars is inviting all of its players to the Prague Hilton Hotel to celebrate its latest attempt at another Guinness World Record.
On Sunday, Dec. 4, players can meet up in a private room at the Hilton to participate in the momentous $1 tournament with a $50,000 guarantee. The tournament already has more than 60,000 entries with 13 days before the tournament begins and will try to best the current record of 149,196 players set in Dec. 2009.
PokerStars will provide food and drinks for the celebration and offer players the opportunity to play and mingle with several members of Team PokerStars. The tournament kicks off at 1230 EST (1530 BST).
Get more information at the PokerStars Blog.
PokerStars Unveils Macau Schedule
PokerStars Macau has announced the preliminary events calendar for 2012. The Asia poker season will launch with the Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon from Feb. 18 through Feb. 26, and the series will culminate with a $HK100,000 Asia Championship of Poker (ACOP) Main Event with a $HK10,000,000 Guarantee.
"It's been an unbelievable year for the MPC Red Dragon series. We went from 300 players in 2010 to an average of 478 players in 2011 ... peaking with the February series at 509," said Danny McDonagh, PokerStars Director of Live Operations for Asia-Pacific, to the PokerStars Blog.
"With several exciting changes to our calendar next year, there's still something to be said about tradition. PokerStars Macau has always opened with the Macau Poker Cup where the Red Dragon has a massive following within the region."
The series will offer 10 events, one in each month from February through November. Official dates will be added in the coming months. Highlighting the 2012 calendar will be the MPC: Red Dragon series in February and July; the Macau Millions in March; and the Macau Poker Cup Championship in September. The 2011 Macau Millions marked the first ever tournament in Asia to break the thousand-entry barrier.
PokerStars Macau 2012 Schedule
| *Event | Date | Buy In |
| MPC: Red Dragon | Feb. 18-26, 2012 | $HK11,000 |
| Macau Millions | March 2012 | $HK2,200 |
| ACOP: Platinum Series | April 2012 | $HK11,000 |
| APPT Macau | May 2012 | $HK30,000 |
| ACOP: Platinum Series | June 2012 | $HK5,500 |
| MPC: Red Dragon | July 2012 | $HK11,000 |
| ACOP: Platinum Series | August 2012 | $HK5,500 |
| Macau Poker Cup Championship | Sept. 2012 | $HK20,000 |
| ACOP: Platinum Series | Oct. 2012 | $HK5,500 |
| ACOP | Nov. 2012 | $HK100,000 Main Event |
For more, head on over to pokerstarsmacau.com.
Let the Moose Guide You
If you're looking for an online gambling site with the latest news, views and gossip from the world of sports, we recommend you check out the new site powered by PokerNews. SportMoose.com offers readers a useful selection of articles related to the world of sports betting, as well as bonuses and promotions from some of the largest online sportsbooks in the world.
The writers at SportMoose provide daily betting tips for the NFL, college football, college basketball, hockey, and even Tennis and MMA. The staff recently took a look into this week's ATP Barclays World Tour Finals in London. Want to know which players pose the biggest threat to world No. 1 Novak Djokovic? You can find out in the preview.
You can also find the latest odds on up to 20 sports and reviews for a number of online sports books at SportMoose.com.
EPT Loutraki Recap
The European Poker Tour stop in Loutraki came to close on Sunday. In case you missed any of the action, PokerNews' Sarah Grant rewinds the week to take you every step of the way.
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