The Nightly Turbo: Gus Hansen Wins Big in Macau, Melanie Weisner's New Deal, and More
Before we get your week started with Monday's biggest stories, we'd like to wish a Happy Birthday to one of poker's good guys — Phil Galfond. The man known as "OMGClayAiken" and "MrSweets28" started a new blog this month, so be sure to check it out at philgalfond.com. Happy Birthday, Phil!
It's been rumored that Galfond hasn't been allowed to play in the big cash games in Macau, but the action has been booming without him. In this edition of the Nightly Turbo, we bring you an update from the nosebleed games at the famous Poker King Club, as well as Melanie Weisner's new sponsorship deal, and more.
In Case You Missed It
Aussie Brendon Rubie won the Opening Event of the 2012 Aussie Millions Championship. The young gun also sat down with PokerNews in the latest Seat Open series.
The 5th Annual Joe Hachem and Shane Warne Charity Poker Tournament took place in Melbourne on Sunday. Both Hachem and Warne made the final table, but Glen McGregor won the title and a Las Vegas High Roller package.
How did the Sunday Majors play out on PokerStars? Who took home the biggest win? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.
On Monday, PokerNews confirmed that PokerStars CEO Gabi Campos was stepping down. Find out more in our breaking news report.
Sleep is for the Weak
The high-stakes poker action doesn't seem to sleep in Macau. And, apparently, neither do the players.
Gus Hansen wrote in his blog Saturday that several players have been putting in multiple 24-hour sessions at the Poker King Club inside Macau's StarWorld Hotel and Casino. Hansen joined the action last week and has been competing against the likes of Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Andrew Robl, and several Asian businessmen at stakes of HKD$10,000/HKD$20,000, according to Poker Portal Asia.
Hansen has reportedly been destroying the game, up close to $4 million since he landed in Macau last week. The Great Dane has made an effort to stay awake for the full-day sessions during his heater, but he admitted in his blog that it's been a struggle:
"Maybe I am just getting older but I never thought I would see an entire group outlasting me at the poker table? These guys have stamina like marathon runners — session after session they keep on going and although I tried to hang with them for a while, I was so tired in the end I had to throw in the towel, give up and go to bed."
Hansen added that he'll play one more 24-hour session before heading to Melbourne for the Aussie Millions. Read more at gushansen.me.
Melanie Weisner Lock'd Up
Former Full Tilt Poker Red Pro Melanie Weisner found a new home over the weekend. Weisner was announced as the newest sponsored pro at Lock Poker, joining pros like Chris Moorman, Matt Stout and Leo Margets on the LockPro ELITE team.
Weisner, 25, has more than $1 million in online tournament earnings to go along with nearly $400,000 in live tournament earnings, placing her 74th in the Global Poker Index rankings as of Jan. 9, 2012. Her biggest live score came at the 2010 EPT Prague Main Event, where she took 12th place for $43,000. She also scooped a win at the 2010 EPT Monte Carlo Ladies Event for nearly $33,000.
"I am thrilled to join a team of world-class players and talented peers such as Chris Moorman, Matt Stout and Leo Margets," Weisner said. "I feel very honored to be a part of this exciting and growing brand, and look forward to representing Lock around the world."
Read the full release at 24-7pressrelease.com.
DJ Lady Maverick
As if she hasn't spent enough time in the classroom already, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso is hitting the books once again. Rousso, who studied economics at Duke University before attending law school at the University of Miami, is currently taking classes at BerkleeMusic.com, the online extension school of Berklee College of Music, where she is pursuing a master certificate in Electronic Music Production.
Rousso recently appeared in a video endorsing Berklee, where she has been taking up to five classes at a time while balancing her poker career and other endeavors. Rousso says taking the classes online enables her to continue traveling the world as a professional poker player.
"If I were to think about where I would ideally like to end up with music, it would probably be where I'm traveling around the world playing tournaments, and in addition to tournaments I'm doing DJ gigs and performing songs that I've written recently," she says. "If that was my life, I think I'd be as happy as possible."
View the full video at berkleemusic.com.
Jackpot!
A bad beat jackpot of more than $1 million was hit on the Merge Gaming Network on Sunday, giving one lucky player a cool $355,092 for having quad sevens bested by quad queens.
The big hand came at a $.50/$1 limit hold'em table on Merge skin Carbon Poker Sunday afternoon. The preflop action was capped by players “123maryc” and "Eulson," who saw a flop of 7♠Q♣Q♥. The two players fired bets back and forth before "Eulson" got all of his remaining chips in when the 7♣ fell on the turn.
"Eulson" tabled quad sevens and was drawing dead to his opponent's quad queens for the $34.70 main pot. However, when the meaningless A♥ landed on the river, he found $355,092 added to his real-money account. “123maryc” collected $177,546 for having the winning hand, and the other seven players at the table were given more than $25,000 each for being dealt into the hand.
More information on the Bad Beat Jackpot can be found at the Carbon Poker website.
Charity Poker Down Under
Poker players, sports stars and celebrities participated in the 5th Annual Joe Hachem and Shane Warne Charity Poker Tournament over the weekend. PokerNews' Nicki Pickering hit the red carpet to talk to many of the big names in attendance.
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