The Nightly Turbo: Phil Collins Wins HPT in Vegas, Manila Millions Lineup, and More
The World Series of Poker is just 40 days away, but there's some big tournament action coming up around the world to keep an eye on. A Super High Roller event is hitting the Philippines this week, and some big names are expected to pony up the seven-figure buy-in. We'll bring you that news and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
The PokerStars.com European Poker Tour is back in Berlin for the third time. Former EPT champ Vladimir Geshkenbein emerged as chip leader after Day 1a.
The events of April 15, 2011 hit poker pros hard — even those playing low stakes. Pawel "@verneer" Nazarewicz reflects on life after Black Friday and what the future holds.
Daniel Negreanu released his Weekly Rant a day early this week. Find out what he thinks about poker's most prominent female players in The Muck.
Phil Laak was the big story of the PartyPoker Big Game VI last week? Who else performed well? Chad Holloway takes a look at the game's biggest winners and losers.
Black Friday changed online poker in the United States forever, but it wasn't the end. Rich Ryan recalls his experience on that fateful day and what we can expect in the future.
Another Day in Paradise
One of the most impressive final tables in the history of the Heartland Poker Tour played down to a champion at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on Monday. The final six players — Phil Collins, Dan O’Brien, Steve Gross, Matt Marafioti, Leo Wolpert and Terry Presley — boasted around $20 million in lifetime earnings, plus a handful of prestigious titles from around the world.
Nearly 200 players put up the $1,650 buy-in when the event kicked off last week. A handful of notables made deep runs in the tournament, including Randy Dorfman, Michael Craig, Christina Lindley, and Dutch Boyd, who bubbled the final table in seventh place.
When the dust settled, Collins walked away with the title and $71,556 in prize money. Collins, who earned $2,269,599 for a fifth-place finish at last year's WSOP Main Event, defeated Marafioti heads up. Gross, best known for his exploits online as "gboro780," placed third.
HPT Nevada — Palms Casino Resort Results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Phil Collins | $71,556 |
| 2 | Matt Marafioti | $41,570 |
| 3 | Steve Gross | $25,897 |
| 4 | Leo Wolpert | $22,489 |
| 5 | Dan O’Brien | $17,173 |
| 6 | Terry Presley | $14,666 |
Two one-hour episodes from the final table will air in June. More information is available at HPTpoker.com.
25 Players Confirmed for Manila Millions
The largest buy-in poker tournament ever held in Asia will get under way in the Philippines on Friday, and some of the biggest names in poker are lining up to play for more than $3 million in prize money.
Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey confirmed their participation in the HKD$1,000,000 ($129,000) buy-in Manila Millions Super High Roller last week. Now, it seems that Johnny Chan, John Juanda, Andrew Robl and Sam Trickett have shown interest in the tournament. Trickett posted in his blog last week that he's making a trip to Manila, so we can only assume he'll be playing in what will likely be a big-value tournament with several Asian businessmen in attendance.
Others reportedly interested in taking a shot are Asian poker pros Elton Tsang, Anson Wong, and Devan Tang, as well as AsianLogic’s Tom Hall, Asian Poker Tour founder Chris Parker, and the Poker King Club’s Winfred Yu.
The Super High Roller will run one day before the APT Philippines Main Event. Check out the Asian Poker Tour website for more info.
PokerStars Adds More Value to SCOOP
The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) is less than three weeks away, and this year players will have even more incentive to grind their faces off during the two week poker festival.
After the series' 120 tournaments are in the books, PokerStars will give away leaderboard prizes for every buy-in level — low, medium and high — with more than 300 players cashing in.
SCOOP Low Leaderboard prizes
- 1st: Trophy & 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) package
- 2nd–20th: MicroMillions II ticket for every event
- 21st–250th: MicroMillions II Main Event ticket
SCOOP Medium Leaderboard prizes
- 1st: Trophy & 2013 PCA package
- 2nd–10th: World Championship of Online (WCOOP) $1,050 event ticket
- 11th–50th: WCOOP $109 event ticket
SCOOP High Leaderboard prizes
- 1st: Trophy & 2013 PCA package
- 2nd–4th: WCOOP Main Event ticket
- 5th–10th: WCOOP $1,050 event ticket
There will also be an overall leaderboard prize for the player who performs the best across the entire 2012 SCOOP schedule. That player will earn a trophy and Season 9 European Poker Tour Grand Final package.
For more, check out the PokerStarsBlog.
DeepStacks Poker Tour TV Debut
The televised debut of the DeepStacks Poker Tour hit a snag over the weekend (due to technical difficulties at Fox), but a rescheduled air date has been announced for the Western New York Poker Championship at Seneca Niagara Casino.
The final table broadcast will air at on Saturday, April 21 at 1400 EDT on Fox Buffalo. The one-hour broadcast features the final six players competing for a top prize of $71,000, and will also include new segments to engage the viewer and put a new spin on televised poker.
DeepStacks released the first segment of Episode 1 on Monday. Here's a look:
Read up on the DeepStacks Poker Tour at Deepstacks.com.
Playtech Eyes Social Gaming Platform
On Tuesday, online gaming software provider Playtech announced it has entered an agreement to purchase €95 million worth of assets and businesses from the company's founder and largest shareholder, Teddy Sagi.
The acquisition is part of a new strategy to branch into the social gaming market. Playtech says it has signed a nonbinding memorandum of understanding to buy real money gaming and social media assets and businesses, and it will acquire a 20 percent stake from companies in which Sagi is a shareholder.
"Playtech has been monitoring social gaming activity operated by various companies through social networks and mobile platforms and has been analyzing a number of ways to penetrate the social gaming arena," the company said in a press release.
"By completing the intended transaction, Playtech would gain access to a broad range of social gaming platforms and products and believes it would be uniquely positioned as a leading B2B provider with the ability to supply cross platform capabilities for a full suite of products including social casino, poker, bingo and rummy."
Read more in Playtech's press release.
Moorman Versus Levy
What do online legends Chris "Moorman1" Moorman and Adam "Roothlus" Levy think of one another? PokerNews' Lynn Gilmartin found out during a break at the European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event.
Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
