The Nightly Turbo: Zaknic Leads ANZPT Perth, Bernard Lee Show Celebrates Five Years & More
You don’t tend to think of Hump Day as a big news day in the poker world, but nothing could have been further from the truth on Wednesday. We have news from all over the world, including an update from Day 1a of ANZPT Perth, Bernard Lee’s special five-year anniversary, Matt Glantz’s new blog, and much more.
In Case You Missed It
This Sat., May 5 at 2 p.m. EDT, the Limit Hold'em Challenge will take place on PokerStars. Daniel Negreanu will be one competitor in the $200/$400 limit heads-up battle, but you're going to need to read our piece on the Limit Hold'em Challenge to find out who's brave enough to compete with Kid Poker.
Did you know that Scott Clements turned $4,400 into about $1.8 million? Sounds crazy, right? Well, it’s true, and you can find out how in our latest edition of My First.
The World Poker Tour Jacksonville played down to the final six players on Tuesday. When it began, the stacked final table included Will “The Thrill” Failla, Tony Dunst and Shawn Cunix.
With the European Poker Tour having just closed out its eighth season, we thought it would be a perfect time to have a visual look at the eight stops that are on the Season Nine schedule. Feast your eyes on the latest PokerNews Jet Set.
Each week, the Global Poker Index publishes the standings of the top 1,000 players in its Player of the Year race. Find out who is on top in our monthly look at the standings.
Kristy Arnett, Chad Holloway, and Rich Ryan break down all of the latest news in the latest PokerNews Podcast. In addition, Lynn Gilmartin joins the program to talk about EPT Berlin and the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino® EPT Grand Final. Listen here.
The betting lines for the 2012 World Series of Poker have been released on Bovada. There is definitely one bet that caught our eye, but you'll need to check out The Muck to find out which one it was.
ANZPT Perth Day 1a: Peter Zaknic Leads the Way
The second stop of Season 4 of the PokerStars.net Australia and New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) kicked off at the Burswood Casino in Perth, Australia, where 89 players took their shot on Day 1a. After some intense play, only 42 players bagged up at the end of the night including Leo Boxell, Sabastain Pagana, Tony Tartaglia and last year’s runner up John Corr; however, all those players are trailing Peter Zaknic's big stack.
It was actually in the last level of the evening that Zaknic won a big pot to take over the chip lead. It happened when Vanda Williams committed her stack with A♠J♣ on a flop of 9♥J♠Q♣. Zaknic held K♣K♦ and made the call. Neither the Q♠ turn nor 8♥ river changed a thing and Williams was sent to the rail while Zaknic chipped up to over 80,000.
Here’s a look at the top ten chip counts at the end of Day 1a:
ANZPT Perth Day 1a Top Ten Chip Counts
| Player | Chip Count |
|---|---|
| Peter Zaknic | 91,100 |
| Luch Monte | 81,400 |
| Mark Marson | 81,400 |
| Anthony Marenko | 66,800 |
| Goce Simonoski | 61,100 |
| John Corr | 60,000 |
| Ben Hon | 59,200 |
| Mario Zulj | 55,500 |
| Ali Ghezelbash | 53,700 |
| Patrick Connolly | 53,400 |
Day 1b is schedule to begin on Thursday at 1230 WST (2130 PDT Wednesday)
For more on the ANZPT Perth, be sure to check out the PokerStars Blog.
Bernard Lee Presents TV Version of Poker Radio Show to Celebrate Fifth Anniversary
Bernard Lee is celebrating the fifth anniversary of The Bernard Lee Poker Show radio show by introducing three televised episodes in the month of May.
Each episode will air Monday nights at 8:30 p.m. EDT on Comcast SportsNet New England and DirectTV starting May 7 (with repeats on Sunday afternoons at 1:30 p.m. EDT)and features the following guests:
- May 7 – Chris Moneymaker, the 2003 WSOP Main Event champion.
- May 14 – Dennis Phillips, 2008 WSOP November Niner.
- May 21 – Phil Hellmuth, the 1989 WSOP Main Event champion.
In addition, Lee will launch the Bernard Lee Poker YouTube channel, where all shows, with additional outtakes, will be posted one week after their televised premieres.
The audio version of The Bernard Lee Poker Show will air from 6 to 7 p.m. EDT on Tuesdays in Massachusetts. The show is also broadcast, typically live, on 1120AM (Boston), 970AM (Worcester), 1390AM (Cape Cod) on the Money Matters Radio Network, and on www.roundersradio.com, the largest online poker talk radio station in the world.
“Bernard has been a great asset to the Money Matters Radio Network through the years. As New England's top professional poker player, we enjoy sharing his expertise and insight into the world of poker each and every week and congratulate him on a great milestone,” said Dave Cullinane, the network’s general manager.
For more information, be sure to visit www.bernardleepoker.com and don't forget to follow him on Twitter.
World Poker Tour Season XI Sneek Peek
Season X of the World Poker Tour is coming to an end, and in less than a month we’ll see it all wrap up at the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio. The event will be the last of this season and will feature a televised super high roller, $100,000 buy-in event. The event will be three episodes long and will air on Fox Sports Network.
After a little break, WPT Season XI will kick off in beautiful Cyprus with the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic from July 31 to Aug 5. The tournament, at the Merit-Grand Casino, will have a $4,000+$400 buy-in and feature a $1 million prize pool. The event will have two starting days, as well as a reentry option on Day 1b.
For more info on the Merit Cyprus Classic, check out the World Poker Tour Blog.
Online Poker Traffic Report
On Monday, PokerScout released its online poker traffic rankings for last week. Player counts worldwide dropped by 0.4 percent, even with a push from PokerStars, and seven of the top 10 sites showed declines.
PokerStars saw a growth in numbers as last week it launched a SCOOP reload bonus. The site showed a 4 percent increase in player traffic, and could see even more when SCOOP begins this Sunday. PokerStars also showed an 11 percent growth in year-over-year traffic.
IGT Poker had one of the biggest drops for the week as the network’s Purple Lounge poker ceased doing business. The company dropped 8 percent this week in traffic. According to PokerScout, the network was boasting upward of 1,200 daily cash-game players and has now fallen to near 800.
Online poker as a whole has seen a 20 percent decline in year-over-year traffic. Still showing growth in past year are 888poker (+38 percent), Winmax.fr (+30 percent), and Merge (+6 percent), while IPoker (-4 percent) and PartyPoker (-13 percent) showed declines.
Read the full report at PokerScout.com.
Glantz's Epic Blog
Matt Glantz posted a blog Tuesday discussing his involvement with the Epic Poker League, as well as his position on its Standards & Conduct Committee. Glantz discusses his entire involvement with the league from hearing about it for the first time, to playing his first event, to becoming a part of the S&C and eventually resigning from his position.
In his blog Glantz discusses businesses practices he saw take place in the Epic Poker League from his own point of view, including the Chino Rheem probation and the Michael DiVita incident.
He also talks about hearing rumors of the leagues financial troubles for the first time and what happened when the rumors became truths. “Rumors were true. Ugghhhh. Why does it seem like the bad stuff in this business never ends. I still have hope. It is Chapter 11 (reorganization) bankruptcy and at least not Chapter 7. Wow, this sucks.”
For more, check out Matt Glantz's blog.
Hold’em with Hellmuth Celebrity Event Scheduled for August 18
For the past two years, Phil Hellmuth has hosted a charity event in his hometown of Madison, Wisconsin. This year, tournament organizers have announced that they are moving the Hold’em with Hellmuth Celebrity Poker Event to Sat., August 18, 2012 at 3 p.m. in the Exhibition Hall at the Alliant Energy Center.
“We think the switch to August will be great; hopefully allowing more people to come being that it’s not the weekend before Christmas,” event corrdinator Lindsay Huebner told PokerNews. “Being that it is a celebrity tournament, we are working on another great line up of people.”
Last year, the event, which raised over $110,000 for charity, drew over 250 players including poker pros such as 2007 World Series of Poker Europe Champion, Annette Obrestad; 1998 WSOP fourth-place finisher, Dewey Weum; and online pros Anthony "D1rtyR1v3r" Nardi and Mark "P0ker H0" Kroon; however, it was Laura Schultz who ended up the victor.
This year, Hellmuth is already confirmed to be joined by Obrestad, Scott Ian, Casey FitzRandolph Dave and Rachel, the Madison couple from the latest season of the Amazing Race.
For future information on the tournament, be sure to check out agracehospicecare.org.
Crown’s 2012 Melbourne Poker Championship Kicks off Thursday
From May 3 through 14, 2012, the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, will play host to the 2012 Melbourne Poker Championship. The series will feature 10 official events, including the $550 No-Limit Hold’em Joe Hachem Deepstacks Series and Event #8: Melbourne Poker Championship $1,100 Main Event.
The Melbourne Poker Championship began in 2002 with a modest field of 66 players in a $300 buy-in Main Event. Last year, the Main Event attracted 502 entrants and Scott Peel walked away with the $104,500 first-place prize.
This year’s event is expected to have a prize pool of more than $500,000 and will include such hometown personalities as 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe Hachem, 2012 Aussie Millions winner Oliver Speidel, and Australian sports star Shane Warne.
For the full tournament schedule and entry forms, check out www.crownpoker.com.au.
Welcome to Perth
Just when you thought the PokerStars tours were taking a break for the summer, the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour kicked off in Perth, Australia. Couldn't make it Down Under and wondering what you're missing? Nicki Pickering's welcome video gives you the scoop.
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