The Nightly Turbo: ISPT Signs Liz Lieu, Partouche Poker Tour Under Way, and More

Brett Collson Chief Editor

Sep 04, 2012 4 min read

While one Europe-based poker tour is preparing to get off the ground, another is in full swing this week. We'll touch on those stories and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Aaron Massey won the WinStar World Casino Revier Poker Series Main Event on Monday. Read about his road to victory in our final table recap.

A massive $250,000 buy-in tournament flew under the radar last week. Rich Ryan discusses that and more in his latest Five Thoughts piece.

How did the first WCOOP events play out on PokerStars? Who took down the biggest score? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.

Did you miss Sunday's World Poker Tour coverage on FSN? Read our WPT recap to get caught up.

How has Tristan Wade's life changed since entering poker? Find out that and more in the latest Seat Open.

New Face of the ISPT

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) continues to add star power ahead of its inaugural event in London next May. On Tuesday, the tour announced the signing of poker pro Liz Lieu as an ambassador for the Europe-based tour. She joins Michael Mizrachi and Sam Trickett on the ISPT team.

"ISPT is pioneering the world of poker in a bold and creative way. This event will create a lot of positive attention for this game,” said Lieu. “I am very excited by the concept and I’m sure that ISPT will be remembered in poker history. My role will be to act as an ambassador of the tournament and share my opinion on this event. I not only want players to know about the historic nature of the event, I want them to see that it’s going to be a tremendous amount of fun."

The first ISPT event is scheduled to kick off on May 31, 2013. Organizers are expecting the tournament to begin with 30,000 players in the stands of Wembley Stadium playing an online tournament from their seats. From there, the top 3,000 players will advance to the live tournament, which will be played right on the Wembley Stadium field. The event has a €20,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and will be broadcast on television via six channels.

Read more about the event at ISPT.com.

Trickett's Title Defense

The 2012 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event began Monday with the first of two starting days at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes. Day 1a had 325 entries into the €8,500 event, and after seven levels 155 had advanced to Day 2.

The chip leader after Day 1a was Marcello Marigliano with 187,300, but several notables finished with healthy stacks. Former WSOP November Niner Antoine Saout was fifth with 150,900, and Michael Mizrachi (144,800), Todd Terry (132,500), Davidi Kitai (129,100), Martin Jacobson (114,700), Joel Nordkvist (111,100), Thomas Wahlroos (103,500) and Vanessa Selbst (102,400) cracked the top 30.

Others still alive include Leo Margets, Justin Bonomo, Jonathan Duhamel, Pius Heinz and Jason Mercier. Here's a look at the top stacks from Day 1a:

Place	Player	Chips
1	Marcello Marigliano	187,300
2	Kristijonas Andrulis	183,600
3	Anthony Pellerin	163,200
4	Edouards Rakuss	156,600
5	Antoine Saout	150,900
6	Michael Mizrachi	144,800
7	Gabriel Bitton	142,400
8	Wouter Vandewiele	140,300
9	Todd Terry	132,500
8	Pasi Sormunen	131,900

Among the players taking part on Day 1b were Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and defending champion Sam Trickett. Check back for daily updates right here in the Nightly Turbo.

iPoker Splits Player Pool

The iPoker Network's new tiered platform has been successfully implemented as planned, dividing the player pool of the network's 40-plus skins.

Among the skins residing on the top tier going forward include William Hill, Poker770, bet365, Titan Poker and Paddy Power Poker. Those sites each met the set of requirements introduced by iPoker owner Playech in June. Skins were required to maintain a base of at least 6,000 active players, as well as 850 new real-money players per month from July 1 through the end of August.

The top tier will offer larger player pools and more games to select from. While multi-table tournaments will be shared across the entire network, many ring game tables and sit-and-gos will be separated. The smaller sites which didn't qualify for the top tier are expected to draw less recreational players and more sharks looking to maximize volume.

Get more information about the split at TwoPlusTwo.com.

Ivey Leads The Nuts ... Again

The latest edition of ESPN's The Nuts was released late last week. The monthly blog post ranks the best poker players in the world at the moment. The 10-person panel includes Elaine Chaivarlis, PokerNews' editor in chief; Don Peters, PokerNews' tournament reporting manager; and ESPN's Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, among others.

Phil Ivey maintained the top spot, receiving all 10 first-place votes from the panel, but his reign is being threatened by two of the hottest players of 2012. Marvin Rettenmaier, winner of back-to-back World Poker Tour titles this year, entered the rankings at No. 4, and Dan Smith made his debut at No. 6. Smith has six wins this year and currently leads the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race.

John Juanda and Sam Trickett also returned to The Nuts rankings. Juanda is fresh off an eighth place finish in the EPT Barcelona Main Event ($93,500) and fifth place result in the Macau High Stakes Challenge ($1,645,753). Trickett also cashed in Macau, and his runner-up finish in the Big One for One Drop won't soon be forgotten.

Here's a look at the top 10 for September.

Rank	Player
1	Phil Ivey
2	Jason Mercier
3	Michael Mizrachi
4	Marvin Rettenmaier
5	Vanessa Selbst
6	Dan Smith
7	Phil Hellmuth
8	Bertrand Grospellier
9	John Juanda
10	Sam Trickett

For more analysis on The Nuts rankings, check out ESPN.com.

Goodbye, Oklahoma

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team recently made its first trip to WinStar World Casino for the River Poker Series Main Event. Sarah Grant took a look back at the highlights from the five-day event.