The Nightly Turbo: Greg Raymer Smashing Records, PokerStars' 90 Billionth Hand, & More
Can anyone stop Greg "Fossilman" Raymer this year? We're covering Raymer's latest achievement, plus another milestone for PokerStars, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.
In Case You Missed It
Cary Marshall won the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event in Lake Tahoe on Monday. Read about his road to victory in our WSOPC recap.
Kristy Arnett returned with her Strategy With Kristy strategy podcast on Tuesday. This week, Kristy was joined by Matt Mercurio and Berk Brown for Part 4 of her Live Cash Game Grinders series.
Canadian poker pro Marc-Andre Ladouceur has made back-to-back deep runs at the World Series of Poker Main Event. Chad Holloway caught up with him to talk about his start in poker, his deep finish in the Main Event, and his sick run over the past few months.
Raymer Wins Fourth HPT Title
Greg Raymer's incredible run at the 2012 Heartland Poker Tour continued Monday when he won the year-end HPT Championship Open at Belterra Casino Resort in Indiana. The victory was Raymer's fourth on the tour this year and earned him another $106,030, making him the HPT's all-time money leader with $371,967 in cashes.
Raymer began the six-handed final table as the short stack but doubled up on the first hand, coming from behind with A♠2♠ to beat Iverson Snuffer's A♣Q♣. He then took the chip lead by eliminating Kenny Hicks in sixth place when his A♣K♥ held up against Hicks' A♥Q♥.
Jason Gwinn and Snuffer were sent packing in fifth and fourth place, respectively, and then Jacob Bazeley eliminated Bruce Ostrander in third place to secure a heads-up match with Raymer. On the 14th hand of heads-up play, Bazeley three-bet shoved with A♦6♦ and Raymer called with A♠Q♥. The board ran out A♠7♠3♠5♥7♦, giving "Fossilman" his fourth HPT victory in the tour's last eight events.
Bazeley, a feared online poker pro who took second in a World Series of Poker event in June, took home 59,706 for his runner-up finish.
With the win, Raymer the first person to win four titles on the HPT. He was also named the 2012 HPT Player of the Year.
Thank you all so much for the many kind tweets. It has been an unbelievable run here the last 5 months on @HPTPoker. Winning 4/6 is too much
— Greg Raymer (@FossilMan)
Here's a look at the final results from the HPT Championship Open:
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Greg Raymer | $106,030 |
| 2 | Jacob Bazeley | $59,706 |
| 3 | Bruce Ostrander | $38,088 |
| 4 | Iverson Snuffer | $32,941 |
| 5 | Jason Gwinn | $25,324 |
| 6 | Kenny Hicks | $20,588 |
Get a complete recap at the Heartland Poker Tour website.
PokerStars Celebrates 90 Billion
After 11 years of online play, PokerStars is closing in on dealing its 100 billionth hand. To celebrate, the world's leading poker site is still giving away up to $1 million in prize money for every 5 billion hands dealt at its cash game tables.
More than 300 players will cash in on 90 Billionth Hand promotion, with prizes being awarded to players dealt into every one-millionth hand from 89,700,000,000 to 90,000,000,000. The winner of the Mega Milestone hand will collect at least $20,000, so if you're playing in a regular ring game next week make sure that you keep an eye on the lobby for the real-time count on the number of hands dealt.
The best way to get a piece is to play more tables, play longer sessions and get involved in more pots. By contributing to a raked pot, you earn more VIP Player Points that will keep you in the draw to win some money.
The 85 billionth hand was dealt this summer at a $.02/$.05 six-handed cash-game table where players were met with the following message: “Congratulations, you have been dealt into Milestone Hand #85,000,000,000.”
Russia's "som6873" won the main pot with a pair of kings and scooped $26,300 for winning the promotion. His five opponents split the other $66,700, with each collecting at least $12,000:
- som6873 — $26,300
- exxu — $14,280
- Kostas poker — $13,680
- volkmar1961 --$13,430
- Posonap — $13,310
- s3x0r — $12,040
For more info on the 90 Billionth Milestone Hand promotion, visit PokerStars.com.
D'Antoni Wins Italian Poker Tour Nova Gorica
Riccardo D'Antoni won the PokerStars Italian Poker Tour Nova Gorica Main Event on Monday, besting a field of 298 players for the top prize of €155,000. D'Antoni denied Team PokerStars Pro Salvatore Bonavena of his second IPT title by defeating his fellow Italian heads-up for the trophy.
On the final hand of the tournament, D'Antoni four-bet shoved with A♣10♠ and Bonavena called with A♠K♣. However, D'Antoni spiked a ten on the turn and his pair of tens finished best. Despite falling short, Bonavena is still among the most accomplished players ever on the IPT, boasting first-, second-, third- and fourth-place finishes in over the last four seasons.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riccardo D'antoni | €155,000 |
| 2 | Salvatore Bonavena | €95,000 |
| 3 | Sebastiano Giudice | €55,000 |
| 4 | Fausto Cheli | €42,000 |
| 5 | Paolo Casaburi | €33,000 |
| 6 | Massimiliano Bramati | €25,000 |
| 7 | Michele Di Lauro | €18,000 |
| 8 | Michele Limongi | €25,000 |
| 9 | Massimiliano Bramati | €12,000 |
The PokerStars Blog has more.
GPI Partners with DeepStacks
The DeepStacks Poker Tour has teamed up with the Global Poker Index for the upcoming Mohegan Sun National Championship Main Event. The $2,500 buy-in event televised event, which runs from Dec. 1 through 4, will qualify toward the Global Poker Index rankings system.
The DSPT Mohegan Sun National Championship features a $500,000 guarantee and allows for reentries for the first three levels. The tournament is expected attract a number of big names, including DeepStacks Pros Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Tristan “Cr8ive” Wade, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, and Randal “RandAllin” Flowers.
The GPI takes in consideration all tournaments with a $1,500 buy-in or higher and a minimum of 21 players. The DeepStacks event at Mohegan will also count toward the Global Poker Index Player of the Year, an award presented annually to the player who has the strongest performance in live tournaments during the calendar year.
“We are proud about partnering with the world’s No. 1 point tracking system in the Global Poker Index," said Mizrachi. "They have proven to be the source for the latest in tournament tracking and player rankings. Having the DeepStacks Poker Mohegan Sun National Championship and some of our 2013 domestic and international events as GPI-QE will provide our players with a very unique experience. We couldn’t be more excited.”
Read more at GlobalPokerIndex.com.
Online Poker Traffic
Two weeks after reopening its doors to much of the world, Full Tilt Poker’s real-money cash-game traffic has been on a steady decline. According to PokerScout.com, the first full day of real money play at FTP saw an average 8,900 cash game players; that number dropped to 8,000 by the end of the first full week, and it has since dropped to around 6,400 players in the last few days.
Overall, online poker traffic fell .4 percent this week, with the iPoker Network taking the biggest hit by losing 7 percent of its 3,000 average players. Although iPoker experienced the sharpest decline, other sites also experienced lower traffic, which indicates Full Tilt is continuing to draw players from competitors. PokerStars dropped 2 percent last week, while 888poker and PartyPoker declined 4 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
Here's a look at the online poker traffic rankings as of Tuesday:
| Rank | Site | 7-Day Average (Real-money ring players) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | PokerStars | 22,000 |
| 2 | Full Tilt Poker | 6,700 |
| 3 | iPoker | 2,750 |
| 4 | PartyPoker | 2,600 |
| 5 | 888Poker | 1,980 |
| 6 | PokerStars.it | 1,900 |
| 7 | PokerStars.es | 1,760 |
| 8 | Winamax.fr | 1,600 |
| 9 | Ongame | 1,540 |
| 10 | Micrograming | 1,460 |
Check out the full report at PokerScout.com.
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