The Nightly Turbo: Vanessa Rousso's Blog, Guttman Wins 4th Aussie Millions Title
Miss any of the day's biggest poker stories? You've come to the right place. In this edition of the Nightly Turbo, we're covering Vanessa Rousso's blog about becoming a DJ, history made at the 2013 Aussie Millions Poker Championship, and more.
In Case You Missed It:
The NBC National Heads-up Poker Championship kicked off Thursday in Las Vegas. Want updates straight from Caesars Palace? Check out our live blog right here at PokerNews.com.
Casey "bigdogpckt5s" Jarzabek has been crushing online poker tournaments of late. Chad Holloway caught up with Jarzabek to talk about his back-to-back Sunday Million final tables and more.
There were no changes in the top 10 of the Global Poker Index this week. But after his success in the Bahamas, Shannon Shorr is suddenly a huge threat to replace someone.
CardRunners instructor Gareth Chantler specializes in Zoom poker at PokerStars. In his latest video series, Chantler analyzes key concepts to use while playing no-limit Hold'em Zoom cash games.
Looking for sports betting tips? The guys behind SharpSide.com have been beating all the major sports for years. Read more about SharpSide here at PokerNews.com.
DJ Lady Maverick
Remember when we brought you the story about Vanessa Rousso rocking the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure party earlier this month? Well, this week Rousso opened up about her interests in music and her experiences as DJ Lady Maverick.
Rousso has been studying sound design, music theory and composition, digital production and lyrics and songwriting over the last five years. Just last year, she received a master certificate in Electronic Music Production from BerkleeMusic.com.
In a recent blog entry, Rousso explained how she ventured into performing after meeting Lisa Pittman, resident DJ at Marquee nightclub in Las Vegas: “She's great. Our personalities are very similar. We're both high-energy, big goal-setting type of people. We clicked so well so quickly that we decided to start a female-led DJing duo called Deuces. We already have six or seven gigs lined up for the first half of 2013.”
Rousso also compares the anxiety she feels before gigs as the same nervousness when she sits down at a poker table. “I get those butterflies, the tiniest little bit of a panic attack, before I start. I see how huge the speakers are and realize that any little mistake is amplified. That's daunting.”
She ends her blog with confidence explaining how having guts wins the glory: “People often ask what the ingredients are for my success at such a young age. I always say it's the lack of fear to set big goals. I'm not scared to fall on my ass and fail. The only way you ever do great things is to shoot for them.”
Rousso was back on the felt Thursday for the NBC National Heads-up Poker Championship. To read her full blog entry, check out the PokerStars Blog.
History in Oz
The 2013 Aussie Millions Poker Championship is in full swing at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, and two more winners received rings this week.
Event #3 ended on Wednesday with the crowing of Michael "Sticky" Guttman, who earned $44,100 as winner of the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout. The win marked Guttman’s fourth career Aussie Millions victory. His last was in 2010 when he won the $1,100 Teams Event with Mel Judah. Placing first for this event puts Guttman's lifetime tournament earnings just short of $1 million.
Guttman defeated 210 entries in this week's shootout event, which essentially consists of a series of single-table tournaments, or sit-and-gos, if you prefer. In this case, Guttman won three sit-and-gos in a row to win the tournament. Shane Foglietta took second.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Guttman | $44,100 |
| 2 | Shane Foglietta | $29,400 |
| 3 | Phillip Siddell | $23,100 |
| 4 | Daniel DiPasquale | $16,800 |
| 5 | Peter Longmore | $14,700 |
| 6 | Mark Malecha | $12,600 |
| 7 | Peter Evans | $10,500 |
| 8 | Frank Tripodi | $8,400 |
| 9 | David Heskin | $6,300 |
Event #4 culminated Thursday with 2012 Asia Player of the Year Yosuke Sekiya taking first in the $1,100 No Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha event. Sekiya defeated a field of 206 to add another title to his resume along with $41,200 in prize winnings. With the win, Sekiya also became the first Japanese player to win an Aussie Millions event.
Sam Higgs was favored to win the event, having started the final table with a commanding chip lead over Sekiya, Joseph Cristallo and the rest of the field. Crown Poker regular Mike Irvin fell in fourth and Cristallo busted in third, leaving Higgs and Sekiya playing heads-up in the pot-limit Omaha round with blinds at 10,000/20,000.
Sekiya - 1,280,000 (64 big blinds)
Higgs - 785,000 (39 big blinds)
Sekiya maintained his lead when the game switched to no-limit hold’em at the 12,000/24,000 blind level. Severely short stacked, Higgs was all-in with A♣J♥ and was run down by Sekiya's Q♦J♠ to put an end to the tournament.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yosuke Sekiya | $41,200 |
| 2 | Sam Higgs | $28,840 |
| 3 | Joe Cristallo | $20,600 |
| 4 | Mike Irvin | $17,510 |
| 5 | Justin Bradshaw | $15,450 |
| 6 | George McDonald | $13,390 |
| 7 | Seanglee Ang | $11,330 |
| 8 | Nick Nicolaou | $9,270 |
| 9 | Bernard Samuel | $7,210 |
PokerNews' live coverage of the 2013 Aussie Millions Poker Championships will begin on Jan. 27 with the $10,000 buy-in Main Event. More information on the preliminary events can be found at the Aussie Millions Live Reporting page.
LAPT Season 6 Schedule
On Thursday, PokerStars.net announced the schedule for Season 6 of the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). The biggest and richest poker tour in Latin America will feature six stops, with tournaments taking place in Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Panama and Uruguay, where the season-ending Grand Final will be held.
The sixth season will get under way at the Enjoy Casino & Resort in Viña del Mar, Chile, from March 13 through 17. It marks the fourth time the LAPT will visit Chile. Nine events are scheduled for the opening stop on the tour, including a $5,000 buy-in high roller and the flagship $1,100 Main Event. Last year’s Main Event attracted 672 players and generated a prize pool of $651,840.
“We are very proud to be part of the biggest poker tournament in Latin America, held by the Latin American Poker Tour,” said Eduardo Garcia, Commercial Manager at the Enjoy Casino & Resort. “It is due to this association that the Enjoy Casino & Resort in Chile has led this initiative, five years in a row, which stands for quality and constitutes an effective way to boost tourism by bringing tourists to Chile from around the world.”
LAPT Season 6 Schedule
| Event | Location | Dates | Main Event Buy-in |
|---|---|---|---|
| LAPT Chile National Poker Championship | Viña del Mar | March 13-17 | USD $1,100 |
| LAPT Brazil | São Paulo | April 25-30 | R$4,000 (approx. USD $2,000) |
| LAPT Colombia National Poker Championship | Medellin | June 5-9 | COP 2,000,000 (approx. USD $1,000) |
| LAPT Peru | Lima | July 31 – Aug. 4 | USD $1,650 |
| LAPT Panama | Panama City | Sept. 18-22 | USD $1,650 |
| LAPT Uruguay Grand Final | Punta del Este | November 13-17 | USD $2,500 |
For full details of the LAPT Season 6 schedule, go to LAPT.com.
TCOOP Results
Four more events from the 2013 PokerStars Turbo Championship of Online Poker are in the books, and there's a new leader in the TCOOP 2013 Player of the Series leaderboard race.
Norway's "Tinas21" made his third final table of the series on Wednesday, finishing fourth in Event #30 for nearly $15,000. "Tinas21" surpassed Denmark's "Tjepan" atop the leaderboard and is in prime position to take the take the Champion’s Trophy and $16,500 PCA prize package that goes to the winner.
Also finding success on Wednesday was Dutchman Joep "Pappe_Ruk" van den Bijgaart, who took down the $215 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout (Event #29) for $18,797. Biggest winner of the day, though, was the U.K.'s "khanrava," who took down Event #28 for a $53,039 top prize.
Here's a look at results from Wednesday's TCOOP events:
Event #28: No-Limit Hold'em Double Chance ($200k Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $75+7 | 3,111 | $336,750 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | khanrava | $53,039 |
| 2 | chip slap u | $39,568 |
| 3 | Doug "imcastleman" Dicken | $28,287 |
| 4 | marciofort | $19,363 |
| 5 | BUKLA0! | $14,648 |
| 6 | lipeabruzzi | $11,281 |
| 7 | glanzer | $7,913 |
| 8 | Nedifen | $4,552 |
| 9 | onmybicycle | $2,862 |
Event #29: No-Limit Hold'em Shootout Super Knockout
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200+15 | 1,000 | $103,000 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joep "Pappe_Ruk" van den Bijgaart | $18,797 |
| 2 | Zenzor | $13,081 |
| 3 | 42ayay | $9,733 |
| 4 | ynd! | $7,261 |
| 5 | raspashena | $5,098 |
| 6 | idvalentina | $4,120 |
| 7 | chilenocl | $3,244 |
| 8 | OmeRalph | $2,575 |
| 9 | Skipper-dawn | $1,957 |
| 10 | daisyarmo | $1,442 |
Event #30: Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Max Turbo ($300k Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $10+1 | 5,083 | $295,200 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kolbi111 | $45,019 |
| 2 | abruzzi1988 | $32,472 |
| 3 | Artem205 | $23,616 |
| 4 | Tinas21 | $14,951 |
| 5 | trampek | $8,856 |
| 6 | foxinfox | $4,723 |
Event #31: Stud Hi/Lo ($50k Guaranteed)
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $25+2 | 2,668 | $65,499 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dr dakon | $11,137 |
| 2 | knife888806 | $7,859 |
| 3 | KomendaCZ | $6,198 |
| 4 | bal15_12 | $4,584 |
| 5 | Rodinator | $3,274 |
| 6 | AYungov | $1,964 |
| 7 | Chykot | $1,309 |
| 8 | thedarkman | $654 |
For a full look at every tournament, check out the recaps in the PokerStars Blog.
Best NBC Heads-Up Moment?
To commemorate the return of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, we thought we'd bring you one of our favorite moments from the tournament. In 2008, poker fans were rewarded with a first-round matchup between online young gun Tom Dwan and Phil Hellmuth, aka the Poker Brat. It took only three hands to create one of the most memorable exchanges in the event's history.
What's your favorite moment from the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.
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