Here at PartyPoker we love giving our Facebook friends great value and this offer is taking generosity to a new level. We are offering you the chance to play at the WPT World Poker Finals at the famous Foxwoods Casino all for only $11.

We will have 5 WPT Foxwoods Facebook Challenge $11 qualifiers. Top 10 finishers from each of the 5 qualifiers will go into a strictly limited entry WPT Foxwoods Facebook Challenge final on October 5th at 15:00ET (21:00 CET) where the best one of the 50 finalists will win a package valued at a huge $14,000.

The package will include the $10,000 buy-in, accommodation and spending money. The WPT World Poker Finals main event will take place from October 28th until November 2nd 2010.

Look out for the WPT Foxwoods Facebook Challenge $11 qualifiers taking place on:

• September 17th at 15:00ET (21:00 CET)
• September 21st at 15:00ET (21:00 CET)
• September 24th at 15:00ET (21:00 CET)
• September 28th at 15:00ET (21:00 CET)
• October 1st at 15:00ET (21:00 CET)

Passwords to the qualifiers will be visible for people that “like” us on Facebook few hours before the start, so make sure to like us today to not to miss it!

Need to top up your PartyPoker account? Get a 100% reload bonus up to $100 when you use the bonus code PPBLOG100 when making your deposit. Hurry though – this bonus offer expires on Wednesday. See details here.

The WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals

The WPT World Poker Finals is one of the flagship stops on the tour and it is held at the biggest casino in the USA. Past winners include some of the biggest names in poker and your name could be added to that illustrious list. Last years winner walked away with just under $1 million for their efforts. A similar sum awaits this years winner. That would be an excellent return on an $11 investment.

Special terms:

• By playing for in the WPT Foxwoods Facebook Challenge you declare that you are able to travel to the specified event in the USA, including being able to obtain any and all documents required for travel to that destination. If the winner cannot attend the event, they must transfer their package to another real-money player registered with PartyPoker
• There will be no cash alternative to the $14,000 package
• Players must be at least 21 years of age to play in the WPT World Poker Finals
• Please read our standard terms and conditions

The heat is on!

PartyPoker is giving players the chance to win their way to Manila, the hot and steamy capital of The Philippines.

Starting on Monday 12^th of July, PartyPoker will be running qualifiers which will give players the chance to win a $6000 package to play in the Asian Poker tour event in Manila.

All the fun and excitement

Poker in Asia is growing at a rapid rate and the APT event in Manila captures all the fun and excitement of a big money tournament in one of Asia’s hottest cities.

Last year PartyPoker sent a group of players to Manila for a poker and cultural experience they will never forget. This year we are offering to share that oriental experience once again.

To win a chance to enjoy everything that the Asian Poker Tour and the city of Manila can offer you will need to enter our daily qualifiers. These start from just $1 so there is no need to break the bank.

You’ll be kicking yourself for weeks

The qualifiers will feed into our exclusive one off APT Manila Satellite on August 1st that will have a guaranteed 3 packages up for grabs. Miss this and you’ll be kicking yourself for weeks.

Each Manila package will include the $2700 main event buy-in, 7 nights hotel accommodation in Manila and $2300 spending money which is enough to get you there and ensure you have a great time.

This is one event you will not want to miss. Check out the Partypoker tournament lobby now for tournament times and we’ll see you in Manila.

For most players, reaching the WSOP main event is a once-in-a-lifetime event. But with PartyPoker’s WSOP for Life promotion, you could be there every year for free.

PartyPoker is offering to reserve your seat at the main event for years to come, thanks to an unbelievable promotion called WSOP for Life. The winners will be able to plan their trip to Las Vegas every year knowing that PartyPoker has already covered their buy-in.

One of our regular brainstorming sessions

It all started when the team here at PartyPoker were having one of our regular brainstorming sessions. Someone came up with the idea of how cool it would be to have your own seat every year in the WSOP main event, and the idea evolved into the idea for WSOP for Life.

I think this is going to get a lot of attention from poker players. No other site offers players the opportunity to play in the WSOP for years and years just by winning one promotion. This is what makes WSOP for Life the coolest promo of the summer.

You could guarantee a place in the cup final every year

We are very excited about this promo because it offers something truly amazing and aspirational for every poker player. Imagine if you are a football team and you could guarantee a place in the cup final every year without having to play a match. That’s just like how the WSOP for Life will be perceived by poker players.

We’ve got two of these unique packages to give away and we’re making them available to all our players via a leader board challenge and a tournament.

Win one of our prize packages and you’ll be there for life! Check out the promotion page for full details.

Keep an eye out on PartyPoker blog in the upcoming weeks as Mike Sexton will blog about his best memories from the history of WSOP.

The most epic contest in the history of PartyPoker.com has finally reached its climax and we are very proud to crown player MasiffOwnich from Slovenia as the winner of our inaugural Online Cash Game Championships.

As well as making history be taking our first-ever Online Cash Game Championships title, our brand new champ receives a well-deserved $40,000 first prize for his phenomenal effort.

4 weeks of intense poker action

MasiffOwnich is really Primoz Cimerman, a popular professional poker player in Slovenia. Having won his way through 4 weeks of intense poker action to level 6, it was looking like he would get knocked out after losing a huge pot that crippled him. However, he managed to build up a sizeable chips stack again after managing to double up at the end of the night and make his way into level 7 – the final table, on May 7^th.

At the final table Primoz was supported by many of his poker playing friends from his home poker club who cheered him on in the chatbox. The play was fast and furious with 119 hands of $25/$50 NL being dealt in the first hour alone. Hand number 190 was a key one as Primoz’s pocket 10’s managed to best the AQ of player sw3333333t for a pot worth over $15,000.

That gave Primoz a commanding chip lead and allowed him to only play the pots he wanted to – even folding pocket kings preflop against a raise and a re-raise. After 500 hands Primoz had won the title, the $40,000 first prize and the glory of being our first ever OCGC champion. He also had the money he won at the table to enjoy.

Final placings

The final placings were as follows:

1. MasiffOwnich                 $29,336 and $40,000 First prize
2. aFFeNmArDeR           $15,449 and $20,000 Second Prize
3. HScomeback                $8,103 and $10,000 Third Prize

When I called Primoz to congratulate him on his win, he was just checking into a hotel for a local poker tournament in Slovenia.

“I am really excited to be the Online Cash Game Champion and I have been celebrating this result with my friends. As soon as I saw the promotion I opened an account with PartyPoker.com because I thought I had a chance to win it. This is the biggest win I have had so far but I have been in good form recently having cashed in the WPT event in Bucharest. I finished law school recently but I’m making good money playing poker so my legal career will have to wait for a while. I plan to buy an apartment soon so the prize money will come in very useful. I will also use the bankroll to move up from my current $2/$4 level”.

While MasiffOwnich enjoys his victory we also hope he makes plans to defend his title when we run the promotion again. Yes, the Online Cash Game Championships will be back and we promise it will be even bigger and better, meaning you can take up the challenge to become our next superstar.

My name is Jeremy and I am part of the Poker Marketing team here at PartyPoker. The whole team is always trying to develop great promotions that keep our players entertained as they play their favourite game.

We are all very excited about our current promotion – the Online Cash Game Championships which is proving to be very popular among our players. The Online Cash Game Championships (OCGC) is a completely unique promotion that will find a true cash game champion. We are looking for our best cash game player based on profit.

Anyone can claim the title

Players will play their way through a series of 7 levels of cash game action where the stakes and the quality of players will increase as they progress through the levels. Anyone can claim the title, you don’t have to be a regular at the high stakes tables.

The final table will take place on a special 6 handed table on May 7th and if you don’t make it you can take your place with the railbirds as they check out the action. I will be hosting the final table online and chatting with the players as they aim to win this great accolade.

PartyPoker’s first ever Online Cash Game Champion

The winning player will win over $50,000 in cash prizes on top of their normal winnings so there is plenty to play for. There is also the recognition from being crowned PartyPoker’s first ever Online Cash Game Champion. Whoever ends up victorious will walk away with the cash, the crown and the praise and will feature on PartyPoker after the event so that they can bask in all their new found glory.

Remember that players must opt in to this promotion any time the end of April 9th to take part. This will be one of our most popular promotions yet – make sure you book your seat at the PartyPoker cash tables during April.

Intro to OCGC by Tatjana Pasalic

Here is the intro to the Online Cash Game Championships from Tatjana Pasalic:

463 players sat down for day 2

A total of 463 players made it through to day 2 of the WPT LA Poker Classic. PartyPoker had 11 players returning to take their seats for day 2. Our PartyPoker chip leader at the start of day 2 was Sergei Norikov from Russia who was in position 27.

Fantastic $1,000,000 bonus prize that Partypoker will award

All the players are fully supportive of each other because of the fantastic $1,000,000 bonus prize that Partypoker will award if any of our qualifiers win this main event.

If we do have a Partypoker player take down this title they will win a staggering $500,000 and all the other Partypoker players who have taken part in this event will share the other $500,000. This creates a good sense of Party spirit amongst the guys because they all have an interest in each other.

Travel the world and make sure his two children had a great life

George from Canada trying to win for his children

One guy who could profit more than anyone is George Grant from Canada who qualified for this event on our PartyPoker.net site after seeing a Partypoker.net TV advert one evening.

George has never previously played in a live poker tournament or even played poker for money online but I have a feeling that this will change after this week.

George admitted to being very nervous before play started on Friday but said that he was amazed how friendly everyone has been. Despite the lack of live poker experience George is giving a very good account of himself and at 17:00 on Saturday is still sitting with 17,000 chips. I asked George what he would do with the money if he won this event. He smiled and said he would travel the world and make sure his two children had a great life.

We lost a couple of our players in the first couple of levels today. Sadly Gavin Greenwood was not able to find any cards today and when he did make a move with 10 J he got called by a guy holding a dominating QJ. The flop came down Q66 and Gavin was in real trouble. A further Q on the turn sealed Gavin’s fate and sent him to the rail. Another insignificant 6 came on the river but Gavin was already on his way out of the tournament room.

Italian player also had to say “Arrivederci” to his tournament

Rudger and Nicholas also hit the rail sooner than they would have liked. By 18:00 Marco, one of two Italian players also had to say “Arrivederci” to his tournament. His friend Salvatore is still flying the flag for our Party Italia players.

With an hour to go today we still had 6 players scattered throughout the tournament room. Estimated chip counts at 20:00 Saturday were as follows:

• George 30,000
• Jeff 90,000
• Sergei 60,000
• Salvatore 50,000
• Andrey 12,000
• Malte 120,000

Jennifer Tilly to his left and Johnny Chan on Jennifer’s left

Malte with table mates Jennifer Tilly and Johnny Chan

Unfortunately as I stood counting Malte’s chips he lost a pot against the legendary Johnny Chan. Malte is on a tough table because he has Jennifer Tilly to his left and Johnny Chan on Jennifer’s left. He has to pick his spots carefully but has obviously being doing just that if he can amass such a good chip stack on such a tough table.

With an hour to go, two of the chip leaders were recent PartyPoker Premier League participants, Daniel Negreanu with 300,000 and Vanessa Rousso on over 200,000.

Andrey was busted when he pushed pre-flop with Kings only to get called by a guy with Aces. No help came on the board and Andrey was greeted at the rail by his girlfriend.

With 30 minutes remaining I walked by Malte’s table to see him pulling in a huge pile of chips and player leaving the table. Malte had pocket queens under the gun and made a standard raise which was called by the blinds. On a ten high flop the blinds check and Malte makes a continuation bet which was called by the small blind. Another low card came on fourth street and the small blind check raised all in. Malte insta-called and had the guy easily covered. The queens were looking good against an open ended straight draw which never came. Malte was still stacking his newly won chips for another two hands.

5 remaining PartyPoker players all had a reasonable amount of chips

At 20:30 the chips were bagged and the big screen showed that the average chip stack was about 79,000 and only 187 made it through today. The 5 remaining PartyPoker players all had a reasonable amount of chips and they could hit the bar knowing they would have the following chips when they come back on Sunday for day 3.

• Malte from Germany – 164,200
• Jeff from the UK – 86,300
• Sergei from Russia – 53,600
• Salvatore from Italy – 43,000
• George from Canada – 42,700

George doubled up in the final hand of the night when he pushed pre-flop with pocket queens and got a call by a guy with AJ. A low board meant George would be back on Sunday.

We will also be back on Sunday when play resumes at 12:00 local time.

Sergei from Russia is happy to have made it through to day 3

Day 1 of the LA Poker Classic

We now have the all important stats for this event.

A total of 745 players have entered the WPT La Poker Classic which has generated a prize pool of $7,152,000. First prize will be a cool $1,778,001 and even 2nd place will walk away over $1,000,000. With the top 72 places getting paid, there is plenty to play for.

Tournament Director, Matt Savage told me he is delighted with the turnout. Matt has done a lot of work re-vamping the whole tournament structure for the entire LA Poker Classic series. As well as the main event, Matt introduced a lot of new side events which has increased the overall turnout for the series. This has helped make the LA Poker Classic the second biggest poker event behind the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Looking around the tournament room, there were a lot of late entrants. It is always the top players who arrive during the 2nd or 3rd level. Maybe they think they do not have to bother themselves with the early stages – who knows. Some the late entrants included Peter Eastgate, Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier, Chris Ferguson, Joe Hachem and Annie Duke. Some of them did not hang around long. I saw Peter Eastgate hit the rail soon after he sat down. I was very disappointed that Mike Matusow was had also left the tournament room before I had a chance to get a copy of his book. Unless he comes back tomorrow, I’ll have to look on Amazon.

Marco from Italy

Many of the partypoker players are sitting with very nice chip stacks. Unfortunately as we reached the later stages of the day we lost a couple of our players. Robert from Sweden was seen heading to rail at about 7pm. He has come out to Los Angeles with his family so I’m sure they will enjoy their time here. Mario from Germany and Joe from Canada were also missing from their chairs so I presumed they have also busted.

Robert from Sweden

By the time the chips were bagged up at 8.30pm we still had 11 players left in the tournament.

Here are the important chip counts at the end of Day 1.

• Chip leader is Masa Kagawa with 124,575 chips

Partypoker players in position and with chip counts:

27 Sergei Norikov 71,025
28 Malte Moennig 70,950
71 Jeff Kimber 50,600
98 Andrey Marsev 44,575
109 Salvatore De Luca 42,975
200 Rudger Gravestein 31,450
219 Marco Callari 29,300
266 Mykhailo Demydenko 24,875
306 Nicholas Verkaik 20,000
326 George Grant 18,225
406 Gavin Greenwood 11,650

Sergey from Russia starts day 2 with over 71,000 chips

Speaking with the players as they left the tournament room, many were happy with their days work and were looking forward to Saturday. Many went into Los Angeles for dinner in a chic restaurant in Beverly Hills. Because it was Friday night, some were hoping they might run into a famous movie star. Unfortunately we only saw other poker players. But at least the dinner was delicious

We are back on Saturday for Day 2.

The WPT LA Poker Classic is now underway and as I write this there are 727 players who have sat down to play this popular tournament at the Commerce Casino. Tournament Director, Matt Savage, expects the number to go up to about 735 players before the registration period closes in two hours, which although is not a record, easily beats last years total of 696 players.

At this early stage in the tournament all the Partypoker players are still in the tournament and looking to start chipping up. Canadian George Grant got off to a great start, twice being dealt pocket aces in the opening half hour. George was able to even flop quad aces to pick up a couple of sizeable pots early on and ease any early tournament nerves he may have been feeling.

Mario from Germany

Mario from Germany has also had some nice hands. More importantly he was able to bully his opponents off of pots by some clever and imaginative post flop tactics. “This table is really soft” Mario whispered to me as he raked in another nice pot. Let’s hope he can continue.

Here are a few of our PartyPoker players.

George from Canada

Rudger from the Netherlands

Sergey from Russia

Some of the famous players who have stumped up the $10,000 buy-in include Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Partypoker Premier League winner David Benyamine, JC Tran, Chino Rheem, Steve Sung and Barry Greenstein.

Sitting here on the media stage, I can see that Phil Hellmuth has just walked into the room (only 4 hours late). Now he is being taken to sit at the same table as Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, which has caused a lot of humourous shouting and jokes as the two friends greeted each other. Mike is apparently selling signed copies of his autobiography. I might see if I can get one at a discounted price. I need something to read on the long flight home.

After 5 hours of play all the Partypoker players are still in the tournament and although they have varying chip stacks, they are all still smiling. The players all started with 20,000 chips and play will last from 12pm until 8.30pm. The early finish is due to having no long dinner breaks and only having short breaks every 2 hours. Players will no doubt take advantage of the early finish to either hit the cash tables downstairs or head into town and have some fun. We’ll be back as play progresses.

Welcome to The Commerce Casino

Thursday night at the Commerce Casino saw the arrival of our 17 qualifiers from all over the world. We have players from Canada, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Italy, and Sweden. All these guys have come to Los Angeles with one thing in mind – to win the LA Poker Classic.

Dinner is served for the PartyPoker players

Once dinner was over many of the players hit the cash game tables to get into their poker rhythm ready for Friday’s 12pm start. Many of the most famous names in poker usually take part in the WPT LA Poker Classic and previous winners of this title include Gus Hansen, Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Ivey.

I have already spotted a lot of big name pro’s here this week and I am sure that by the time the players sit down at 12 noon on Friday, I will have spotted a lot more. I will keep you updated on who is playing in this event.

The Commerce is the world’s biggest poker room and famous throughout the world for being a great place to play some poker. Although all the cash game tables are on the ground floor, the tournament will be taking part in a huge tournament room on the second floor. We will be back on Friday to report on the progress of our 17 guys and other well known poker players.

Tournament Director, Matt Savage, his wife Maryann and Mike O'Malley from PartyPoker

Welcome to Universal Studios

Monday meant the players who travelled to LA for the WPT Celebrity Invitational had a day off in Los Angeles. We gave the players a couple of options but the overwhelming favourite was a trip to Universal Studios. In total twenty of the players came along for a day of rides, attractions and fun. Some of the favourites included the Simpsons 3D IMAX ride which was very impressive, the Jurassic Park water ride and the Mummy indoor rollercoaster.

Time to stop at the Kwik-E-Mart

Many of the players also took the studio tour around the huge area of movie and TV sets. Some of the old famous sets for films such as Jaws have been on the Universal lot for years while others such as the set for Desperate Housewives (Wisteria Lane) would seem to be much more recent. In fact many of the houses on Wisteria Lane have been used in various older movies such as The Munsters and The Burbs.

Many of the players are flying home tomorrow so they wanted to enjoy their last day in Los Angeles. The other players are heading off to Las Vegas to extend their trips with a few days of fun in Sin City. All the players have had a great trip to Los Angeles for the WPT Celebrity Invitational. On Thursday we have a group of players arriving for the LA Poker Classic Main Event. We’ll see you there.