The Champ Meets the Local Champ

Positioned just between Sydney and Canberra, Goulburn is mainly known for its maximum security prison. Today the prison takes the backseat when the NPL state final has managed to attract 562 action thirsty poker players to fight it out for the $31,500 prize pool with a $12,000 Aussie Millions package on top. Personally I got a terrible start to the day. Summer dust storms in Australia have a tendency to impact air traffic and my flight to Sydney was 2hours late. I finally managed to make it to Sydney and was picked up by Party Poker’s Territorial Manager Henrik Nilsson. Being late we immediately got on the road and started to go through the speech I’m supposed to do. I think I’m good with people one on one, but talking in front of an audience takes me out of my comfort zone. I read my script to Henrik and spent the rest of the drive practicing my speech, in the end I think it came out ok. I have been so fortunate winning the Aussie Millions so I wanted to give something back to the poker community and decided at the last minute to give any player that signs up through my account within the next 48 hours a $25 free no deposit bonus.
After a quick catch up with organiser Simon Watts and NPL CEO Richard O’Neill I got right into the poker action playing the first tourney with a $70 bounty on my head. This is different from what I’m used to, it’s self dealt and everyone is trying to take you out. For me, playing a lot online and with dealers playing live, I was nervous dealing and managed a misdeal the first two times.
My cards were cold and I spent the first 30 min folding.
The only hand I played was with 9-10 off. Everyone limped and I completed in the small blind, big blind checks. Flop A53 rainbow and I decide to lead out with 550 bet into a 300 pot! (?). This sounds silly but truth to be told I mixed up the colours of the chips and got it wrong. I was supposed to bet 150 which make sense to anyone who knows anything about poker. People started giggling at my rookie mistake but the bet got the job done. This is quality poker folks!
After an hour it’s time for the first break and I’m entering the stage to deliver my speech, applause and 562 pairs of eyes are looking at me. I finish my speech and later found out that half the room couldn’t hear it due to the sound being too low. I think I did alright and feel like one step closer to a speech that will rival Obama. Well maybe not, but at least Kevin 07.
After the break I’m back in action. My cold streak continues and I’m starting to get frustrated. After been forced to fold a few hands I’m in desperate need to double up and fancy my chances on A2 of clubs from early position. The action gets folded around to the big blind that makes the call with Q8. Not too shabby, roughly 60/40 in my favour. Flop Q89 no clubs and I’m heading for the rails.

Last Hand Before the Rails

I’m comforting myself with a drink and exchange a few bad beat stories with the locals. I must say it’s great to be at a grassroots poker event like this. The action is good, the players are friendly and the atmosphere is more relaxed than the big pro tournaments.

The Party Girls Doing the Rounds

I will play my second tournament for the night and then go back to my room to prep myself for my own Stewart Scott Aussie Millions Highroller Invitational (quite a mouthful) online tourney on Party Poker tomorrow evening at 19:00. It’s a $270 buy in with a $12,000 GTD. This is important to me because all my Aussie poker mates will play it and I want to do well.
Over and out from Goulburn
Stewart Scott

Happy Winner with the Party Ladies

On Sunday 22nd there is a 250 buy in satellite with one package guaranteed to the Aussie Millions this also has a bounty which is a $640 ticket into the December 13 five package GTD tournamanent.

The guys at PartyPoker are offering two separate routes into the Aussie Millions, one for Australian and New Zealand players and one for the rest of the world.

This is purely so you won’t find yourself playing at 3 in the morning for the PartyPoker Aussie Millions package.

My next live event is the APPT Sydney which has some really juicy events including the $2700 six handed and also the $1650 PLO with second chance and the main event being a $6300 buy in with estimated prize pool in excess
of a million.

Hope to see you at the online qualifiers at PartyPoker.com and then inturn in Melbourne in January for the Aussie Millions

Good luck on the felt

Stewart Scott

As many of you are aware PartyGaming has been in takeover discussions with the WPTE for a few months now, well today we can announce that the deal is now official.

We are really excited to be cementing our long standing relationship with the WPT, after all it was thanks our sponsorship of WPT shows that partypoker.com was catapulted to the heady heights of no.1 poker site in the world.

Presented by PartyPoker ambassador Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten the World Poker Tour helped to detonate poker’s explosion in popularity.  The show pioneered innovations like the revolutionary ‘hole cam’ – allowing viewers to see player’s cards, turning televised poker into a pulse-raising sport. Revolutionary visual graphics meant fans could follow from a barstool, further cementing poker as a national pastime.

Today the WPT is also home to a hugely successful subscription based poker site www.clubwpt.com alongside www.worldpokertour.com which hosts over 150 hours of poker videos featuring some of the most momentous tournaments in poker history.  The WPT TV shows made stars of the likes of Gus Hansen, Daniel Negraneau and Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott and more recently Yevgeniy Timoshenko, the 21 year old American who won $2,149,960 at this year’s WPT World Championship.

The partnership offers many exciting opportunities for PartyGaming and the WPT that may even see www.partypoker.com back in the US in some form in the near future.  We will share more news with you on the blog as soon as the details are confirmed.

The acquisition of WPTE arrives on the back of our recent acquisition of Cashcade, parent company of www.foxybingo.com and www.getminted.com.

These are exciting times at partypoker.com so why not join the action?  Sign up for the Aussie Millions satellite tournaments and maybe you could be poker’s next TV superstar.

Come November 7th and Ivey will face his greatest challenge to date, the battle to become the WSOP Main Event Champion.  When all is said and done its WSOP bracelets that really matter to poker players.  Listen to them talk at the table or in an interview and they will brush off the millions in prize money as a by product, it’s the glory and acclaim from their peers that these guys really crave.

Just getting to the final table is an astonishing achievement, not just for Phil Ivey but also his eight fellow members of the ‘November Nine’, all the more impressive when you consider that 6,494 paid the $10,000 buy-in.

Such a large field can prove very difficult for the bookies to judge.  Who exactly are the favourites out of 6,494?  Obviously the world renowned pros will be fancied but in a game where luck or the ‘Poker Gods’ as some would have it plays a significant part the bookies must factor this in when calculating each player’s odds of winning the WSOP main event.

That is why Phil Ivey started out at 175/1 at our sister site PartyBets.com, even then that was considered quite a short price, it could easily have been double that but because this is Phil Ivey we are talking about the odds had to be shortened.  Indeed, this proved to be a wise choice because Ivey is now down to 5/1 to take that elusive Main Event bracelet.  Any of you who were wise enough to take him at 175/1 will be rubbing your hands with glee if he does succeed.

But Ivey is up against it, he’s one of the short stacks plus he faces some very stiff competition from the likes of Brit James Akenhead, Card Player Exec Jeff Shulman and France’s Antoine Saout.  And let’s not forget chip leader Darvin Moon, the logger from Maryland, USA who won his seat from a $130 satellite tournament.  If Moon were to win his story would surely surpass 2003 champion Chris Moneymaker’s rise to poker fame.

WSOP Main Event Chip Counts

Darvin Moon              58,930,000
Eric Buchman            34,800,000
Steven Begleiter       29,885,000
Jeff Shulman             19,580,000
Joseph Cada             13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel           12,390,000
Phil Ivey                     9,765,000
Antoine Saout            9,500,000
James Akenhead        6,800,000

The main event had starting stacks of 20k with a good structure. I hit the ground running chipping up to 30 k within the first 30 minutes then went card dead for a long period. My stack took a big hit when I made a call to a re raise shove with 88,the board counterfeited my pair and was beaten by A 10

I managed to double my way back to 30k by the 500/1k level when the action folded to me in last position I looked down at K 10 suited and made it 2300 to go, it folded to the guy on the button who had been running really well playing aggressive and had accumulated around 110k or so he made it 5100 and the size of the re raise and the dynamics I figured it was a good time for him to raise me light so I shoved and he snap calls with AA no help from the board and so it was GG Auckland and back home for me.

Good Luck on the felt

Stewart Scott

We’ve sifted though the past four series of the high stakes poker tournament to bring you one of our favourite moments from World Open II.

The play is down to the last three and the blinds sit at $7,000/$15,000.  Jeff Schreibman limps in from the small blind, slow playing A8 off-suit. Lawrence Bonet in the big blind looks down at 54 off-suit, knowing he’s the underdog Bonet decides just to check hoping to hit something on the flop.

The community cards offer no help to Bonet but he’s not going to let a small matter like that stop him from giving Schreibman a poker lesson.

Played over seven heats plus the final table the World Open V brought together some of the biggest names in poker to the Palm Beach Casino in London’s Mayfair district.  Each player sat down with a mighty 300,000 chips after buying-in for $20,000 all with the aim of claiming the World Open title and $250,000.

Heat 1 featured three of the brightest young talents in the poker world WPT champion Yevgeniy Tomashenko, 2009 WSOP Main Event contender James Akenhead and high stakes online pro Luke ‘FullFlush1’ Schwartz.  Tune in this Wednesday on Channel Five to see how the action unfolded at the felt.

The highlight of the latest software upgrade sees the introduction of fantastic new bounty tournaments from tomorrow onwards. Along with many other minor tweaks, many of which you won’t be able to notice, we will also introduce of a ‘remember table layout’ feature and enhanced players notes.

Bounty tournaments allow players to get paid for knocking other players out. PartyPoker.com will take part of the buy-in and put it towards a bounty for each player. For example, PartyPoker.com could take $5 of a player’s $20 + $2 buy-in to create their bounty, with the other $15 going towards the prize pool. The bounty winnings are credited to a player’s account immediately.

The new ‘remember table layout’ feature has to be enabled but once it is this feature will remember the layout of tables when closed and will open new tables at the same size and in the same position. If a player changes the layout of their tables it will open the next new table in the same position as the last one closed.

This isn’t a default feature, players have to tick the ‘remember table layout’ check box under Preferences/General/General Options to activate the feature. This feature will remember the layouts on the specific computer a player is playing on, layouts will also be remembered on a secondary monitor.

The new enhanced player notes feature makes it even easier to make notes on opponents. All a player has to do is double-click on the player’s image at the table to open the ‘Notes’ section with their name already entered in the ‘Select Player’ field.

For more information on the latest upgrade visit partypoker.com, where you will also find an archive of our previous improvements.

If you have any suggestions or feedback on anything to do with partypoker then it would be great to hear from you.

You can leave you comments on this page by clicking on the ‘leave a comment’ link in the top right hand corner of this post.

It had not been such a comfortable ride for the american earlier in the final after he suffered a string of heavy losses. At one point he was staring down at a chip stack of 47,000 with the blinds at 15,000/30,000, about as close to elimination as you can possibly get.

The poker Gods must have been looking down favourably on Laak as he held in there doubling up three times.  On each occasion he pushed all-in only to be called by a stronger hand but somehow Laak hit his cards and he was back in the game.

First out on the final table was early chip leader Andy Black, followed shortly by Mike Sexton, whose deserved Hall of Fame induction was confirmed to the public while he was playing the final table. Sexton’s pocket eights ran into Veit’s pocket kings. Champion Laak had special words for the Ambassador of Poker on collecting his trophy. “Mike Sexton, inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame today. The consummate player. Full stop.”

Next to go was Jennifer Tilly when her AJ failed to hit against Veit’s 99 - it looked to many like it was going to be the online qualifier’s day. Fourth place belonged to PartyPoker.com Grassroots team member Bodo Sbrzesny, who impressed again in front of the cameras in a gruelling heads-up battle with Andy Black in his heat and with his creative play at the final table.

Sbrzesny, a Palladium Lounge Elite member, exploded on the scene last year after he won a rake race on PartyPoker.com to take a seat at the Poker Den 36 hour cash game. He certainly made in impression on Roland De Wolfe and Barny Boatman there, by bluffing both with 72 and showing them.

What followed was a long period of three handed play but it was Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz who busted next. After problems entering the casino on the first day, he had his responsible escort on hand in the crowd and certainly did himself justice. As you would expect, he contributed to a chatty and entertaining final table.

Schwartz busted when Veit hit runner, runner for a club flush. At the heads-up stage Veit held a 1,190,000/910,000 advantage but you couldn’t rule out comeback king Laak.

Incredibly, the heads up battle was practically over before it had got going as first hand both players found an Ace in the hole and pushed all-in.  Phil had Veit dominated with A8 against A4, to add insult to injury for the Austrian an 8 dropped on the flop leaving him with only 300,000 chips enough for only five big blinds.  The inevitable all-in from Veit soon followed and Phil called with a Q10, his hand was good enough to beat J7.

We’ve had a great time over the course five days, through seven heats plus the final the players have kept us royally entertained.  It just leaves me to say congratulations to Phil, he’s a very worthy winner of the world Open, showing why he’s one of the most accomplished and popular players on the circuit.

We have exclusive photos from the final table for your perusal over at our facebook fan page facebook.com/partypoker.

Play got underway at 15:30 GMT, quite early for a final table but the schedule has had to be adapted to accommodate the new triple stacked format that gives players a whopping 300,000 starting chip count.  As with the previous heats the action was few and far between at the low level blinds.  But as the blinds began to increase the players were forced to start pushing the chips around.

With the combustible Luke Schwartz at the table Phil Laak and Andy Black were keen to tease the young londoner but Luke took it all in his stride determined not to let the experienced pros knock his concentration.  Schwartz was by far the most aggrerssive player at the table, consistently picking his spot to make pre-flop raises and slowly amass chips.

Online qualifier Jan Veit also made a strong showing in the early stages with his solid, tight style of play.  The most entertaining player at the table was Andy Black not happy with throwing digs at Luke he frequently made big bluffs against the unusually timid Jennifer Tilly as his chip stack vaulted up and down.

After the first break the play all of a sudden began to excite the large crowd that has descended on the Palm Beach Casino.  We saw all in after all in but the end result was chips being shared between the players as no one could deliver that crucial first knockout blow.  Andy Black had continued his cavalier style of play but after a few successes against Tilly his risky strategy began to count against him.

Soon he became the short stack, just waiting for the right moment to push all in.  With KJ in the hole Black made the move but Phil Laak looked down at A7 and that was enough to make the call.  The Ace hit on the flop and that was the end of the tournament for the former Main Event finalist.

Next to go was Mike Sexton, facing up to the inevitable all in as the short stack Mike pushed with eights only to be called be Jan Veit’s pair of kings.  It’s goodnight the the PartyPoker representative but it hasn’t been a completely bad day for the poker legend (more on that later).

Soon after tournament director called for the next break.  We are now five handed with Tilly, Laak, Bodo, Veit and Luke Schwartz left.  Nobody has yet staked a claim to be the dominant force at the table so it’s still anybody’s game.

Keep up to date with the latter stages of the tournament at our live feed on twitter.

Talking of funky buddhas, ‘Mad Monk’ Andy Black is also at the final table - joining Phil Laak, Jennifer Tilly, Austrian online qualifier Jan Veit and Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz.

Organisers are hoping for no trouble when Schwartz turns up after he found himself barred from the casino when he arrived for his heat on Sunday.

It’s a great mix of personalities on the final table pitting very different styles against each other in the fight for the $250,000 top prize.  One thing to llok out for in particular isto see how Tilly and Laak approach the game.  Will they play as normal ignoring the fact that they are a couple or will they shy away from betting against each other in the early stages.

Obviously, we’re not suggesting there will be any collusion but it will create an interesting and highly unusual dynamic at the final table.  The other competitors will also be weighing up how to take advantage of the situation, can they distract the duo with their comments at the table or engender hands that force the two to play off against each other.

whatever happens we are in for a treat tonight, this is one of the most star studded final tables we have ever had at a PartyPoker tournament, and with the new triple stack format we’re guaranteed some great poker.

You can follow the final table action as it happens over at our live PartyPoker Twitter feed.

PartyPoker.com World Open V – The Final Table

Luke ‘FullFlush’ Schwartz

Jan Veit

Andy Black

Phil Laak

Jennifer Tilly

Mike Sexton

Bodo Sbrzesny