French poker when fame and rules collides

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After some pressure on clubs poker enthusiasts, investigators recently heard Patrick Bruel in its involvements with his virtual room.

Already for some years, the singer and poker player Patrick Bruel was interrogated a few hours by the French police in connection with an investigation on his online casinos website. Mr. Bruel lends his image to the room foreign owners of online poker games. Our police sources, was reported by several media outlets over the weeks following those hearings.

It seems, however, according to the speech of Mr. Estrosi, French Minister for Planning: “France is committed to maintaining an organization of games based on a limited number of strongly framed operators, only to keep the best casino owners and guarantee a control of financial flows and to promote a reasoned practice and not a compulsive one.”This policy was announced by the Minister in the Parliament and adopted at first reading to counter the growth of internet casinos gambling sites available on the Internet from France.

Although it was intended to place a pebble in the shoe of gaming operators, the legislation does not explicitly and criminal activity of all online gambling. Such a ban could be close passed by Parliament, because as noted by a report submitted to the National Assembly, “the Court of Justice is seized of this matter.” Many operators of online gambling dispute currently before the Union the monopoly of the French state by holding free competition in Europe in the absence of specific European directives.

PokerStars Launches New Time-Limit Tourneys

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Launched today, the new tournament format offers a set time for the tournament to play out with the prize pool divided by chip counts when the clock runs out.

Under the new beta release current time options range between 15 minutes and 180 minutes. Buy-ins start as low as $1. 

To mark the launch of the new Timed Tourneys, PokerStars is offering a tournament ticket worth $5.50 to all players who make a deposit of $30 or more using the code ‘TIME’ between October 19-28.

A new Timed Tourney event will also be added to the Saturday tournament lineup starting October 22.

The new tourney will be called The Saturday Countdown and will have a two-hour limit with a $22 buy-in.

The guarantee will be $10,000 and it will run every week at 1 p.m ET.

As an added bonus, on October 29 all Saturday Line-Up guarantees will be doubled.

PokerStars players can find Time Tourneys marked with a stopwatch icon under the Tourney tab.

Find more on PokerStars and our exclusive PokerStars bonus code in our site review.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Weekly SNG Tip: Dealing With Cold Decks

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If you’re like me, you have definitely found a point of comfort by playing fairly tight during SNGs. My range of hands is pretty standard for a solid player who doesn’t take too many risks.

The biggest issue that I run into though is that occasionally I’ll run into extremely cold decks where I won’t see a tarjetas de rasca y gana for an extended period of time. Normally this wouldn’t be a problem in a cash game where I can just sit around forever waiting for a good hand, but in an SNG where the blinds and antes go up constantly, it can end up putting me in a bad position. This is when some pivoting is required.

The Importance Of Judging When To Loosen Your Style

The hardest aspect to figure out when you’re getting cold-decked in an SNG is deciding exactly when to start opening up your hand range. If you do it too early when the blinds and antes are still low, you’re running the risk of stepping out with medium strength hands and losing chips for no reason.

If you wait too long, you won’t even have enough chips to get aggressive with, which means you’ll end up facing more opponents than you’ll want to when you finally do take a stand. Ideally you want to make sure you have at least 15-20 times the big blind still left in your stack; this will give you a bit of breathing room without tragamonedas.

Remember The Value Of Position And Hand Selection

Now that you’ve established a time frame of when to open up your range, all that’s left is figuring out just how wide to open it up. You’ll still want to avoid dipping your toe in the poker waters in early position with medium strength or lower hands, but in middle and late position you can try to see some flops with any ace/kicker combination as well as hands like K-Q, K-J, and any type of suited connector.

Against just one or two opponents these hands should have a fair chance of holding up well and allow you to bring home that one pot that you’ll need to continue to keep your tight methodology intact.

Three Men Arrested In Casino Poker Scam

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It came out this week that three men have been arrested by French police over a scam that robbed one casino of around €64,000. Just weeks after two players were said to be being sued by a Las Vegas casino for attempting to cheat at craps, a new story has broke, this time centred on poker.

Three Italians were arrested by French police over a scam in the Princes Casino in Cannes, France. The story goes that one of the men marked a deck of cards with invisible ink and snuck the cards into the casino. The other three then had special contact lenses which allowed them to see the markings on the cards, which had symbols to mark out the numbers like a cross for a king.

The players were playing a game against the house called Caribbean poker. This is essentially a form of Stud poker with a house edge, like most casino games, but suspicions were raised when the Italian men won €44,000 in one night at the casino.

The men returned later that week to pocket another €20,000. However, once casino employees noticed the cards were marked, the police were called immediately and the men were arrested.

A police spokesman said that initially they thought the men were using some kind of secret camera, but could not find anything. However, they soon realised the strategy involved contact lenses and swooped into action.

A lawyer for one of the men vehemently denied the claims, saying his client was there simply to “have a good time” and that he is not “a cheat”. However, if the men are found guilty, they can expect to face a number of years in jail under fraud and theft charges.

Silver, Moorman Lead Final 25 at WSOPE Main Event

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Silver, who holds a UKIPT title and has won a side event on the European Poker Tour, heads into Day 4 with 1,780,000, edging out fellow UK pro Chris Moorman for chip leader honors.

The two Brits head up a star-studded final 25 that includes leading all-time live tournament money winner Erik Seidel, high-stakes superstar Patrik Antonius, Triple Crown winner Jake Cody and bad boy of poquer Tony G.

Returning to the Majestic Hotel in Cannes, the remaining field will be playing down to a final table of nine tomorrow.

115 players began the day with 2009 EPT San Remo winner Constant Rijkenberg in the lead. Continuing with the volatile style of play we saw from Rijkenberg in the opening days of this event, the young Dutch pro saw his stack crippled before ultimately being eliminated in 49th.

Rijkenberg lost the majority of his stack to Chris Moorman while playing hand for hand on the bubble. Moorman parlayed that double-up into a chip leader stack, a position he shared with 2011 WSOP bracelet winner Amir Lehavot and end of day chip leader Max Silver.

And while Rijkenberg and Moorman were embroiled in that key pot on the bubble, Barry Greenstein was busy getting all-in and unlucky against fellow American pro Brian Roberts.

With 65 players left, and 64 spots available in the money, Greenstein open-shoved A-Q from middle position and got called by Roberts in the big blind with K♥ J♥. The dealer put three hearts on the board and Greenstein officially earned the title of bubble boy.

After the bubble broke a rush of eliminations ensued, with plenty of big names hitting the bricks with a little bit of cash in their pockets.

JC Alvarado, Barny Boatman, Mike Leah, Hoyt Corkins, McLean Karr, Freddy Deeb, Liv Boeree, Melanie Weisner and Matt Waxman all made it into the money but failed to survive the day.

Maria Ho was the last woman standing, busting 27th, a title she held in the 2007 WSOP Main Event as well.

Action resumes tomorrow in Cannes at 2pm local time. PokerListings.com will be providing live coverage until a winner is decided. Were are the top ten chip counts heading into Day 4.

1 – Max Silver – 1,780,000
2 – Chris Moorman – 1,769,000
3 – Amir Lehavot – 1,398,000
4 – Shawn Buchanan – 1,267,000
5 – Dermot Blain – 1,200,000
6 – Jeremy Kottler – 943,000
7 – Brian Roberts – 901,000
8 – Elio Fox – 889,000
9 – Andrew Moseley – 863,000
10 – Giuseppe Sammartino – 838,000

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Barbara Martinez Wins WSOPE Ladies Event

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The first non-bracelet event of the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) has come and gone with the one day €550 buy-in ladies only tournament. A field of 112 turned out for the event creating a prize pool of €53,760.

Only 12 players were set to win any money in this event and out of those that did make it, eight of them were French. This meant that at the 9-handed final table, only two were from outside of France: one German and one Brit.

The majority of players in the event were amateurs or part-time players who were either local or one of the few who made the trip, since many of the female pro’s will have been playing in the main event. There were still a few big names in the field such as Isabelle Mercier and Erika Moutinho, but neither of those was able to make the money spots.

The three that made the money but fell just short of the final table were Christina Soderlund of Sweden, Jessica Drissi from France and Kimberly Bastien. All three took home €1,123 in prize money, more than doubling their buy-in. The big money, however, was ready to be battled for between the remaining nine players.

It was Barbara Martinez who stood tall by the end of the day’s play. She beat out Brit Eleanor Gudger for the top prize and took home €16,128 in prize money. Gudger had to make do with a more than respectable 2nd place finish and €9,968.

The final table payouts were as follows:

1st Barbara Martinez €16,128
2nd Eleanor Gudger €9,968
3rd Magali Fabron €7,097
4th Isabel Baltazar Clemente €5,156
5th Feliciana Cannillo €3,820
6th Susanne Kaufer €2,883
7th Sylvie Isabelle DeAraujo €2,217
8th Marie Cieutat €1,737
9th Montavani Marion €1,385

ESPN to Air 2011 Main Event Final Table “Almost Live”

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Every hand of the final table will now be shown on both ESPN and ESPN2 plus the ESPN3.com streaming broadcast on just a 15-minute delay with hole cards shown immediately after the hand is over.

As with the coverage on ESPN this summer, live commentary will also be provided although the announcers are yet to be determined.

Among the commentators who made apperances this summer were Antonio Esfandiari, Olivier Busquet and Phil Hellmuth.

In another slight shift of the November Nine format, the WSOP and ESPN also announced that three players will now return for the final day of action as opposed to the usual two that have returned to play heads-up.

To accommodate the shift in the coverage plan, the WSOP has also altered the dates for the November Nine slightly.

Final-table action will now begin at the Penn and Teller Theatre at the Rio in Las Vegas on Sunday, Nov. 6 at 11:30 a.m. and will play down to the final three.

Those three players will then return on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 5 p.m. and play down to a champion.

“This coverage shifts the paradigm for poker’s potential on television,” WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart explains, “and will showcase our championship with unprecedented richness and scale.

“For the first time, we will truly be represented as live sport versus just being broadcast on a live sports network.”

PokerListings.com will be live on the scene at the Rio and will be providing live updates table-side. Follow along with our WSOP Main Event live updates here.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Leafs Superfan Mike Leah Scores Big Playing Poker

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Playing under the screen-name “goleafsgoeh” online, Leah has put together a staggering list of results since making the decision to go pro in 2008. He’s made over $2.1 million playing high-stakes tournaments on the internet and another $1.37 million playing live.

“In the first six days playing online I made about $40,000 so suffice to say I was hooked on poker from the start,” Leah told PokerListings.com at the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes.

“I ended up giving a lot of that back pretty quickly because I just jumped into high-stakes tournaments right away.”

“It would have been better if I had stuck with lower stakes and worked on my fundamentals and got some experience before moving up but the type of person I am – I learn from my own mistakes better than anything else – so it I think in the long run all the experiences I’ve had have made me the poker player I am now,” he added.

Leah’s mother was a University professor and her postings took the family from Toronto to Alberta, where he finished high school. During that time he was an accomplished wrestler, winning a national championship and demonstrating the competitive edge that is a fundamental part of his personality.

Straight out of high school Leah took a sales job with the Canadian Community Reading Plan, a magazine-subscription group whose sales model revolves around community fundraising programs.

Mike Leah

Mike Leah at the 2010 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
 

16 years later Leah’s career with CCRP had taken him back across the country to Toronto where he had risen to the level of national sales manager.

“I just turned 37 so I’m a little different than most poker players these days in that I had a 16-year career before I ever started playing poker,” said Leah.

“By the end of my career I had a pretty cushy job but there were certainly many days I’d have to get up early and put on a suit and tie whereas now, playing poker, I despise 12pm start times because they’re so early,” he said with a laugh.

“There are upsides and downsides to any path you take but I’m very happy with my life and the decisions I’ve made.”

Having started playing poker recreationally in 2005, it was in 2008 at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas when he secured a long-term backing deal, moderating the risks of playing poker professionally to the point where Leah could walk away from his high-paying corporate position.

“When I was able to get backers it made it a lot easier to leave a good job because I knew I wasn’t risking my own money that I had in the bank,” he said.

“Also, I was single with no kids and no serious relationship at the time so only having myself to worry about made the decision a lot easier.”

Since making that decision Leah has crushed tournament poker and secured FTOPS and WCOOP titles and most recently chopped the 2011 WCOOP Main Event for his biggest career score, $560,000.

That payday topped his biggest live result, a $320,000 win at Atlantic City’s Borgata Casino in 2009.

Leah still lives in Toronto and he still supports the Leafs, despite the franchise’s four-decade downswing.

“I grew up an absolute die-hard Leafs fan and it’s not that I’m not as big a fan anymore, I’ve just grown up a bit and I don’t live and die with the success of the team,” he said.

“They’re 3-0 so far this year so the perfect season is still alive.

“They’re playing Colorado tonight so we’ll see what happens,” he added, hope easy to see in his eyes.

The Leafs lost against the Avalanche in overtime last night.

Mike Leah is still alive in the 2011 WSOP Europe Main Event. Follow his progress and all the action live with PokerListings.com.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Rijkenberg, Antonius Headline WSOPE Main Event Day 2

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Rijkenberg, whose victory at EPT San Remo in 2009 was marred by rumors of over-selling his action to backers, bagged 462,800 and leads a star-studded leaderboard that includes Triple Crown winner Jake Cody, American veteran Hoyt Corkins and Finnish superstar Patrik Antonius.

In addition to making it within sight of the 64 who will get paid in this event, Day 2 also saw the official prize pool numbers released.

With attendance up 71% over 2010 this year’s winner will be taking home €1.4 million, with €5,692,800 in total being distributed.

Over the course of six 90-minute levels the Day 2 starting field was cut down from 328 to 111 and among the busted were a few names poker fans would be sorry to see go.

Ten-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan was eliminated, as were November Niner Sam Holden, 2011 WSOPE bracelet winners Philippe Boucher and Tristan Wade, five-time bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro and former world champion of poker Scotty Nguyen.

Two players who came into the day among the chip leaders, Jamie Rosen and Tommy Vedes, were both also eliminated before play was halted for the night.

Through to Day 2 are Barry Greenstein, Bruno Fitoussi, Victor Ramdin, Brian Roberts, Chris Moorman, Barny Boatman, Liv Boeree, Ramzi Jelassi, and Tony G.

Poker’s leading all-time live tournament money winner Erik Seidel is also through, looking to continue building on the more than $6.4 million in earnings he’s already amassed in 2011.

Defending champion James Bord also survived the day, and continues to fight to prove his claim that Europeans are better at poker than Americans.

Tomorrow will see the remaining 111 return and attempt to play down to the final three tables. On Wednesday that number will be reduced to the final table of nine.

Beginning tomorrow play will be eight-handed until the final table is reached.

Action will resume at noon, and can be followed live on PokerListings.com’s WSOPE 2011 Live Coverage page.

Here are the top ten chip counts, courtesy of www.wsop.com:

1 – Constant Rijkenberg – 462,800
2 – Hoyt Corkins – 395,000
3 – Jake Cody – 380,000
4 – Joel Dodds – 375,000
5 – Mustapha Kanit – 320,000
6 – Rifat Palevic – 320,000
7 – Shawn Buchanan – 300,000
8 – Victor Ramdin – 295,000
9 – Tom Bedell – 290,000
10 – Patrik Antonius – 265,000

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

First Time Bracelet Winner Phillip Boucher Wins WSOPE Event 6

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The sixth event at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) was the €1,620 buy-in 6-handed Pot Limit Omaha tournament.

The smaller buy-in resulted in a larger field and with 339 playing in the event there was a sizeable prize pool just short of half a million euros – €498,330 to be exact. After three days of play it was Canadian Philippe Boucher who took home the honours and his first ever World Series of Poker bracelet, along with the top prize of €124,584.

Boucher, who has been playing since 2003, has cashed in a number of WSOP events previously, including a cash in the $2,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’Em event this summer, but has never won one until now.

There were some big names still in the tournament by the time it got to the business end with the likes of Bryan Devonshire, Victor Ramdin and Tommy Vedes all going deep but none of them managed to make the final table. The Brits also made an appearance in the cashing spots with Richard Ashby, Joseph Eames and Roberto Romanello all finishing within a few spots of each other, coming 33rd, 32nd and 31st respectively and all taking home €2,616 each.

By the time the dust had settled in the last event before the Main Event, it was Boucher who beat out Portuguese Michel Dattani heads-up for the win. It was a tough end to the day for Dattani as well, having his Aces cracked as he got defeated.

The two got all-in pre flop with AcAdJc7c for Dattani against AsQcTd9c for Boucher. The board ran out 6c6d8cJsQh to give Boucher the straight on the river to send Dattani home with €76,982 and a fantastic second place finish.

The final table results were:

1st Philippe Boucher €124,584
2nd Michel Dattani €76,982
3rd Nicolas Fierro €53,426
4th Alexander Dovzhenko €37,529
5th Jared Solomon €26,676
6th Jack Ellwood €19,181