Author: renee

The Aria Resort and Casino, located in CityCenter in Las Vegas, celebrated the inauguration of its brand new poker room, which was set up in honour of top professional poker player Phil Ivey. Aria organized a $1 million freeroll, a bounty tournament with a fabulous prize of $100,000 for the talented player who successfully knocked off Phil Ivey. After that the winner of the tournament was to compete in a heads-up poker game against Ivey for another $250,000 as part of the inauguration ceremony.

Top poker professional Phil Ivey ended up being defeated in the very poker room established in his honor. David “Chino” Rheem, who had successfully reached the final tables of the main event of WSOP in 2008, took Phil off the table and walked away with the huge bounty of one hundred thousand dollars.

Larry Linton however was able to win the tournament and bagged the first prize of $250,000. Afterwards he engaged in the heads-up poker battle against Phil Ivey for another $250,000 but had to realise that Phil wasn’t going to be defeated twice the same day. In his own poker room Phil Ivey dominated the heads-up and Larry Linton was denied the additional $250,000.

The inaugural of the Phil Ivey Poker Room was a grand success, and all the talented poker players who participated in the events enjoyed themselves thoroughly. “Even the croissants served were awesome”, as aptly pointed out by Phil Laak. In the meantime, David Williams told everybody about how he is waiting for the day someone would think about establishing a poker room in honour of him.

Phil Ivey was deeply touched by the event and the fact that Aria had established a room in his honor. Recalling that he had come from nothing, he said that he was indeed honoured to have a room in his name.

Prominent guests such as Jennifer Harman, Doyle Brunson, Tim Phan, David Benyamine, and Vanessa Rousso were present for the inauguration of the Phil Ivey Room. The new high-stakes poker room, especially brought into existence for the benefit of rich and influential players, has already gained a reputation for top poker action, a state of affairs that appears to be long lasting.

Phil Ivey, winner of seven prestigious WSOP bracelets and one World Poker Tour title, is considered to be the world’s best poker player. Ivey was also listed as the world’s number one tournament money winner following his runner up finish at the Aussie Millions $100,000 poker event this year.

Annette Obrestad wasn’t able to participate in the WSOP not because she lacks talents, but because she was too young. This amazing poker player started playing at the tender age of 15, as revealed by her user name “Annette_15”. However, now that Annette has turned 21, nothing can stop her from participating in the World Series of Poker (WSOP), the most prestigious international poker event of the world.

Annette’s poker career began the day a friend sent her some money to become a funded player at an online poker room. Annette turned out to be so talented at playing poker that she did not have to make another deposit. She found herself winning game after game and was soon confident enough to participate in multi table tournaments. Next, she participated in the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) and claimed the title and the fabulous WSOPE main event prize.

Although Europe openly acknowledged Annette’s talent and allowed her to participate in the WSOP, US laws prevented her from participating in the WSOP because she was underage. But now that she is 21, no law in the world can stop her from dominating the WSOP tables. Annette attracted attention in the poker gaming world not only because of her talent, but also because of her age. Last Sunday, she won $87,000 in the PokerStars Sunday 500, which she plans to spend on the buy-in for WSOP 2010.

Poker buffs are already looking forward to watching Annette’s performance in the WSOP. Annette might be having an amazing record of tournament wins; however, the WSOP brings together some of the toughest poker players in the world. As usual, this year’s WSOP will witness the usual poker pros as well as a sprinkling of amateurs fighting for the titles. One of them will be Phil Ivey, who reached the final table last year, but could not last till the end. This year, the regular pros will have to compete with Annette too.

Celeb Poker gives players a chance to compete with Annette and get a WSOP 2010 qualification. The site also offers a cool deposit bonus of 150% up to $500 to all players that sign up through Max Poker Bonus. Bright readers will instantly notice that this offer is 50% more than regularly advertised!

It is a rare occurrence to see someone win thousands of dollars in a poker game and then give it all away to charity – but that is just what Michael Karnjanaprakorn plans to do should he win the World Series of Poker 2010.

Karnjanaprakorn’s decision to donate his poker wins to charity has so inspired other poker players like Annie Duke, world class poker player and Ali Nejad, who is the popular host of Poker After Dark to offer him personal coaching sessions that will train him to be a winner.

Karnjanaprakorn has chosen two charities which he will be donating to, namely, the Langston Hughes Academy, which is a New Orleans’ charter program for elementary and middle school, and the Bad Beat on Cancer. Should he win the WSOP final event, Karnjanaprakorn plans to donate the winnings to a few of his favourite charities and do his part towards making the world a better place.

Michael Karnjanaprakorn is a poker player and entrepreneur from New York who hopes to make his way to the main event and final table in the World Series of Poker 2010. Karnjanaprakorn has vowed “should he win the 2010 World Series of Poker main event, he won’t keep a dime” causing several people to hope that he wins if only for charities sake.

Karnjanaprakorn had made this promise along with Rafe Furst, another poker player, during last year’s World Series of Poker tournament.

Furst, a poker player known for his charitable efforts, has been involved in several awareness campaigns and fund raisers for different causes. Furst has been known to work together with Phil Gordon, and the two of them have raised thousands of dollars for several charities. They have helped raise both funds and awareness for cancer research by Rock Paper Scissors efforts.

Karnjanaprakorn, who may have been inspired by them, has a long way to go to get to the WSOP 2010, the first step of which is getting the $10,000 buy-in. To do this, Karnjanaprakorn may have to participate in one of the many qualifiers events hosted by online poker sites like bet365 Poker, bwin Poker, and so on. Karnjanaprakorn is currently trying to raise cash for his buy-in and calls this scheme the “World Series of Good.”

• World Series of Good
• Bad Beat on Cancer