Category: Live Poker Tournaments

All poker players nurture dreams of fame and prestigious World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelets. The great news is that WSOP will celebrate its 40th anniversary by giving away unique customized bracelets to each WSOP tournament winner.

On Tilt Designs Pty. Ltd. and WSOP have entered into a multi-year deal, according to which On Tilt creates poker apparel, accessories, and headwear bearing the WSOP brand. Steve Soffa, the internationally acclaimed jewelry designer, has been selected to design the WSOP bracelets this year.

Steve Soffa, who has created designs for Fortune 100 companies such as Oracle, Sony, Microsoft, and Universal Pictures for nearly 16 years, says that he feels honoured to create WSOP bracelets. CEO of On Tilt Shane McDowall was awed when he realized the prestige associated with the WSOP bracelets. Rightly pointing out that the World Series of Poker bracelet is one of the few things that cannot be purchased with money, he said that he feels honoured to commission Steve Soffa to design unique customized WSOP bracelets.

Each WSOP bracelet will be made of solid 14K gold and will be decorated with round cut and princess diamonds. They will have a design of four card suits featuring black diamonds and rubies. The WSOP Main Event bracelet will be made of 6 ounces of gold and 550 diamonds, weighing a total of 4 carats. The uniqueness of each bracelet greatly enhances its value. The entire collection will be released on May 28, 2010 at the Rio.

The On Tilt Steve Soffa team will be present during the bracelet ceremonies held at Pavilion Ballroom at 2:20 pm the day after each poker tournament. The team will engrave under the faceplate of each bracelet the name of the player and the tournament details. Players who require further customization can stay back and consult with the designers. Specially designed WSOP bracelets will be awarded to the winners of the Main Event, the Ladies Championship, and the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship.

These bracelets are made not only for display, but also for daily wear. The team has created a unique wooden-lacquered display box for each bracelet and its authenticity certificate.

Would you like to win one of these bracelets? Please have a look at the site of our friends over at Poker For Free, who have a continuously updated list of WSOP Satellites wherein packages will be awarded to the winners to participate in the WSOP 2010 Main Event in Las vegas. Yet another option is to search through the articles in our own poker blog, as several of the recommended online poker rooms on the Max Poker Bonus site offer WSOP promotions as well.

The UK and Ireland Poker Tour is a fairly new live poker tournament in the UK to burst in on the gaming scene. However, since its existence, the event has managed to become fairly popular attracting poker players from all over the UK. The UK and Ireland Poker Tour recently saw its first winner from the UK. The winner of this massive prize is Andrew Couldridge, who owns a plumbing firm in North London. The game lasted for twenty hours or so and saw Couldridge take in a large win!

Andrew Couldridge, a plumber from London, surprised the poker community with his winning of the UKIPT, proving to everyone that you don’t need a Harvard degree to play poker. He managed to beat a total of 649 players in order to come first in this tournament.

In terms of prizes, Andrew Couldridge walked away with a seat in the £5,250 European Poker Tour, which is the final showdown of the UKIPT. In addition to this, Couldridge also managed to won himself £80,000 in prize money.

The UK and Ireland Poker Tour is new to the UK and there were a record number of participants who took part in the UKIPT, Nottingham leg which was held at the Dusk Till Dawn Poker Room.

This win for Couldridge was a result of poker strategy and luck and seemed to surprise many people at the table. When he got into the last round, which is the 29th level of the tournament, he was placed 4th in terms of chips and had a much lower total than that of Owen Robinson, who was the chip leader at that point. From that point however, within the space of half an hour, thanks to three great hands, Couldridge moved up from 1 million chips to six million. Eventually Couldridge managed to push Robinson to the fourth place where he took Robinson out.

Couldridge was already leading in terms of number of chips at that time. The final hand took place between Oliver Schaffmann and Couldridge and at this point, Couldridge had a chip lead of two to one.

After this, there was no looking back, with Couldridge winning the ultimate UKIPT title after twenty hours of playing poker.

Liv Boeree, a gorgeous 25 year old model from the UK, recently made the news when she added an EPT £1 million pound win to her string of achievements, which includes a degree in astrophysics and the title for the European Ladies Poker Championship.

Liv participated in the EPT and beat 1,240 contestants in the poker tourneys to finally take her place in the finals. This episode of the EPT took place in San Remo, Italy and featured players from over 40 different countries.

The final event saw Boeree go head to head with Swedish poker professional whom she ousted from the game with a pair of fives, proving that she was not to be underestimated. Liv who has a degree in astrophysics from Manchester University used her smarts to snag £1 million pounds in the EPT. When asked about her success at the poker table, Boeree claimed that mathematics and logic skills helped her in playing poker. Boeree will go on to play in thus Sunday’s EPT grand final to vie for the £2.2 million pounds that is at stake at the championship event which will take place in Monte Carlo.

“Winning a major event is exactly what I’ve been working towards. I have been working very hard on my game but I can’t believe I have won. I’m over the moon, absolutely over the moon”, said Liv Boeree.

Liv has done the UK proud with her win and plans to use the money to buy real estate in Vegas and one cannot help but wonder if she will perhaps continue using her remarkable smarts and lucky streak to win a few more tournaments in Sin City.

Olivia or “Liv” as she calls herself is the ultimate combination of beauty, brains and a poker face and is the third woman in the history of poker to win a million pounds in the EPT. The model/poker player took in a total of £1,087,411 when she won the European Poker Tour. Liv has garnered the nickname the Iron Maiden in poker circles on account of her love for heavy metal music.

Boeree has been playing poker since she was 4 years old and has more experience in the game than many of the players who competed at the EPT. She took up playing poker seriously after she competed in a reality TV show about poker which aired on Channel Five.

David Williams, a renowned poker professional who first came into the spotlight when he snagged the runner up position in the WSOP championship of 2004, recently proved that he had started a new lucky streak when he won the World Poker Tour and took in $1,530,537.

Williams first garnered the attention from the poker community when he competed against Greg Raymer in the 2004 WSOP and came in second with a total of $3,500,000 in winnings. In addition to the 2004 WSOP, Williams had competed in some of the poker tourneys over the years but has not managed to secure a favourable position until this year, when he took the WPT to the bank by winning the championship.

This year’s WPT Championship saw David Williams go up against the likes of noted poker stars like Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen and David Benyamine. Williams proved his mettle at the poker table when he triumphed over all other players there and won the poker pot. The WPT Championship is by far the most popular event in the poker tournament calendar and it occupies prime importance together with the WSOP Championship event.

The event had a large buy-in and players were required to pay a sum of $25,000 to participate in the event. Organizers seem to have been disappointed with the turnout as they expected a larger number of players vying for the prize, but believe that the poor visibility caused by the recent volcanic eruption may have stopped many poker players from flying to be a part of the event.

There were a total of 195 poker players who competed in the WPT championship and Williams slowly ousted many of them with his poker skills, until he was one of the last few left standing along with runner up Eric Baldwin.

David Williams, who hails from Dallas, Texas, is also known for his brilliant mind and sharp poker skills and is noted to have secured a 1550 score on his SATs out of a total of 1600. Williams also won scholarships to several Ivy League Universities, which he chose not to attend in favour of the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science.

The Internet kid from Michigan takes down the 2009 World Series of Poker with 99, the same hand Phil rocked it with in 1999.

From all angles it looked like online poker player Joe Cada was in over his head today. All the time from the booth, Phil Hellmuth was announcing the kid’s plays before they were even made.

Phil Hellmuth would jokingly say “Cada raises 2.5 million from the button” before the cards were even dealt – and then Cada true to form would raise the bet, from the button.

His play might have made sense had it shown results. But usually he’d bet, Moon would call, on the flop Moon would bet out and Cada would fold. We saw this again and again. And again.

And then, before we really know what hit us, Cada woke up and flipped the script.

• Cada makes a raise, Moon raised right back into him. Pretty much another obvious slap in the face from the lumberjack.
• Cada shoves all of his chips into the middle.

The burly logger sits back, he asks for a count, and does something you don’t see every day in a poker tournament. He rubs his belly. Almost in anticipation of a juicy treat to come.

Moon stands up, which is a huge indication of an impending call. Phil Laak said during a commentary provided by Bluff Magazine that it improved Moon’s odds of calling by 8%. Then, he laid it down.

It was amazing really. The entire poker world was on edge, sure he was going to call. This was it!

• And he folds?!

One has to think for a moment, what in the world did Darwin Moon lay down here? Did he realize a bit too late that he was beat, or did he miss his shot at the WSOP bracelet in this single hand?

About 10 hands later, Cada makes a bet, Moon re-raises – this has been his natural reaction all night long, and rightfully so. The board shows 10c 5d 9h.

• Moon is forcing Cada all in.
• Cada makes the call.

Another 10 is dealt on the turn, and Cada bets big into Moon, who immediately shoves all of his chips into the pot. Cada gives serious thought to his next move, after being pushed, and shoved, and punked all night long, Cada decides this IS his spot, and he calls for all of his chips.

Moon shows up with an open ender, no pair. Cada is ahead at this point with a wired pair of nines. Moon needs a jack or six, to end it right here.

Cada needs to avoid Moon’s two straight cards to double up. Good news is he’s holding one of Moon’s jacks. The river is no help to Moon and Cada in this one puts Joey Cada back into the game.

2009 WSOP Finals Winning Hand

18 hands later, in the 88th hand of the night, Moon re-raises into a bet made by Cada.

• Cada having no more of Moon’s bullying shoves his chips in.
• Moon calls without hesitation!

Cada has a pair of nines, and he’s facing Moon’s… Suited Overs!

All Joe Cada has to do here to become the World Series of Poker Main event winner of 2009 is avoid queens, jacks, and a diamond flush. The board shows 8c2c7s. While Joseph Cada was a slight favourite to win the hand pre-flop, he knows his chances have now improved dramatically to almost 80% in his favour. All Darwin Moon can do now is to hope for a Queen or a Jack or possibly a card that gives him an option for a straight on the river (a 9, which would improve Cada’s chances, or a T) – the diamond flush is no longer an option.

On the Turn we see the King of Hearts. This card helps no one but it definitely hurts Darwin Moon. This means there are only 6 outs left for him. If the River brings a Queen or a Jack he will win, but any other card will crown Joe Cada the WSOP Champion of 2009…

Everyone holds his breath. The River is being dealt. The card is turned. It is … a seven of clubs! Joe Cada’s cards hold up, and 21 year old Joseph Cada is the 2009 WSOP Champion! Darwin Moon’s run has been spectacular but ends right at the final table. Knowing him he will take the positive out of this experience. Especially since his father suggested he better take the buy-in for the WSOP which he won in a qualifier and cash it out. His decision turned out to pay off despite ending up short at the final Heads-Up.