Category: Live Poker Tournaments

The November Nine Get Ready for the 2009 WSOP Final Event!

When the World Series of Poker 2009 began, there were nearly 6,500 participants in competition for the title and the bracelet. Over a 12 day period, these players were eliminated from the competition leaving only a final 9 who were triumphant and are now ready to compete in the November 7th finals for 2009’s Word Series of Poker!

The grand prize for this year’s WSOP Championship is a mouth-watering $8 Million, and the final players, coined the November Nine will make sure that the competition heats up!

A Mix of Pros and Amateurs at the Final Table

The final WSOP Table will boast and interesting combination of players with varying levels of experience. Despite the large number of professional poker players who were among the initial participants, a few amateurs are leading the way in chip totals from the earlier games. Among the November Nine are 4 players who are new to the series, and in many cases, the offline world of Poker in general.

In fact, the chip leader, Darvin Moon is a logger by trade and was surprised to snag a seat to play in the WSOP at all, but now finds himself in a precarious place in the final table with 58,930,000 chips to his name going into the final stretch of the competition. Also amongst the amateur rankings of the November Nine are Steven Begleiter, a financial businessman; 21 year-old Joseph Cada, the youngest in the competition; and Antoine Saout from France who has had no previous experience playing in the live Poker game.

Mixed in amongst the amateurs are professionals that could certainly step up the competition, which could lead to a disappointment for those rooting for the amateurs. The November Nine also consists of Phil Ivey, a name that’s well known in the Poker world for his past winnings of 7 World Series of Poker Championships where he took home the bracelets and approximately $10 million in winnings total.

Also playing are James Akenhead, a popular professional player from the UK; Kevin Schaffel, with his 51 years of age the oldest player with a history of wins; Jeff Shulman, player and editor of Card Player Magazine; and Eric Buchman, a younger player with a small fortune in Poker winnings.

The European Poker Tour just finished its stop in Deauville, France, where they hosted 645 poker players in the splendiferous Casino Deauville. The participants got down to business and once the dense field of competition started thinning out the tension grew even more. One of the players to end the tournament early was no one else than the youngest WSOP Champion ever, Peter Eastgate from Denmark. He wasn’t the only big name to finish outside of the money which shows how much the density and quality in international professional poker increases from event to event.

Keeping that in mind it doesn’t surprise that more and more poker players who qualify online end up on the final tables of these tournaments. The winner of the EPT Deauville is yet another online qualifier. Moritz Kranich was able to win it all and take home €851,400. The German managed to beat Frenchman Arnaud Esquevin who was accompanied by 4 countrymen at the final table, Tristan Clemencon, Jonathan Azoulay, Bruno Launais and Thomas Delattre. Italian Andrea Bellini who was able to bring home €219,800 as fourth, and Jorn Walthaus (6th, €142,400) from the Netherlands completed the final table. Esquevin received €495,400 for ending up second and proved to be a fair loser when immediately congratulating 28 year old Moritz Kranich.

Kranich was actually the second oldest player at the final table which had an average age of just 24 years. The youngest poker player at this table was 19 year old Frenchman Tristan Clemencon who surely will be delighted about third place and €284,800 but maybe feels a bit disappointed at the same time knowing that he went into the final stage of the event as clear chip leader.

With another EPT online qualifier winning an event a trend that has been recognisable for some time now continues. More and more online poker players develop into strong and steady live tournament players and a lot of them are able to become poker pros. No matter whether you actually want to become a professional poker player or not, you still can enjoy the thrill and excitement of such a huge event as the EPT by qualifying online at Everest Poker or BestPoker in one of their many satellites. The next EPT stage will be held from February 17th – 21st in Copenhagen – seize your chance to participate in the EPT Scandinavian Open.

If you opt to qualify for the EPT at BestPoker and have no poker account there yet, take the time to check our special BestPoker bonus deals in detail. There are a lot of variants and depending on your activity level and dedication you can choose the one fitting you best. And as unique service for our players we can offer far better conditions: You will need less points to clear the bonus no matter which offer you prefer and 2 of them even give you an additional 15 days to do so!

The European Poker Tour (EPT) is one of the most famous and biggest poker events next to the World Poker Tour (WPT) and the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Inaugurated in 2004 the EPT has annually staged several huge tournaments in various cities all over Europe. The tour traditionally ends with the big final in Monte Carlo each year. While the first year saw 6 stops prior to the final the current 5th season includes 10 different cities before meeting in Monte Carlo. Since last season the tour also includes a non-European stop that immediately became a favourite of the tour: a tournament on the Bahamas.

The EPT currently resides in Prague (December 9th – 13th) which means that we have reached half-time of season 5. The buy-ins of the tournaments usually are set at around €5,000+250, not really the kind of money your everyday amateur poker player is willing or even able to spend. This is why you will find a lot of really big and famous names at the various tournaments like for example the freshly crowned WSOP champion Peter Eastgate. The Dane who wrote history by becoming the youngest poker player to ever win the WSOP main event in 2008 is presently competing with other poker professionals as well as amateurs at the EPT in Prague.

Amateurs? Indeed… While a direct buy-in at a EPT tournament usually is too expensive for the likes of us (let’s face it, most of us likely cannot afford to there is nonetheless a great opportunity to be part of it. Several online poker rooms offer the possibility to qualify for the EPT by playing satellites for low buy-ins. The recent EPT Warsaw for example saw the young German Nico Behling end up in second place, earning in excess of €200,000 – and he qualified by playing satellites on Everest Poker. This wasn’t the first time for him, but the first time that he ended up in the money and then even at the final table.

While the EPT initially had a hard time coming up with the well-known names you can now find some of the best and most famous poker pros at the tournaments. And all the players that qualify for a tournament of the EPT through an online poker room and manage to find themselves in the money, maybe even sitting at the final table, will take away not only lots of cash but also a lot of experience and interesting meetings and talks with some of the big time poker players. Some even manage to acquire a good sponsorship deal in addition to their poker earnings.

If you ever wanted to breathe the same air as the world’s most famous poker pros you now have a great chance of qualifying by playing one of the many daily satellites at Everest Poker, starting from buy-ins as low as $5+0.50 (we strongly recommend taking a look at how a satellite strategy differs from for example your regular Sit&Go strategy). You may also decide to directly compete in the Winner’s Choice Tournament on Wednesday’s where you can win one of the weekly $12,000 Everest Poker EPT Packages, the buy-in being $200+15 for that tournament. You can of course also decide to use your Everest Poker Summit Points instead of money for your buy-in, as usual.

If you do qualify for the EPT let us know and simply contact us. We are always keen to know how our players are faring and how they are doing. We of course also like to hear from you if you don’t qualify, be it praise, criticism or simply a story about a great hand (or a bad beat) that you would like to share. We wish you a lot of success and luck playing poker!