Category: Pro Poker Players

Sam Trickett is one of the big names in the UK poker industry and there is no getting away from the fact that a big reason for his success is down to his achievements in Las Vegas last summer during the 2012 WSOP.

With this year’s premier poker event taking place right now, the Matchbook.com site have announced that a documentary charting Sam’s role in last year’s event is set to be screened, across four parts, in the first week of July.

As you would expect from any film or documentary that has had a Hollywood style feel attached to it, there is a focus on the troubles that Sam had in his life in the build-up to the big event. These troubles, the fact that he had won so much money and blew it all, are hardly the sort of troubles that most people moan about. It is not as if Sam would have had a winning sob story on any UK reality TV show but you can only face the problems that you have in life and it seemed as though Sam was down on his luck.

Poker luck can run against you at times

You would think that if you were in a bad shape, you wouldn’t be in a rush to chuck $1m into a tournament where if luck was not on your side, you would be out on your backside within minutes. Of course, that would make for a terrible documentary so thankfully Sam went all in and before the end of the tournament, his place in UK poker history was cemented. The fact that he won so much money in tournaments up to this point meant that Trickett was always going to be remembered but his actions at the WSOP’s Big One for One Drop in July of 2012 will be talked about for a very long time.

We’ll not go into the details of where and when Trickett finished in case you don’t know but whether you are familiar with the outcome or not, it is going to be well worth checking out the documentary.

It is also going to be worth keeping an eye out for this year’s One Drop High Roller event which gets underway on the 26th of June. There is no guarantee that there will be any big story or event for the UK poker scene for play this year but there is no doubt that poker lovers all around the world will get a kick from such a high profile and high intensity event.

It is perfectly understandable that poker players will have interests outside of poker. There is no doubt that the top players in the game will have a great deal of focus on improving their skills and becoming a better player but players need to be able to unwind and step away from the game. Many poker players like to follow a sport and this is where football comes to the fore of popular activities.

It is understandable that UK poker players will follow British football teams. Players like Sam Trickett wear their football hearts on their sleeves and most in the poker community know who they support. Trickett had genuine hopes of becoming a footballer but injury stopped him from achieving that dream but he recently played and scored twice in a prestigious match at Old Trafford. As a huge Manchester United fan, that would have been a big day out for Trickett.

However, it is not just British poker players that support British football teams. The worldwide appeal of some of the biggest clubs in the country means that it is inevitable that some foreign poker players will have a fondness for British football teams and this is exactly the case with Theo Jorgensen.

Poker success is different from football success

Jorgensen was born in Denmark and there are plenty of great Danish sides he can support. It should also be remembered that Denmark have won a major international trophy, The European Championships in 1992, more recently than England has managed to win anything. However, even with all of this in mind, Jorgensen, is a fan of Liverpool as opposed to being a fan of a local club. The thing is, for people of a certain age group, Liverpool are an obvious team to support given that they had a dominance in Europe for so many years.

When asked why he supports Liverpool, the era that Jorgensen fell in love with the club becomes apparent and it is nothing to do with Torres or Suarez! Jorgensen said;

I support Liverpool for various reasons, some of them are named Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush, Terry McDermott, Ray Kennedy, Alan Kennedy, Sammy Lee and the big one: Jan Mølby.

This was an era when Liverpool were at the top of their game domestically and in Europe and no doubt there are many men around Europe of the same age as Jorgensen who back Liverpool. Of course, very few other men have a WSOP bracelet and a WPT title to their name but when it comes to backing a football club, everyone is equal! There are more chances of Theo Jorgensen winning titles regularly than Liverpool have these days but you can bet if he plays on Merseyside or in the UK, Theo will never walk alone.

In life, you get some people who have street smarts and then you have people who have book smarts. Some people are lucky to have both while some people are very unlucky to have neither but it is more common for a person to have one and not the other. The phrase that someone is “very smart but they have no common sense” is very common in the UK and you’ll also have a great number of people proudly proclaiming that they graduated from the school of life! Therefore, there was a bit of a culture clash when world famous poker player Antanas Guoga rolled up to Oxford University this week.

Antanas is more commonly known by the name of Tony G and he has been in Britain this week for the ISPT Wembley Stadium event. Tony wasn’t a winner at that event but no doubt his betting site, which was offering odds throughout the event, will have made a bit of money for the man. Either way, Tony is undoubtedly doing alright for himself at the moment! Tony was playing poker with the Oxford University Poker Society as part of the build-up to the Oxford Cup Poker event, which begins on Saturday the 8th of June. By the time the event starts, Tony will be in Las Vegas for the WSOP event so he will be otherwise engaged but he decided to make it along to the prestigious pre-tournament event. Tony is not the first big name poker player to play at Oxford with previous guests including Gus Hansen, Greg Raymer, Phil Hellmuth and the Devilfish Dave Ulliot.

Poker doesn’t always run to form

While Tony had said in a few interviews around the ISPT that he expected to wipe the floor with a lot of the poker students, you can never tell if he is being serious or living up to his jokey image. You have to hope he was joking around because if not, he was found out badly at the event where he was knocked out on 8 occasions. As the re-buy period came to a close, Tony was going all in with most of his hands.

The person that put the event together, Eugene Lowrie, spoke to The Oxford Student Online website about Tony’s appearance, saying;

It was great. Tony was basically exactly what I expected, because I knew he wouldn’t come across exactly as he would on the tables on TV. Although there were a couple more aggressive and confident players, well basically arrogant players and he did start pushing them, making fun of them, which was funny.

The Oxford Cup has developed into one of the premier poker tournaments that is played in Europe and amateur players and students take part alongside a selected number of professionals that have been specially invited to take part.

With Charlotte Jackson being the current face of Sky Poker, it is clear that the company has been working hard to make sure that they get their money’s worth out of the pretty presenter. It doesn’t seem as though Charlotte has been on Sky Sports News too often of late and with Hayley McQueen currently sunning herself in Miami at the moment, some of the favourites have been missing for plenty of regular viewers.

However, while Hayley has been enjoying a well-deserved holiday, Charlotte has been busy on other projects. She has been busy playing golf for a number of different charities and this week, she is back on the Sky Poker site and players have the chance to take her on if they play their poker cards right.

TV star taking on the poker players

This is because Thursday the 30th of May is another Charlotte Invitational Event, the Guaranteed Charlotte £6K-Max event which will be taking place at 9pm on the Sky Poker site. All this week players have been playing their way to claim one of the five seats available to take her on. There is a good incentive for the event because every player that is involved with the £6k-Max event will be guaranteed to grab some cash. The top prize is going to be £2,400 which is certainly a strong incentive to be involved with the play. If Charlotte bags the top prize, there is going to be a good incentive to come back for the Charlotte Freeroll event which takes place on Friday the 31st of May.

This is because whatever money Charlotte earns on Thursday night will be placed into the freeroll event on Friday evening. There is going to be another game that Charlotte plays in on Friday night and again, any winnings that she earns in this other game will go to the Charlotte Jackson Freeroll event on the Friday.

While there will only be limited players taking on Charlotte in the £6K-Max event, everyone can have a shot at Charlotte in the Sky Sports Bounty Hunter game. This is going to be televised on Sky Sports and on Sky Poker TV live, so it is well worth getting involved with if you want to see your name up in lights on TV!

There is an entry fee of £33 but if you manage to outlast Charlotte, you will get entry into the Friday freeroll where there is going to be £500 and all of Charlotte’s Thursday night winnings up for grabs. There is no doubt that Charlotte has been a rather fine ambassador for Sky Poker and her presence on Thursday is sure to entice a few more poker players on to the site.

In the latest blow to troubled online poker site Lock Poker, Chris Moorman has announced that he is quitting his role as an Elite Pro for the site. This has come about after he decided not to renew his contract with the site. Moorman first signed up for Lock Poker back in July 2011 and he has been a key player for the site in recent times. Given his high profile, he has worn the Lock Poker brand with pride at plenty of live poker events, helping to bring a lot of attention and focus to the site.

However, with Lock Poker suffering a number of problems of a financial nature, it makes sense for Moorman to cut the links with the company. No doubt he will be in high demand and he should not find it hard to come across a new sponsor who is willing to be associated with him.

Twitter breaks the story yet again

Moorman announced his decision on Twitter, giving this medium a further recommendation and boost for poker players. Being able to keep up to date with the latest and breaking news from top poker players is definitely a great reason to keep up to date with Twitter.

I have decided not to renew my contract with Lock. I sincerely hope Lock is able to overcome its current problems and for the sake of online poker their situation is resolved.

The rumours surrounding the demise of Lock Poker have been building and growing stronger for a considerable period of time. There has been worrying talk that UK and European players have had to wait three months to receive their withdrawals. In the United States, the situation is said to be even worse with players having to wait more than five months. Most poker players are willing to show a bit of patience when it comes to receiving poker funds but this length of time is out of order.

It seems as though Moorman also suffered with the financial difficulties that Lock Poker were facing with respect to the benefits he was supposed to receive in his role. It is perfectly understandable that he is keen to look after himself properly and while the demise of Lock Poker is unfortunate, poker players should not feel as though they should put themselves at risk just to help the company out. This is as true for the professional poker stars as it is for the players that enjoy online poker.

Chris Moorman will be okay in breaking away from Lock Poker but the same cannot be said for all of the poker players who may have funds tied up in their account at the moment. It can only be hoped that the company can find a solution for their current cash problems and failing that, they can find a solution that will ensure ordinary poker players do not miss out.

With Victoria Coren keeping poker fans updated with her trials and tribulation in getting to Monte Carlo on Twitter, it is good to see that she hasn’t let the actual playing of poker get in the way of her keeping all of her followers updated. Victoria is a good celebrity to follow on Twitter because she provides a lot of good talking points and will actually engage and interact with her followers. No doubt she’ll get abuse from random nutters and idiots online like every other celebrity but she does seem to have a fanbase that will engage properly with her. Following her on Twitter also gives you the perfect opportunity to keep up to date with her progress at certain events, which is something that most poker players will be happy with.

This is why Twitter followers were the first to know the peaks and troughs that Victoria faced in the EPT Final. After having started with 30,000 chips she found herself losing ground and dropped to 11,000 chips! Poker players know that you can turn declines and slides around so there is no need to overly panic about these situations but it is also fair to say that these things can quickly run away from you. While you know that all it takes is a good hand and a bit of fortune to put you back on the right road, a bit of bad luck can also see you run the other way! However, the first update came when Victoria managed to bounce back to 27,000 chips which was quickly followed up an update at dinner. By this point, Coren had managed to reach the grand total of 34,000 chips, which was an improvement on her starting stack and a move in the right direction.

Twitter updates are great for poker fans

It’s clear that Victoria is not your average poker player, a point further emphasised when she came back to the table with a hot chocolate. That is itself is probably different from most players but the fact that she was using a parking ticket as a lid for her coffee definitely stood Coren out from the pack. At the end of the day, she had managed to reach 45,000 in chips and progress to day 2 of the final was assured.

After giving a rather descriptive run-down of her fellow poker players at the table, Coren got stuck in and there was Twitter silence until she was knocked out. There was no great drama or tension to her demise, just a standard win and lose situation in poker and with what, the hopes of taking the big prize or some big money were gone. The event started with 531 players and 268 made it through to day 2 but like so many others, Victoria Coren bust out before things got too interesting. She did sign off for the day with a resolution to go and win the High Rollers event but as always, this may have been laced with a sense of humour!

While following each and every individual poker star can be very time consuming, you can also choose to follow @maxpokerbonus to keep up with the most actual facts about prominent UK poker stars such as Victoria Coren and alike.

The idea of seeing Liv Boeree getting a bit sweaty while wearing clingy lycra is enough for most poker players and fans to get all hot bothered. There is no getting away from the fact that while Liv is a highly talented and motivated poker player, she is a great looking girl as well. This is why it is good to see that she does her fair bit for charity as well, because it is good to see that she comes across as good person too. Liv will be donning the lycra and running gear for a bit of time now as she is taking part in the Race For Life event which supports Cancer Research UK.

Most people have been touched by cancer in one form or another and this cause is one that many people are happy to support. Even if you are not fit enough to get involved with the race, there are plenty of other ways to support the case. PokerStars is getting involved in the event in a serious way this year and Liv will not be the only PokerStars representative running the big event.

Poker star is making a difference

Liv is going above and beyond though because on the same day she runs in the event, she is also taking part in an online poker event in the evening. This may be the best time to try and catch Liv and take her down because she will no doubt be feeling slightly tired after her exertions. The 1st of June is the day when Liv races at Clapham Common and then later on that evening she will be playing online.

The focus by PokerStars comes through Helping Hands, a program that the site has launched recently in order to provide support for communities. There are going to be various charity projects undertaken and the program aims to support many different fundraising activities close to the hearts of employees of PokerStars. It is no great surprise then to learn that the PokerStars Women group announced they would like to support Cancer Research UK and the Race For Life event is the perfect way to do so.

People are more than welcome to run the race under the PokerStars banner and raise even more funds. There is the option to donate to the cause on the PokerStars site and there will be a week of online tournaments, starting with Liv’s event, where proceeds will go towards supporting Cancer Research UK.