Category: Pro Poker Players

Lock Poker has added a new star to their LockPro Elite lineup: Melanie Weisner has become the latest name to join the poker site’s team of pros, adding to an already impressive lineup that includes Chris Moorman and Matt Stout, along with many others.

Lock Poker has had a pretty good streak since Black Friday, picking up a lot of the slack after Full Tilt and Absolute Poker collapsed and PokerStars struggled momentarily. While they were forced to pull out of the US market for a few months, Lock Poker opened once more to its American customers on October 13, 2011, and they’ve held the number one spot in the United States since then. Not only has Lock Poker largely cornered the American market, which holds a large percentage of the world’s professional poker players, but they’ve improved their software design, upped the deals and specials that they offer to frequent visitors, and worked hard to hone their image by adding new professionals to their team– most recently, Melanie Weisner.

The 25 year old got her start at New York University after watching her brother doing well with poker. Considering that a poker career might be more lucrative than her current musical theatre and vocal performance degree track, Weisman focused on the game, quickly working her way up the ranks of PokerStars’ Multi Table Tournaments (MTTs). What’s unusual about Weisman, however, is that she’s not only an ace at MTTs, but she’s an expert at heads-up games as well– she’s been ranked #1 across all the ranked sites for heads-up sit-and-go players. She’s had quite the history on both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars, but with both sites pulling out of the US market, she’s made the switch to Lock Poker. Weisman has accrued over $1.2 million dollars playing poker online. You can expect to see her some more around PokerStars, however– with her extensive travel schedule and current tournament cruising in Europe, she still has plenty of opportunities to play across sites, despite her American citizenship and new sponsorship.

Since her quick start in poker, she’s appeared on both Poker After Dark during “Idol Week,” where she came in 3rd place in a $50k buy-in winner-take-all, and Late Night Poker, where she competed in a sit-and-go with a $10k buy-in. Weisman also managed to score six money finishes in the last two years of the World Series of Poker and four so far in the 2010 and 2011 seasons of the European Poker Tour. She’s taken home over $350k from her various live tournament wins in the last year.

Lock Poker CEO Jennifer Larson had this to say about their new LockPro Elite member:

Melanie is a perfect fit for Lock. Passionate, relentless in her dedication to the game and incredibly intelligent… Players like Melanie give us the true insight into the product and player experience that we need to become the best. Partnering with our players is the true path to greatness.

As one of the fastest rising stars of poker, Weisman is also quickly climbing to the top of the women’s poker charts, a fact which is sure to please Larson, an owner/CEO operating in what is still largely a male-dominated industry. Weisman is currently ranked 43rd on the Women’s All Time Money List, and she’s ranked 83rd on the Global Poker Index.

Lock Poker has also recently added Leo Margets of Spain to the LockPro Elite team. Margets was the WSOP Main Event’s last women standing in 2008). Regardless of whether or not this woman-owned company is actively trying to create an environment where young female poker players can thrive and shine, Lock Poker is certainly developing a female roster that could hold its own against any takers.

American poker player Dusty Schmidt has decided to pursue one of his greatest passions and has planned to return to golf, a sport to which he dedicated himself years ago. Schmidt is the most recent in a slew of American players who have taken a step back from the game after the conflicts that arose in 2011.

Since Black Friday, now nine long months ago, American poker players have been at a loss, and matters have only become bleaker since then. When the US Department of Justice cracked down on online poker sites, forcing them all to bar American players so as to avoid the same fate as Absolute Poker, Full Tilt, and PokerStars, the opportunities available for American players dried up almost overnight. American players, who had largely dominated the poker world, were in trouble. Without places online to play poker, many players have tried to find ways to circumvent their troubles and stay in the game. Some of these players now play live games instead, while a great many have left the US for greener poker pastures, such as Canada or Costa Rica. Many have played it by ear, riding out the live poker tournament season with turnouts at the World Series of Poker and the European Poker Tour. As the big ticket tournaments are coming to a close for this year, however, more and more poker players have started asking themselves what they should do now.

For Schmidt, the answer was one that would take him back to his first love– the game of golf. Schmidt, who played golf in high school and at the university level, has broken a number of Tiger Woods’ amateur records, giving him a solid track record as a golfer and suggesting that he just might have a shot at achieving his lifelong goal of a spot on the PGA Tour. It was this dream that Schmidt was following seven years ago, when he had a heart attack which, coupled with a lack of funding, would cut his golf career short. Schmidt has decided to give it another go, as he posted on his blog at dustyschmidt.net:

“I have spent most of this year post black Friday figuring out what I want out of life… I came to the realization that I love golf infinitely more than I love playing poker. With that, I have decided to return to golf and use all of what poker has taught me to try and become the best I can be (whatever that is) at the game of golf.”

Although Schmidt seems to have a golf career ahead of him, don’t expect him to bow out of the poker world completely. He’ll be working with BlueFire Poker as a poker coach, helping less experienced players and recording videos for the site. You can also expect to see him at 20-25k hands per month on the site, as he plans to keep his poker skills honed. If Schmidt can take his consistency and determination and apply it towards golf, he should be absolutely unstoppable on the green.

The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event final table has no shortage of firsts, and Pius Heinz is no exception– he is the first Main Event final table player to hail from Germany, and, as such, has already achieved a poker first. Should he win the game, however, he’ll have yet another reason to go down in poker history.

Heinz came to Vegas in June, and by the time the Main Event rolled around, he says, he was ready to go. He signed up for Day 1A so that he could head back home as soon as possible, in case he didn’t move on– but move on he did, and with flash that left spectators wondering how it was that this student turned online poker player seemed to have no problem with the transition to live play. Not only has he made it to the final table here, but he also snagged a seventh place finish in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event, walking away with a tidy sum of $83,286, an amount currently dwarfed by the $782,115 that he’s guaranteed to win from his main event play so far. Since his dazzling entry into the live poker work in Vegas this summer, he’s also nabbed first place in a European Poker Tour event. Heinz won €17,450 in the €1,000 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Bounty event in Barcelona at the end of August, demonstrating that his winning streak at the WSOP isn’t quite ready to come to an end.

Heinz plays an aggressive game online and off, and this year’s World Series of Poker has been a learning experience for the 22 year old German– one that has doubled his career winnings (he had previously won over $700,000 in online tourneys). His two cashes were the result of over fifteen tournament entries– he was sent to the rail early in the others, and Heinz spent his time at the cash tables, working on his live game. He says that transitioning to live play was particularly challenging because live play “is boring,” and because so many basic aspects of live play are completely missing from online play, such as chip handling and guarding one’s tells. Despite the hurdles that he needed to overcome, Heinz hit his stride on an early hand during Main Event Day 1A. In a hand against a more experienced player, Heinz made a successful read that he states was a defining moment for him. Since then, he contends, he’s been confident in his ability to play the live game, and that’s made all the difference.

Heinz currently sits seventh in chips with 16,425,000, with a buffer of about three million in each direction between him and Badih Bounahra in sixth place and Anton Makiievskyi in eighth. He’ll return to the Penn & Teller Theatre in Las Vegas on November 6th, starting the day in Seat 7. Keep your eyes peeled for this student from Cologne, who may just be the final bracelet winner from the 2011 World Series of Poker.

Anton Makiievskyi is in a precarious position. With the second-lowest stack against some very fierce players going into the World Series of Poker Main Event final table, he has his work cut out for him. If he can manage to pull it off, however, he’ll become the youngest person ever to win a WSOP Main Event title. This native of Dnipropetrovsk, the third-largest city in the Ukraine and a metropolitan area with an extensive history, was awed when he took his first trip to the United States (and the World Series of Poker) and found that it was one that is truly life-changing. At only 21 years of age, Makiievskyi is the youngest player at the table, and he’s stated that he finds his standing at the WSOP to be surreal.

Because the Ukraine has relaxed regulations concerning online poker (especially compared to places like the US, which is currently struggling to keep its players within the country), Makiievskyi is one of many players from the Eastern European country who have turned up at this year’s WSOP. If he can manage to bring his stack up and win the event, he will not only be the fifth Ukranian player to win a bracelet at this year’s WSOP, but also the first ever Ukrainian to win the main event. One thing is certain– if Makiievskyi wins, it’s a day that will go down in poker history.

Although he’s been playing professional poker for a couple years now, Makiievskyi’s takeaway from the WSOP Main Event is by far the largest win of his live poker career (not a big surprise given that the majority of his previous experience has been in Eastern Europe, where the buy-ins have been considerably smaller). Even if he’s the first man out come November, Makiievskyi is still guaranteed to walk away with $782,115, an amount that eclipses even the largest of his past wins by a factor of more than 40. Don’t confuse this player’s lack of large paydays for a lack of experience, however; he managed to come in second in two separate events at the Yalta Summer Poker Festival in 2009, taking home $18,787 in the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event and $15,100 for the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em. Six months later, Makiievskyi was swimming with the big fish of poker at the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure during the North American Poker Tour. He came away in 170th place– hardly a stellar finish, but good enough to net him a $17,500 win.

Makiievskyi headed back home after his big-league poker experience and quickly won a satellite to the Russian Poker Tour Main Event, followed two months later by a ninth place finish at the RPT Yalta $500 No Limit Hold’em Six Max event. By the end of 2010, he was drawing attention to himself again, this time with a money finish with $5k at the RPS Main Event in Kiev.

This Ukranian supernova went radio silent for the early part of 2011, but when he sat down to play in the WSOP Main Event, he would be one young man who quickly made a name for himself among the Americans and Europeans who dominated the tournament. While he sits in eighth place with 13,825,000 in chips going into the main event, only 1.5 million ahead of Brit Sam Holden, who is currently bringing up the rear, and almost 30 million behind Martin Staszko, who has the lead, Makiievskyi is definitely a player to watch.

Eoghan O’Dea (pronounced like “Owen”) has one of the more famous fathers in poker– he’s the son of Donnacha O’Dea, a former Olympic swimmer-turned-poker-pro who not only holds a World Series of Poker bracelet and two other final table appearances, but a grand total of 23 money finishes there. The elder O’Dea has appeared on Late Night Poker and won the Poker Million tournament in 2004, and his father was a big poker player as well, so it’s no wonder that Eoghan O’Dea entered into the world of poker.

The younger O’Dea has had a history of strong, aggressive poker playing which has helped to cement his status as a serious player. He came in second in the Poker Million in 2008 and won the iPoker European Championship of Online Poker III main event the same week. O’Dea has also come in second in the 2009 World Poker Tour Marrakech main event and achieved four money finishes in the 2011 WSOP outside of his position as one of the November Nine. O’Dea had a strong showing throughout the main event, starting (and finishing) the final day with the second-highest number of chips– he sits with 33,925,000, while Martin Staszko has only around 40 million in first place. The players will return in November in the same seats in which they left, and O’Dea notes that his seat isn’t the best and that the competition at the final table is quite fierce, but he says that he can’t complain, having gotten this far.

O’Dea has had his fair share of wins and earnings, and he currently sits at number 18 on the list of all-time Irish earners. He’s gained over $700,000 in live poker winnings, and his largest gains have been at the 2008 Ladbrokes Poker Million, which brought him $260,000, and at WPT Marrakech, where he gained another $388,532. He also pulled in $315,000 from the iPoker European Championship, so it’s no wonder that many people consider O’Dea one of the strongest contenders at the final table this year. At only 26 years, he’s already made a name for himself, and he remains one of the best-known players in this year’s November Nine.

This fine player stayed out of the spotlight for the majority of the WSOP 2011 Main Event, playing at a lot of tables full of amateurs and staying out of the camera’s glare. O’Dea had very few all-ins during the course of the tournament so far, but his gains have been steady, nonetheless. He hasn’t faced too many really big pots, and this usually aggressive player has been playing it closer to the chest this year at the WSOP.

With a famous father, O’Dea has surely received his share of pointers and fatherly advice when it comes to poker, but, as he says, where the WSOP Main Event was concerned, his father’s only advice to him was: “Make sure you change your flights on time.” It looks like Eoghan is on his own on this one, but it seems like he’s been getting along just fine.

Stay tuned to Max Poker Bonus for more November Nine introductions and updates.

Annie Duke has been getting a lot of attention over a comment that she made during her appearance on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson,” where she went to promote her new book and the Epic Poker League. Critics have nothing negative to say about 99% of her spot on the American show, but they take issue with three words that Duke uttered in response to a comment from Ferguson, who said, “Now, isn’t poker illegal?” Duke responded, “No, that’s only online.”

Since her appearance, Duke has been absolutely lambasted for stating that online poker is illegal. Some critics have accused her of knowing nothing about poker (although it’s perfectly obvious from her history that such statements aren’t true) while others have stated that she’s “campaigning against online poker” or that she “doesn’t care about online poker because she has the Epic Poker League.” They’ve accused Duke of being hypocritical, as she used to play for Ultimate Bet, and her brother, Howard Lederer, is a known owner of Full Tilt. How did they play online poker in the US if it was illegal? Is she admitting to engaging in illegal activity and incriminating her brother in the process? What’s the real scoop behind Duke’s statement?

The criticisms of Duke’s statement (which lasted approximately one second) seem to break down into the following arguments:

1. Online Poker Isn’t Illegal

Okay, technically, online poker isn’t illegal. You can hop onto Facebook and play Texas Hold’em with the amateurs any time you want to, and no one is going to try to stop you (save for your boss or significant other). When people say “online poker,” however, they’re almost always referring to money games, which are inaccessible, while not illegal. What IS illegal is the banks, transferring money to poker sites that operate within the US and/or have US players. Transferring the money is the act to which the government objects, which is why they’ve been going after large online poker companies and financial institutions, not individual online poker players. To summarize: playing poker, not illegal. Funding poker to make it possible to play, illegal– therefore, the truthfulness of Duke’s statement is really just a matter of semantics.

2. Annie Duke is admitting to illegal activity.

Again, no. Because online poker isn’t illegal for the individual playing, but rather for the banks who fund transactions, Duke isn’t admitting to any kind of wrong-doing. Secondly, there’s a greater philosophical issue about whether or not Duke (like every other poker player in America) thinks that online poker should be illegal.

3. Annie Duke is scaring people away from the world of poker.

Nonsense. What’s scaring people away from the world of online poker is the fact that the US government has made doing so pretty much impossible. Duke stating that it’s illegal to play online isn’t going to affect the portion of the population that is already playing poker (as by now, they know the rules) or the part of the population that doesn’t really want to play (as they don’t care about the rules). All the people who are on-the-fence about playing are probably only on the fence because of the difficulty in playing while in the US, and while it’s possible that their hesitation comes from some other source (lack of income, addictive personality), whether or not Annie Duke, in the beginning of a talk about her new book about playing better poker and discussion of the Epic Poker League and how it’s going, makes a passing comment to move the conversation along is not going to sway them.

4. Duke should stick with the rest of the players and say that online poker is legal.

Duke was trying to move the conversation along. She only had a short amount of time on the show to promote her book (and to a lesser degree, the EPL), and if she had gone into a long spiel about the nature of the legality of online poker in the United States, it would have taken the time and focus that she needed to complete her purpose on the show. Ferguson wasn’t looking for a philosophical debate about poker’s legality, and if Duke had started down that road, there’s no way that the discussion would have gotten the lengthy airtime that it would need to be resolved conversationally. Again, it’s just an issue of semantics; it wasn’t a political statement.

5. Duke has the EPL now, so she doesn’t care about the fate of online poker.

Ridiculous. Of course Duke cares about online poker. It’s a safe bet that all professional poker players care about the fate of online poker. Yes, Duke has the Epic Poker League. She also has a new book out. Her focus, however, remains on poker. If anything, Duke is doing the poker industry a service by keeping Americans focused on poker at a time when their frustration is growing and their interest is waning. With most of the poker-related shows and tournaments no longer airing on American television, Epic Poker League is a fresh face that is drawing in a lot of viewers. If there’s one thing Annie Duke knows how to do, it’s stay alive in a game where it seems like the cards are stacked against her, and that’s just what she’s doing now– staying alive when American poker is struggling.

Chino Rheem, who recently made headlines when he won the inaugural Main Event of the newly-formed Epic Poker League, taking home a $1,000,000 prize, has been suspended by the EPL due to a massive amount of outstanding debts. The EPL states that Rheem is in violation of their Code of Conduct not just because he owes a lot of people a lot of money, but because he’s allegedly gone to unusual lengths to avoid paying any of it back.

Rheem’s name has become a bit of a joke in the poker community (if having someone promise to pay you back and then actively refuse to do so is funny to anyone), where being ripped off by a player one has staked is often referred to as “getting Chino’ed”. So far, Ben Lamb, Erik Cajelais, Tom Dwan, Will Molson, and Joseph Cheong have all come forward and announced that Rheem owes them money.

Rheem has a history of cashflow problems, and his Epic Poker League win was no exception– of his million dollar win, Rheem saw a maximum of $200,000 of it, largely because he was backed 70% by Cirque de Soleil’s creator, Guy Laliberte, who took an extra 10% out for charity. With debts piled up across the internet (and many players making their complaints known, as it seems like Epic Poker League, unlike many other such groups, actually has their back on this one), Rheem has quite a challenge ahead of him: the EPL has stated that all of his winnings henceforth have to go to repaying his debts, and any further violations will mean that this former November-niner will be booted from the league.

So far, his EPL winnings have gone to paying off Ben Lamb and Erik Cajelais in entirety, although many of the other outstanding debts were paid in smaller amounts (on average, a 10% payment). Time will tell if more debts begin to come out of the woodwork as word spreads, but one thing is for sure– the EPL is committed to helping maintain their good name.

Stephen Martin, the chair of the Epic Poker League Standards and Conduct Committee issued the following statement regarding the parameters of Rheem’s probation:

1. “Mr. Rheem’s probation will remain in effect until Mr. Rheem has satisfied his pre-league formation financial obligations.
2. “Mr. Rheem must continue to proactively repay his outstanding debts by, from this point forward, using any and all proceeds Mr. Rheem personally receives from personal poker winnings worldwide to satisfy all of his remaining financial obligations in an orderly fashion.
3. “Any new violation of the Epic Poker League rules (including the Players’ Code of Conduct) or the law by Mr. Rheem — now that the Epic Poker League play has been initiated — will result in an immediate suspension of Mr. Rheem’s League card and eligibility to participate in Epic Poker League events.
4. “In reaching its decision, the Committee recognized that Mr. Rheem used best efforts and all of the proceeds he personally received from winning the Inaugural Epic Poker league Main Event to partially satisfy outstanding financial obligations. Mr. Rheem must continue to demonstrate this commitment to honoring all of his financial obligations.”

Even though Rheem took home a first place prize, he reports that he’s “still broke”. While the EPL may not bring him great fortune, perhaps it can help this player begin to recover his reputation.

Cates and Qureshi Set Eyes on Portugal

When Canada won’t have you, pick another country. That’s what we’re learning from Daniel “jungleman12” Cates and his posse as they plan to relocate– this time to Portugal, after Cates found out the hard way that telling immigration officers that he wants to enter a foreign country to make money by playing poker online (i.e., to work) would require a work visa. Has Cates found a loophole in Portuguese law that will allow him into the EU without a work visa, or does he plan to make his widely-publicized transition under the radar?

Since Black Friday, more and more Americans have been looking for new ways to play the game that they love. With the ejection of Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and Absolute Poker, there haven’t been many options left for American players. Add to that the fact that other online poker powerhouses (like Bodog Poker) are voluntarily withdrawing themselves from the US market, and it’s no wonder that some US citizens are tired of waiting for changes in gambling law (to be honest, the US government has bigger legislative fish to fry right now, and gambling law isn’t even showing up on the radar) and are taking matters into their own hands.

Cates said in an interview with PokerStrategy.com that he plans on staying in Portugal “a few months” and then either going somewhere else, or, if he likes it, staying longer. Since there’s no way that Cates has had the time to summon a EU visa, he has a 90 day limit in the Schengen countries (which Portugal is part of) and up to a total of 6 months in the EU (in a non-Schengen country, such as the UK or Ireland) before he’ll have to head, if not back home, somewhere else. Unfortunately, Cates isn’t really known for his knowledge of other cultures and their rules and regulations (hence the Canada debacle)– he posted on his Twitter, “I’m taking a flight from Los Angeles to Madrid, Spain… didn’t know such flights existed.” Jungleman has already declared his intention to play in the World Series of Poker Europe and European Poker Tour’s Barcelona stop, but states that his long-term plan is in the works and will depend on how the next few months play out.

Cates will be staying with Jose “Girah” Macedo (whose name he wasn’t sure how to pronounce in the same interview) and Haseeb Qureshi in Lisbon, who is following Cates out of the country– Macedo is already in Portugal. As Qureshi said in his blog at Cardrunners, “Now our plans have reverted back to going to Portugal after all – most likely Lisbon. Jungle and I will be living with Jose ‘Girah’ Macedo and will be flying out there sometime in the coming week. I have no doubt that it’s going to be an interesting excursion.”

Here’s to interesting excursions– and to United States legislation that pushes more players out of their comfort zones and into the open arms of live poker tournaments around the world. As predicted earlier this year, the lack of online poker in the US seems to be feeding the live tournaments around the world.

Lock Poker has managed to further solidify their status since the Full Tilt meltdown last month by recruiting two new professional poker players: Chris Moorman and Nicky Evans. Jennifer Larson, the chief executive officer for Lock Poker, states that the two players are stars, and that she is “very excited” to welcome them to the Lock Poker family. Both of the new Lock recruits are excellent players; there’s no denying that.

It’s hard to see Chris Moorman as anything but a sort of Wunderkind. The more you know about Moorman, the more impressive he is (unless what really impresses you is completing university with the highest marks, as Moorman let his studies suffer in order to play poker). He spent his university years learning economics, but not through the works of Adam Smith or John Maynard Keynes– Moorman was educated by poker guides and tutorials, through hours starting at .25 or .50 games so that he could slowly make a little money. By the time he was out of university, he had made enough money to pay off his student loans and still have a decent amount left over, and he presented his argument to his father: he should be able to play poker full-time.

In addition to his remarkable rise to fame, Chris Moorman has some other special talents under his belt. At this year’s World Series of Poker, he’s currently in fourth place in the Player of the Year race– not close enough to challenge Ben Lamb or Phil Hellmuth, who are leading the pack, for the title, but well enough to make a good showing and keep his name circulating among poker players and aficionados. It’s not just name recognition that Moorman managed to take home from the 2011 WSOP, however; he also left with over a million dollars in prize money (which may seem insignificant when compared to the over 7.5 million that he’s garnered through online play).

Moorman obviously learned something of economics from his time in school, as he finally followed his father’s advice and decided to do something with his winnings. Moorman’s investment of choice? Other players. Moorman currently sponsors 20 professional poker players, usually beginners who could use the financial backing or some pointers; from Moorman, they get both, as this astute businessman knows that helping his investments better their game means a better chance at return for him. In 2010, he estimated that he was fronting about 250,000 a month in stakes for other players with whom he would split the winnings if they cashed, a deal that proved lucrative when Moorman sponsored Tyler Reiman, who came in second at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, netting Moorman half of the $1.75 million score.

Moorman’s a pro at MTT (Multi-table tournaments), which can be taxing for a lot of players. Moorman doesn’t seem to mind, because he’s turned a game that he loves into a career (with three days a week off to enjoy life as a 26-year-old should). He’s such a strong player, in fact, that he not only holds the record for the most PokerFives triple crowns (currently 11), but he was hand-picked by Doyle Brunson to be a member of the Brunson 10.

Nicky Evans isn’t quite the success story that Moorman is, but he still plays a solid game: solid enough to earn him over a million dollars since he went pro a couple of years ago. Like his fellow Lock Poker recruit, Evans started playing poker in university, but Evans’ game was a purely live one, playing first with fellow students and then at the small tables at the casino close to his school. After university, he headed to Canada, where he played at a casino in Niagra Falls when he wasn’t working. He would soon meet a sponsor, and the rest, as they say, is history. Under the tutelage of James Dempsey, Evans would begin to win every live tournament he encountered, but things changed when he made the transition to an online game. It would take some time (and a new backer) before Evans was successful online.

Who was the new backer who changed Evans’ game once more? None other than Chris Moorman.

The two players will join other Lock Poker pros (called LockPro ELITE members) such as Jose “Girah” Macedo, Matt Stout, Stevie Devlin, and Eric Lynch.

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.