One of the problems on looking back at poker events and tournaments that straddle the week into the weekend is that you often have to appraise performances before the final placings are announced. As we all know, a lot can happen before the final placings are announced and people who looked like sure-fire winners can often find themselves left with no money and a lot of disappointment. However, that is the nature of poker. The final table will always be the most important thing and the area that players should look to but if you can’t turn it on during the early days of an event, you’ll have no chance of making it through to the final places.
We are no nearer to finding out who the big winners at the WPT Venice event are but when the event made its way down to 36 players, a couple of British players were looking in a great position. This alone is something to be approved of, the more British players making the latter stages of poker tournaments the better but when you hear the names of the players who have battled through to the final 36, there shouldn’t be any surprise.
Cheering on the Scott!
Kara Scott may not be strictly British but anyone that spent 10 years of her life here and did a lot to help females rise to prominence in the UK poker scene is always going to be one to keep an eye on. Of the two British interest players in the final 46, Scott was the better placed. This is down to the fact that she held 113,400 chips, which was not a bad level to be at. It has been a busy time for Kara because she has recently been serving as the hostess at the recent PartyPoker.com Premier League VI event. Perhaps keeping an eye on eventual winner Dan Shak gave her some pointers.
Not that Kara Scott needs too many tips or advice about how to deliver the best poker performances as she has provided so many major poker highlights in her illustrious career. Any player that has picked up more than $570,000 in live tournaments is definitely a player of calibre but as of yet, Scott is yet to be a winner at a WPT Main Event. Hopefully Venice is the venue where she rips up that statistic but there is an awful lot of poker to be played before a winner steps forward.
Liv keeps on popping up
Scott was joined in the final 36 by Liv Boeree, the Team PokerStars professional and all-round poker star. Boeree went into the final 36 with a stack of 93,600 chips which she will need to build on if she wants to land a major cash prize. Boeree has been able to make it to the money spots before in a WPT event. She managed to earn herself over $40,000 for a money finish at the 2009 Seventh Annual Five Star World Poker Classic event. Sadly this was not a poker event commemorating the briefly successful and then non-existent pop career of the band Five Star.
The top five ranked players going into the final 36 saw Giuseppe Pastura sit in 5th place and he had 254,000 chips. In fourth place was Steve Behm who had 263,800 chips while Erion Islamay was in third place with 281,200 chips. Sitting in second was Lauri Pesonen who had 287,300 and the chip leader of the final 36 was Ludovic Lacay who had a stack of 351,400 chips.
The glamour and beauty of Venice clearly never impacted on the determination or focus of any of these players and this will have to remain the case until the event is over.
When it comes to getting one over people from foreign countries, the English have a lengthy list of opponents and rivals. We’ll leave aside the rest of the British and Irish contingent but even after doing that, there are plenty of battle scars for English people to remember. The history with Germany is obvious and shouldn’t be glorified with respect to a poker review and of course, there has been conflict with Argentina as well. The might of Maradona at the 1986 World Cup still rankles with many but not too many people will argue that he was a genius on the field of play.
There is no doubting Raine’s experience and skill at the poker table, he has the high-placed finishes and the cash to prove his skills. Raine came second in the UKIPT 3rd season but he grabbed his first win of the FPS at this event. As well as the kudos of being a series winner, Raine also managed to carry of €60,000. To make victory even sweeter, Raine gained entry to the event through an online satellite, which meant he battled all the way to get there.
It seems like almost every day or so that there is a new poker press release or story breaking that involves the Aspers Casino. This venue has been the host of some great poker events recently, notably the Sky Poker London leg and it seems as though there is plenty more poker action coming up. This is down to the fact that Black Belt Poker have announced that this is the venue for their East End Live II event. Given the popularity of the venue and its located in the East of London, this is hardly the biggest upset in the world of poker but having it confirmed allows players to take action and plan ahead.
Playing poker tournaments around the world and mixing with the jet-set is a lifestyle that we can all dream about. While most of us are happy to play online poker and enjoy the occasional poker game with friends or in a casino, some people manage to take things a step further. Ben Callinan was one such player who seemed to be living the high life that we all dream of emulating and he had some success in his time.
Walter Callinan had been sentenced to 11 years in jail back in December 2011 but it is only now that the full story of what he and his gang were up to has been revealed. Callinan Snr admitted to passport offences, money laundering and all of the drugs charges that were put in front of him in court. This income also helped to fund the jet-set poker lifestyle that Ben Callinan enjoyed and no doubt the poker winnings helped to launder even more cash.
If you are thinking about spending your Easter break playing poker but don’t want to be stuck inside for all of the weekend, perhaps it is time to venture out into the world of poker tournaments. You don’t have to aim for the WSOP or WPT just yet although these events may be in the back of your mind. There are plenty of places to play poker with real people in the United Kingdom and this Easter weekend, there is a poker treat being served up by one of the biggest and best poker venues in the United Kingdom.
Other poker tournaments to look out for during the week include an Omaha tournament, a no limit Hold ‘Em Six Max tournament, a HORSE tournament and a championship based upon the heads-up. It is likely that there will be a big take-up for all of these events so if you are looking to get involved, sign up while there are still spaces available. You will also find that there will be a lot of interest in the World Amateur Poker Championship event and again, if you have a particular interest in this event, sign up early.
If there is one thing that many poker players have learned in recent times is that the top female poker players are just as capable as the top male players. There may be some arguments about the true world class nature of the best male and female players but there is no doubt that the vast majority of poker players in the UK would love to have the talent, staying power and of course, the lifetime career earnings that many of the top female players have shown in recent times.
To be fair to Biessek, she has been showing for a considerable time that she is a match for the boys. In February 2012, Biessek picked up £4,000 at a side event at the GPS Birmingham event and then in March 2012, she reached the final table in London at another GPS event, where she picked up just less than £10,000. A third placed finish in the GUKPT leg in Belgium saw Biessek have career earned of over 13,000 euros but she can add another £38,000 to her earnings thanks to this triumph in Newcastle. It was certainly the best female performance in Newcastle since Cheryl Tweedy decided that she was going to try singing as a way to get out of the ‘Toon.
The Ricoh Arena has been in the news of late with the announcement that Coventry City have removed their staff from the premises. There is an air of uncertainty about the status of Coventry City at the moment with the owners placing one part of the business into voluntary administration while still claiming that the club is not affected. There is politic involved with penalty deductions from the football league and fans feel a sense of shame about their football team going into administration.
On Wednesday, it is Main Event Day 1B and again, it is a £30+£5 buy-in for a 15,000 stack and the clock is set at 40 minutes. Again, for those players that will find this to be a little bit too early or get knocked out but want to have more poker action, there will be a £15 Deepstack event at 8.30pm. This games is billed as a guaranteed £500 game, so there is plenty to play for.
Even though there are plenty of great poker tours and events taking place in the UK and Ireland, it seems as though the Sky Poker Tour has managed to find some friends. There is a lot to be said for the way that Sky has managed to take over our lives and its live coverage of football and other sports is central to this. However, with their Sky Poker programmes and a genuine dedication to poker, it is easy to see why so many poker fans have fallen in love with what is on offer from Sky Poker.
There is no doubt that the Aspers Casino in Stratford City has captured the imagination and attention of plenty of big poker fans. London definitely has the capacity to host a great number of poker venues with a large capacity and of course, the Stratford area has a lot of goodwill about it. The spirit of the Olympics may be long gone but the triumphs felt in the local area may well inspire other people to achieve their best and this is something that poker players will look forward to.
The Boylepoker event at the Aspers Casino begins on the 17th of April, continuing all the way through until the 21st of April. The buy-in for the event is £250+£25 and the tournament will be a re-entry event. This means that any player that is knocked out of the event will have the chance to re-enter on any available starting day.
In the past year, there have been a number of great moments taking place in Stratford but if you are a big poker fan, the action this weekend will have taken some beating. The Aspers Casino in Stratford City was the venue for the PartyPoker.com Premier League VI event and there were plenty of players with an interest in the event. Whether you were there, watched it on a delayed internet stream or are just reading about it now, this was another massive poker win for a player that keeps on coming back for more success.
Trickett did very well in closing the chip gap and then managed to take the lead. This meant that the momentum was with the English poker player but this is where world class poker players come into contention. Dan Shak went all out and just as quickly as the lead had changed hands before, Shak grabbed a massive advantage and the drove it home on the next hand to win. The triumph saw Shak take home the trophy and $450,000 while Sam will have to contend himself with just $250,000 for coming in second place.