Not only were the usual tournaments like the Sunday Warm-Up, Sunday Grand and Sunday Million all running but the $2 Million PokerStars Turbo Takedown Event and ElkY Challenge took place as well. There were also enough players for another iteration of PokerStars' High Stakes Showdown.
The day kicked off with the Warm-Up tournament and PokerStars pro Steve Paul-Ambrose was a force to be reckoned with in the event. The 2006 PCA Winner made the final table and cashed $32,450 for coming in fourth.
OnlyPlayRagz ended up winning the entire thing after a two-way deal with salmoncatch. OnlyPlayRagz received $99,150 for his efforts while salmoncatch still won $70,108 for coming in second.
Next on the docket was the PokerStars $5,200 Freezeout. The Freezeout is capped at 20 players and this week it was THE_D_RY who managed to capture the majority of cash by coming first for $75,000. After the players worked out a deal, str8flushin5 won $25,000 for second.
The PokerStars Sunday High Stakes Showdown saw Daniel "Kid Poker" Negreanu clashing with Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton for first place. Negreanu, who is currently in Copenhagen to play the EPT event being held there, prevailed against the uber-aggressive Haxton. According to Negreanu's blog he rivered a flush against Haxton's two-pair to win the event. Negreanu received $50,000, while Haxton was rewarded with $30,000.
Another special event that took place on Sunday was the ElkY Challenge, which saw Bertrand Grospellier take on six opponents in a series of consecutive heads-up tourneys for players from France. Each of his opponents was selected through a daily freeroll or 10 FPP tournament. PokerStars put a $500 prize pool on each match. Every match that ElkY won the money goes forward to a freeroll next weekend. Incredibly ElkY won all six meaning all the money was carried forward. Apparently the PCA champ is hard to beat!
Surprisingly, after all those tournaments, the most lucrative one was yet to come. PokerStars was hosting the $2 Million Turbo Takedown for players with bankrolls of all sizes and none of the buy-ins had a dollar sign in front of them. Players seemed to dig the format as over 10,000 came out to play in the tournament that only required frequent player points to enter.
The biggest fan of the tournament, however, would have to be mombasi. mombasi made the final table as one of the top three chip leaders and quickly used his chip advantage to bludgeon some of the smaller stacks into submission. mombasi quickly busted D.Nowitzki (apparently not the basketball player) and mmmy17.
Retaining a commanding chip lead, mombasi did not let up until he had vanquished tobededope in heads-up play to win the tournament. tobededope had to settle for $120,000 while mombasi took home $200,000 for first place.
Here are the final-table results for the Turbo Takedown and the events held on Sunday:
PokerStars $2 Million Turbo Takedown
1. mombasi (Germany) $200,000.00
2. tobededope (Germany) $120,000.00
3. BleedBlue33 (United States) $80,000.00
4. TXSooner518 (United States) $65,000.00
5. qbgoose (Canada) $50,000.00
6. Karsten85 (Germany) $40,000.00
7. mmmy17 (Brazil) $30,000.00
8. D.Nowitzki (Germany) $20,000.00
9. oakblack (United Kingdom) $11,000.0
PokerStars Sunday Million
Based on finishing order and a five-way deal
1. Kvanmo (Norway) $102,588.54
2. Baikal7 (Russian Federation) $89,253.66
3. sunseeker (Germany) $165,640.65
4. REPda503 (United States) $71,000.00
5. Draughter (Netherlands) $96,077.15
6. Bry23 (United States) $34,760.00
7. MR_CAPO (Denmark) $24,490.00
8. Pappe_Ruk (Netherlands) $14,220.00
9. Bdbeatslayer (United States) $9,322.00
PokerStars Sunday Hundred Grand
1. keepsnoozein (United States) $20,000
2. ctc15 (United States) $10,000
3. jugge1975 (Sweden) $7,000
4. 1ofaKind420 (United States) $5,000
5. X-mann2 (Norway) $3,000
6. fussy45 (United States) $2,000
7. TrueGrlnder (United States) $1,600
8. Jimmy Chagra (United States) $1,300
9. holdemking21 (United States) $1,000
PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up Final Table Results
Based on finishing order and a two-way deal
1. OnlyPlayRagz (United States) $99,150.36
2. salmoncatch (United Kingdom) $70,108.84
3. xBryceyx (Canada) $41,081.70
4. stevejpa (Canada) $32,450
5. DaPokerGun (Slovenia) $25,440.80
6. mjh0318 (United States) $18,821
7. PureCash25 (United States) $13,629
8. junior0071 (Netherlands) $8,566.80
9. ragamuffin44 (United States) $5,062.20
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'The Master' surges to PokerListings POY lead
To break potential ties, PokerListings will now take into account the number of final-table appearances (FTA). If the tied players have the same number of final tables, then the money won (2008 earnings) will come into play to break that tie.
Nguyen, the veteran pro from Bell Gardens, Calif., has already amassed major points for paying cashes in 2008, with six final tables and an astounding four victories.
Nguyen has been playing almost every event so far in 2008 and this is what has driven him to the top of the POY mountain. While most professional players only focus on the larger buy-in tournaments, Nguyen has been playing buy-ins as low as $300.
Among those final-table finishes and outright victories, the Master has had a stunning string of successes at the L.A. Poker Classic now under way, where he has taken down three "Bucking Bronco" trophies.
Two of his bigger scores, however, have come in larger-buy-in tournaments: the World Poker Tour's World Poker Open in Tunica in January, where he finished third, and one of the $1,500 No-Limit events at the L.A. Poker Classic, which he won. It's not unimaginable that the Master could prevail in the POY rankings on the strength of the number of tournaments he plays.
Former PokerListings POY leader Mike McDonald has had a dormant couple of weeks but maintains second place on the list. McDonald's age (18) will be a factor, as his efforts to add to his point totals will be restricted to foreign tournaments such as the highly challenging European Poker Tour.
Mike Pickett, the champion at the World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Harrah's Rincon, joins a host of players at 1,600 points but, because of the tiebreaker scenarios, only lands in ninth place on the POY list.
Joining Pickett as a newcomer in the Top 10 is the man who was the runner-up in the Rincon tournament, California's David Peters, who added a WSOPC ring victory to his second-place finish to break into the Top 10 with 1,370 points.
As of today, the Top 10 looks like this:
| Place | Name | Country | Points | FTA | 2008 Winnings |
| 1st | Men Nguyen | United States | 2,386 | 6 | $510,666 |
| 2nd | Mike McDonald | Canada | 2,140 | 3 | $1,487,214 |
| 3rd | Bertrand Grospellier | France | 1,600 | 1 | $2,000,000 |
| 4th | Alexander Kostritsyn | Russia | 1,600 | 1 | $1,452,000 |
| 5th | Gavin Griffin | United States | 1,600 | 1 | $1,401,109 |
| 6th | Howard Lederer | United States | 1,600 | 1 | $1,100,000 |
| 7th | Brett Faustman | United States | 1,600 | 1 | $892,413 |
| 8th | Bart Tichelman | United States | 1,600 | 1 | $415,595 |
| 9th | Mike Picket | United States | 1,600 | 1 | $229,002 |
| 10th | David Peters | United States | 1,370 | 2 | $157,995 |
Completed qualifying events: WSOPC Rincon, Campeonato de España-Peralada, 2008 South African Poker Open Championship Event, 2008 European Deep Stack Poker Championship Main Event, 2008 Paris Open of Poker Championship Event, 2008 Nordic Lights Championship Event, Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Leg 2-Walsall Championship Event
Qualifying events in progress: 2008 L.A. Poker Classic (through Event 24), 2008 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza (through Event 11, with Events 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 qualifying)
Bubbling under the Top 10 are several names that poker fans will recognize. Poker pro Lee Watkinson is only 50 points from cracking into the Top 10 and David "The Dragon" Pham, who has also been playing well at the L.A. Poker Classic, jumps into the second tier in 16th place.
Diane Nguyen maintains ladies POY lead
With two solid finishes in preliminary action at the L.A. Poker Classic, Diane Nguyen has been able to maintain her lead in the PokerListings Ladies Player of the Year race.
The Canadian Nguyen has earned an eighth-place and a second-place finish in two of the LAPC preliminary events, to hold a 63-point lead over Vanessa Selbst, the World Poker Tour Ladies champion at the LAPC.
Nguyen's efforts, however, have come in two open events while Selbst has only been able to add 27 points to her WPTL victory. Jennifer Golin, whose early-season success had her in the Ladies POY lead for a bit, has now dropped to third place.
Two players have earned their way into the Ladies Top 10 with excellent finishes in a couple of far-flung locales. Spain's Marga Gonzales Dominguez was the champion of the first stop of the Campeonato de España in Peralada, Spain, and the victory earned her enough points to make her tied with several players for fourth place.
Joining her as a new entry into the Top 10 is Melanie Banfield, whose fourth-place finish at the 2008 South African Poker Open earned her enough points to bump Erica Schoenberg out of the 10th-place spot. The Ladies Top 10 looks like this:
| Place | Name | Points |
| 1st | Diane Nguyen | 410 |
| 2nd | Vanessa Selbst | 347 |
| 3rd | Jennifer Golin | 326 |
| 4th | Regette Bechara | 320 |
| Maria Gonzales Dominguez | ||
| GiGi Dong | ||
| Christy King | ||
| Irina Liepina | ||
| Louise Rocchio | ||
| 10th | Melanie Banfield | 270 |
Over the next couple of weeks, the tournament schedule kicks into high gear. Along with the continuing preliminary play at the LAPC, including its WPT Championship Event and the WPT Invitational, and the Venetian Deep Stack tournaments, the EPT returns to action in Copenhagen and the WSOPC also has its next stop on the schedule in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Both the main and the Ladies POY tallies will definitely be subject to change, so check back at the beginning of March to see how the PokerListings Player of the Year races are stacking up.
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Apostolico talks poker at Penn
Apostolico is a former Wall Street lawyer who found that the principles he'd learned at the poker table worked well in his professional life as well.
Now he is the author of poker books such as Tournament Poker and the Art of War, Machiavellian Poker Strategy and his latest, Poker Strategies for a Winning Edge in Business. He will be discussing this latest book and its real-world implications during today's talks at the University of Pennsylvania.
"We're looking forward to learning from Mr. Apostolico's unique combination of corporate and pro poker experience," said Daniel Axelsen, student and president of the University of Pennsylvania GPSTS chapter. "He has a highly informed sense of how poker simulates behaviors in the boardroom and at the negotiations table."
The discussion is sponsored by Penn's GPSTS chapter as part of an ongoing series of forums, summits and speaking engagements by some of the top poker experts and players in the world.
"The GPSTS believes that poker teaches and sharpens important life skills, making poker more than merely a fun game," said the organization in a press release.
The GPSTS is dedicated to forming chapters on college and university campuses that share the poker strategic thinking philosophy, staging strategic poker matches between chapters and schools, hosting conferences and seminars that explore the strategic thinking inherent in poker and exploring new ways to use poker as an education tool.
After Apostolico's presentation, there will be a question-and-answer session followed by a demonstration poker game.
The discussion is open to the public and will take place in the Wharton School's Huntsman Hall, Room G50, at 6 p.m. (EST).
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Trouble accessing Full Tilt Poker?
Numerous posts on poker forums like 2+2 and Pocket Fives have voiced concern about what's going on at the popular online poker room. There have been a number of incidents where players weren't able to finish the tournament they had just started and even accessing the Full Tilt Web site has been impossible at times.
Several gaming sites have attributed the lack of service to a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service Attack) while others are saying the site is just undergoing some routine maintenance.
Full Tilt Poker would not officially comment on the situation at the time this article was published but it's likely the online poker giant will have to say something to alleviate concerns of their costumers soon.
DDoS attacks usually overwhelm a Web site with requests and deny legitimate users access to the site.
The Shadowserver Foundation, which is an all-volunteer watchdog group of security professionals who gather, track and report on malware, botnet activity and electronic fraud, have noted a number of gambling sites are under attack. In an update titled "Gambling Websites Under Attack," the Shadowserver Foundation listed Full Tilt Poker, CD Poker, Titan Poker and 28 other gambling sites that have been targeted. A great number of the sites originate from Russia.
What anyone could gain from denying access to gambling Web sites is unknown but keep it locked on PokerListings.com for updates on the situation.
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Player heads to Copenhagen via Hollywood
Gonz13 won the EPT freeroll at Hollywood Poker, which the site hosted exclusively for PokerListings.com players Jan. 27. It saw 39 players sit down in the final event to try to earn a seat to the Copenhagen event.
To qualify for the freeroll, players who had signed up through PokerListings.com had to do one of the following:
- Finish in the top five of any weekly PokerListings.com $1,000 freeroll.
- Be in the top five PokerListings.com players for Hollywood points any week before the freeroll.
- Be the last PokerListings.com player standing in selected open Hollywood Poker tourneys (list sent each week).
Of the players that made it into the EPT freeroll, Gonz13 was the lucky one to pick up the $10,000 prize package to go to the Scandinavian Open. There was also $5,000 in cash spread out from second to 12th place.
The results of the freeroll were as follows:
| Place | Name | Prize |
| 1st | Gonz13 | $10k prize package |
| 2nd | GUEST_STAR_ | $1,050 |
| 3rd | jukach | $700 |
| 4th | MAYOTE | $550 |
| 5th | st-michael1 | $400 |
| 6th | walle_88 | $350 |
| 7th | Bundy666x | $300 |
| 8th | Jointmaker74 | $300 |
| 9th | MrStrange | $250 |
| 10th | jackdory | $250 |
| 11th | Call_me_down | $200 |
| 12th | marromarro | $200 |
PokerListings.com players at Hollywood Poker will get another shot at another EPT seat March 9. This time they'll be playing for a prize package for the San Remo, Italy, event.
The final freeroll will also spread $5,000 from second place deep into the playing field.
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