Monday, February 18, 2008

Poker News - WPA elects Ken Adams to Board


Playing from Feb. 17 to Feb. 20, the third annual PartyPoker Sports Stars Challenge will bring 36 players to the 3 Mills Studio in London to play in poker heats. The winners of each heat will move on to the final table and a shot at thousands of British pounds in cash.

The soccer heat will feature seasoned poker players Teddy Sheringham and Tony Cascarino as well as Norman Whiteside, Steve Sedgely, John Adridge and Lee Sharpe.

Representing the cricketers at the felt will be Mark Ramprakash among others, and the snooker players' heat will see the likes of Steve Davis, Willie Thorne and Mark Wiliams.

Darts stars trying to become the ultimate sports star at the poker table will include Phil "The Power" Taylor, Michael Van Gerwen and Peter "One Dart" Manley.

The rugby players will include Matt Dawson, Jamie Peacock and Robbie Paul. There will also be some sports presenters showing off their poker muscle in the event. Andy Goldstein, Chris Kamara, Alan McInally, and Agnieszka Rylik will all take part.

Each player will sit down with £1,000, and each heat winner will get £6,000. Then they'll head to the final table where first place will receive £20,000, second will get £10,000 and third will win £5,000.

New this year, PartyPoker is also hosting a stand-along soccer fans tournament made of six players who qualified online through special tournaments.

"We are expecting the standard of play to be very high. Many of the sports stars are good enough to play on the professional circuit," said a PartyPoker spokesman. "The strongest contenders look like the snooker players and footballers but on their day there are so many players capable of taking this title down."

Coverage of the event will be exclusively produced by Matchroom Sport and will be aired in the United Kingdom later this year on Sky Sports and distributed internationally.

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WPA elects Ken Adams to Board

"The Board was diligent in its recruiting efforts, and it paid off," said WPA Executive Committee Chairman Wendeen Eolis.

"I can't think of anyone who brings more assets to the role of a director than Ken. He is a passionate poker player, a highly regarded poker writer and has acquired special wisdom in recent representations in gaming matters as well as decades of broad legal experience in nationally recognized law firms."

Adams has a law degree from Chicago Law School and has spent years in the legal field as well as working in politics. His relationship with poker began in 1985 when he met Perry Green in a fur shop during a family trip to Alaska.

Green gave Adams a copy of A. Alvarez's book, The Biggest Game in Town, which Adams read on the flight home.

#img: wpa-logo_2505.jpg:left# 

"I was fascinated and puzzled by the fact that the game considered by professional players to be 'the Cadillac of poker games' - no limit Texas Hold'em - was one I had never heard of or played," Adams says on the WPA Web site.

He organized a monthly tournament with his friends when he got back to Washington D.C. It was a way to learn the game, and part of the buy-in each month was held over until the end of the year when the player with the most points would win a trip to see the World Series of Poker Main Event final table.

Adams won the trip and got to see Johnny Chan bust Eric Seidel to win his second title.

After that, Adams returned to the WSOP each year to see the Main Event and began writing freelance poker columns for publications. Then in 2002, he took his first turn at competing in a WSOP event.

According to the WPA, Adams has had three cashes in WSOP events in the past five years. His most recent poker accomplishment is finishing seventh in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em event at the Borgata Winter Open in January.

"I love playing poker. I love sharing my enthusiasm for the game with friends and with students," Adams says on the WPA site. "And I look forward to working with my colleagues on the WPA board to advance the interests of poker players everywhere."

As a WPA Executive Committee member, Adams will be a part of overseeing the operations of the WPA between board meetings and making recommendations to the Board of Directors regarding special projects.

The WPA's mission is to promote professionalism in poker worldwide and support the highest standards of ethical conduct in tournament poker activities. The Association represents the interests of tournament poker players around the world that seek to affect the future of tournament poker, individually and as a group.

The other board members are:

  • Jesse Jones - Chairman
  • Wendeen Eolis - Vice Chairman
  • Joe Hachem - Secretary
  • Harry Thomas Jr. - Treasurer
  • Thomas Kremser
  • Lou Krieger
  • Annie Van Bebber
  • Paul Wasicka

Adams said despite his previous, frustrating experiences serving on the board for other organizations run by volunteer board members, he believes the WPA can evolve into a powerful and effective voice for the interests of amateur and professional poker players.

"Poker has become a big business, and right now the major decisions that affect the availability of safe, honest and reasonably priced poker games (both tournaments and cash games, in brick-and-mortar and online card rooms) are being made by people whose first objective is to maximize profit," Adams said.

"The players who pay the rake in cash games and the entry fees in tournaments, who fund the tournament prize pools that attract thousands of people to the host hotel/casinos and internet sites, and who provide free content for lucrative television broadcasts of tournament final tables, have little if any organized voice or leverage. That can and should change."

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Gambler sues William Hill over excessive losses
Graham Calvert has filed a 2 million pound lawsuit against bookmaker William Hill, claiming that the site didn’t follow through on its promise of excluding Calvert from placing wagers with the company after Calvert requested a ban. William Hill, like most sites, offers players some form ��...full article

W HillGraham Calvert has filed a 2 million pound lawsuit against bookmaker William Hill, claiming that the site didn’t follow through on its promise of excluding Calvert from placing wagers with the company after Calvert requested a ban.

William Hill, like most sites, offers players some form of self-initiated exclusion from wagering activities.

(more…)



FTOPS VII: Clements' event goes to ilikeaces86

This was the 12th event of the Full Tilt Poker series, and it saw 1,361 players ante up the $300+$22 buy-in. That boosted the $1 million guaranteed prize pool up to $1,287,300, giving ilikeaces86 a $257,460 first-place payout.

Scott Clements did try to replicate Erick Lindgren's feat of winning his own event. He put on a good show, making it to 171st place to just barely make it into the money, which began at 174th place.

 

Mike Matusow also showed what the pros are made of in this event. He cashed in 369th place in Event 9, and improved to 150th in Wednesday's No-Limit Hold'em six-max with re-buys.

Of the pros that cashed, it was Lindgren making the strongest showing once again. He finished in 38th place.

The top 10 players in the tournament were:

Place
Name
Prize
1st
ilikeaces86
$257,460
2nd
THE_D_RY
$169,923.60
3rd
DDBeast
$118,689.06
4th
BKiCe
$90,111
5th
potroast
$62,434.05
6th
SirWatts
$42,480.90
7th
Jaral
$26,389.65
8th
rkruok
$26,389.65
9th
U_2Good4_Me
$17,378.55
10th
nowa1
$17,378.55

Today Full Tilt Poker will be showing the love for its players with two more FTOPS VII events. First up is the $200+$16 H.A. (Pot-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha) hosted by Rino Mathis. The event began at 2 p.m. (EST) and has a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool.

Event 15 will kick off at 9 p.m. (EST) today as Huckleberry Seed hosts the $300+$22 Razz tournament. The event has a $150,000 guaranteed prize pool.

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PlayersOnly extends deadline for video contest

PlayersOnly has decided to give amateur directors an extra week to polish their videos and send them in. Originally the deadline was this week but it has now been extended to March 15.

In case you haven't heard about the contest here are the details: Contestants were invited to submit video clips showing themselves and their friends demonstrating what it takes to be a "player." This could be emulating famous, or infamous, players or just plain making fun of wannabe players.

A video featuring PlayersOnly hostess, and Playboy/FHM model, Carrie Stroup which gives an idea of what they are looking for is already getting hundreds of views on Youtube.

There are already a couple videos that have popped up on Youtube for the contest including "How NOT to be a player" and "The Pretend Player."

Anyone can enter and all you have to do is post your video on www.YouTube.com/UnleashThePlayer.

The winner, selected by Stroup, will receive $10,000 and a night out with Stroup all paid for by PlayersOnly.com.

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