Antonius played competitively as a teen until various injuries forced him to play as a hobby. Though never playing on an international level, Antonius is widely known as one of the best tennis players amongst the poker pros, due to his physical prowess, killer instinct and natural talents. Adams experience at poker comes from his passion playing from ages 11-14, and with friends in college.

The bet materialized last October, on an episode of pot limit omaha, Poker After Dark, when Antonius offered Adams, 20/1 the he couldn’t beat him at tennis. Originally they were set to play in Monaco on red clay. Those terms were later changed to 10/1, in exchange for letting Adams play on a hard surface in Vegas.

The match took place yesterday at the International Tennis Centre in Las Vegas with an NCAA experienced chair judge and two baseline judges. It was a best of three set match.

Antonius came out hard early, beating Adams in several close games to take the first set 6-0. Adams lack of experience in fast paces, tournament style tennis, showed early, with the judges pushes his serve and action. At one point he took timeout to speak to his trainer, and had five minutes to discuss strategy.

In the second set Adams was not able to hold it together, in his own words:

“Antonius has too much toughness for me. He missed 0% of his approach shots. He literally did not miss any time I put a ball at the service line in a rally. He drilled short balls into the corners for either a winner or a putaway on the next ball.”

Antonius steamrolled the second set 6-1 to close out the match. Spectators included Scott Seiver and various other friends in the poker community. After watching clips of the match, it’s interesting to see Antonius, known for his calm, composure and poker face at the table, actively chasing balls down the court, and getting physical with authority. Adams theorizes that Antonius has some sort of “clutch chromosome”, and that very few people can handle high pressure situations like Patrik Antonius can.

The good news for Adams is that in 2012, he has a chance to redeem himself. Antonius and Adams have agreed to play another tennis match in 2012, except this time Adams will get a 30-love advantage every time Antonius serves!

A quick note, the crack news staff at FlopTurnRiver will be covering the 2011 WSOP in great detail. Be sure to check our News Section daily for real time updates from major events, news on big names poker professionals, and any other drama coming from the Rio Casino and Resort in Las Vegas.

This past weekend was a tough one for online tournaments as most Americans were celebrating Memorial day and a lot of other players were busy traveling to Las Vegas for the 2011 WSOP. To combat the lower attendance lately PokerStars has decided to move up their online majors by two hours each Sunday. This should attract more players from Europe now that the American player base is no longer allowed to play on PokerStars.

Speaking of sites not open to Americans, the Party Poker $250k continued to roll along this past weekend. The $200+$16 buy-in, quarter-million dollar guarantee has been falling just short of its guarantee lately. With a few players under 1,200 entrants on Sunday Party Poker again had to pay out more than $10,000 in overlay.  Still the $250,000 prize pool ranked as one of the five biggest events of the day along with majors on PokerStars and FullTilt.  The final table had some strong players on hand including Denis “bigdennys” Bergeron, Trung “dynastzz” Tran, Philly “pbergeroo” Huxley, and runner-up “mjw_006″.  All in all there were a handful of the top-1000 players in the world vying for the $52,500 first-place prize.  That honor eventually went to a relatively unknown player “SERPENTO78″ who took down the fearsome foursome in the process.  This massive score was easily the biggest of his career for a player who before yesterday stuck to small stakes events.

Party Poker Sunday $250k guaranteed
1,196 Entrants; $250,000 prize pool

1. SERPENTO78 $52,500
2. mjw_006 $30,000
3. bigdennys $18,125
4. DYnaSTyz $14,475
5. pbergeroo $11,875
6. sluglife87 $9,375
7. beefyor1983 $7,125
8. actionjambo $4,750
9 .bvvbdx $3,625
10. CanadianAc33 $2,500

Much like the $250k on Party Poker the same event on Titan Poker has also failed to reach its guarantee as of late. In fact the tournament came more than 225 entries short yesterday forcing Titan to pay more than $45,000 in overlay to those in the event. With each of the 1,022 gaining approximately $45 in tournament value there were plenty of happy tournament grinders on hand.   While the Party $250k’s final table was full of successful online tournament professionals the Titan $250k was full of unknown amateurs.  One of the few players with big event experience was the eventual runner-up “Mournval” who finished 2nd in the $200k on Titan last year for $28,674.  His $27,500 score here was the 2nd biggest cash of his career and outranked a win in the $55 re-buy on PokerStars last year for $13,425.  Eventual winner “DieselBossen” might not have had a lot of final table experience but he put what he had to good use.  The $52,500 first place cash was the biggest of his career and one of the biggest scores online this past weekend.

Titan Poker Sunday $250k Guaranteed
1,022 Entrants; $250,000 prize pool

1. DieselBossen $52,500
2. Mournval $27,500
3. anteen $20,000
4. Kentykent789 $15,000
5. IdontMind2 $12,500
6. azzRazz $10,000
7. xPOPOVICIx $7,500
8. FinnMacCumhaill $5,000
9. saltydog43 $3,500
10. iCoy $2,500

The site that took the biggest hit from the Memorial Day festivities was one that depends a lot on American players.  While a lot of US based players were busy at Memorial Day barbecues the Merge Network still ran their Sunday $100,000 guaranteed major.  The $100+$9 buy-in event only received 826 entries forcing $17,400 in overlay to be paid by the growing poker network.   For those who have played on FullTilt or PokerStars their entire life, the Merge $100k draws players from a range of more than 60 poker sites including Lock, RPM, Carbon, Blackchip Poker, and more.  These “skins” all offer different promotions but use the same software and share tables with one another.  This allows for extra traffic for the Network which in turn creates bigger tournaments and more cash game tables. The $100,000 was won by “Buckwild5″ for $20,000.   Fifth-place finisher “Boltman7171″ was one of the more known players at the final table having quite the presence on RPM Poker in the past.  His $4,250 score was one of the bigger cashes of his career on the Merge Network.

Merge Poker Sunday $100k Guaranteed
826 Entrants; $100,000 prize pool

1. Buckwild5 $20,000
2. DeeBoh $12,000
3. YangLaoDa $6,500
4. Silentnut2 $5,000
5. Boltman7171 $4,250
6. slowtrips $3,500
7. vinny23mac $2,750
8. xiankash $2,250
9. NightCaller $1,750
i10. lan123 $1,500

The PokerStars Sunday majors have seen a steady decline since online poker’s Black Friday in April.  Still, the world’s biggest internet card room remains as the #1 online tournament provider as well.   With the Sunday Million, Warm-Up, Second Chance, 500, and Storm, PokerStars has events for just about every skill and bankroll level.  As mentioned before, starting next week all five of these events will be pushed two hours ahead to accommodate their player base which has become predominantly European since April 15th.

The $1,000,000 guaranteed fell short of its guarantee as just 4,833 players entered the $200+$15 buy-in tournament. With more than $33,000 in overlay there was some nice value for those who were willing to put in a hard day’s work grinding online events on Sunday.  All of that hard work might have worn down on those who made the final table as all nine players strangely decided upon a chip-chop.  The tournament rules call for $20,000 to be left aside in case of a deal, but other than that small amount there was zero drama left at the week’s biggest online event’s final table.  The two biggest stacks at the time of the chop made it all the way down to heads-up play which eventually went the way of Tobias  “PokerNoob999″ Reinkemeier.  The $135,053  score was the 2nd biggest of his career coming in just behind a win in the 2009 SCOOP $1,500 Heads-Up Championship for $168,750.  He has built quite the resume on Stars as along with a SCOOP and Million win also has taken down the Sunday500, $109r, Super Tuesday, and Second Chance.  While he does not play a lot online he is widely considered one of the best players in the world.

PokerStars Sunday $1M Guaranteed
4,833 Entrants; $1,000,000 prize pool
*9-way deal

1. PokerNoob999 $135,053
2. The__Anfied $129,319
3. TomsBrakis $26,834
4. Maroc_Dk 77 $49,354
5. rumazon $42,862
6. 3max $25,917
7. sedinoel $37,521
8. reutsim $42,295
9. swillslinger $40,774

The Sunday500, which now carries a $250,000 guarantee, fell 25 players short of reaching the quarter-million prize pool mark.  This left $12,500 in overlay for 475 of the world’s best online tournament grinders.   Finishing in 6th place was Alex “alexo18″ Manzano who earned just more than $10,000 for his efforts.  The online professional has been on a roll lately having won the $215 re-buy last month for $18,950 and the $109 cubed for $10,695.  Michael “Tokyo09″ Le improved upon his resume with an 8th place finish for $5,625.  The high-stakes professional is no stranger to big-time final tables having nearly won FTOPS Event #24 last month for $173,250.  Eventual winner “KingGr” took down the biggest score of his career on Stars for more than $47,000.  The midstakes grinder had crushed highstakes satellites in the past but had come up short in bigger events.

PokerStars Sunday $250k Guaranteed
475 Entrants; $250,000 prize pool

1. KingGr $47,250
2. stuwexler $34,625
3. ze_caiçara $25,500
4. GusanoZ $19,250
5. Big_Nemo $13,500
6. alexo18 $10,625
7. tupacmn $8,125
8. tokyo09 $5,625
9. ultras_bvb $3,825

Much like PokerStars, the world’s 2nd largest site FullTilt continues to march onward post Black Friday.  While FullTilt has still not paid out their American players they have been communicating better as of late with those owed money.  It seems payouts could be imminent as $50,000,000 in player accounts were unfrozen this past weekend.  On top of this FullTilt has begun the process of converting tournament tickets and player points to cash.   Even without Americans online the FullTilt majors continue to rank as the 2nd biggest weekly series in online poker.  Their $240+$16 Brawl is a popular Knock-Out style event that pays $40 to a player every time he/she eliminates a fellow opponent.  Players who bust FullTilt professionals also receive an “I busted an FTP Pro” shirt for their efforts.  Yesterday there were 13 FullTilt Pros on hand with this bounty on their heads.  The best finisher of the bunch was Marc Karam who made it just inside the money in 110th place.

The heads-up battle came down to “IM_ICM” and “push me dirty” who decided to forgo any variance and take a chip-chop. The deal left IM_ICM with more than $47,000 in winnings and push me dirty with more than $37,000.

FullTilt Sunday Brawl $200k Guaranteed
1,183 Entrants; $236,600 prize pool
*2-way deal

1. IM_ICM $47,547
2. push me dirty $37,629
3. CON B2R $23,956
4. kittiesgomah $19,224
5. r4ndom4gs $14,504
6. geoelt $10,647
7. Mockasin $6,861
8. Poker_and_Babes $4,969
9. Bacis1 $3,549

Wrapping things up this past weekend was the $750k on FullTilt.  The Multi-Entry event attracted nearly 4,300 entries bolstering the prize pool to over $850,000.  The ME format seems to be catching on nicely and has been helping some of the bigger events on FullTilt surpass their guarantees post Black Friday.  The final table contained some strong players including Romanian Ciolte “bloodlust007″ Calin who finished in 8th place for $13,757.  Runner-up “Exan13″ is a Russian poker pro who took home the first six-figure cash of his online career.  He previously won the Sunday500 on PokerStars for $87,400 earlier this year as well as the Brawl just last month for $75,892.  All in all he has had quite the 2011 but could still not overtake “BadExtasty89″ for the title.

FullTilt Sunday $750k Guaranteed
4,299 Entrants; $859,800 prize pool

1. BadExtasy89 $153,904
2. Exan13 $106,615
3. Budnikov $76,350
4. JTpatron-CH $56,747
5. Andypsx $42,130
6. trontrontron $29,233
7. prrrak $19,775
8. bloodlust007 $13,757
9. Santiniii $9,458

The World Championship of Online Poker is an annual poker tournament series. It is the largest of its kind online, and is hosted at internet poker giant PokerStars, thus opening its doors to US and international players alike. The variety of exciting events and the amount of money up for grabs seems to keep growing each year since the inaugural series, and this year we’re seeing 62 events and an amazing $50,000,000 in guaranteed prize pools.

PokerStars tries to offer a great variety of WCOOP events, both varying in format and game, and this goes a long way to keeping the series exciting and drawing crowds. At the end of the day, though, easily the most popular game in the world at the moment is No Limit Texas Hold’Em, and Event 41 was one of several events that offered entrants exactly that.

Proving that PokerStars knows what the people want, 9587 individuals registered for the tournament, either by buying in directly for $200 +$15 or by winning one of the many satellite tournaments that PokerStars ran for the event. This number was enough to far exceed the $1.5 Million guarantee, with the final prize pool weighing in at a very respectable $1,917,400.00. The top 1260 places paid, and if managed to survive the nineteen and a half hours of play and be the last man standing, your official first place prize would have been $282,053.86.

With such a serious amount of cash up for grabs it’s no surprise that among the entrants were a substantial number of Team PokerStars Pros. Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis performed the best of these, which should come as no surprise to those of you have seen him play in the past on the likes of GSN’s High Stakes Poker. The very accomplished young pro finished this tournament in 19th place for $4,218.28, just ahead of fellow Team PokerStars Pro Christophe “chrisdm” de Meulder who was eliminated in 21st.

Money_1985, canucko and OliverDK were the final three players standing when talk of a chop arose for the second time. It had been attempted earlier with five players but no agreement could be come to, so play had to be resumed. The final three proved to be much more amicable, however, and quickly agreed on a fair set of numbers, giving Money_1985 slightly over $250,000, canucko $180,000 and OliverDK just shy of $170,000. As required by tournament rules, this left $30,000 to be played for along with the gold bracelet, both of which would go to first place.

OliverDK, the shortstack at the time of the chop, managed a prompt double-up, but it proved to not be enough to ward off elimination, as he finished the tournament in third place. Heads-up play got underway, and the chip stacks were relatively even when the money went all-in preflop, Money_1985′s Jack Eight suited against canucko’s King Ten offsuit. The 334 rainbow flop looked deadly to Money_1985, as did the 5 turn, but an 8 on the river earned him the pot, the first-place prize and the golden bracelet. In fact, as a result of the chop and the $30,000 left aside for first, Money_1985 received a payout of $282,798.80, about $750 more than the official first place prize.

We’re about two thirds of the way through this year’s World Championship of Online Poker and so far it’s been a blast. A great deal of fun’s been had by all involved and an even bigger amount of cash has been handed out. It’s not too late to get your share of the action, so check out the PokerStars Download and perhaps you’ll soon be walking away with the lion’s share of the $10,000,000 WCOOP 2010 Main Event!

The official final table results are as follows:

1st place:    Money_1985 ($282,798.80)
2nd place:    canucko ($180,336.86)
3rd place:    OliverDK ($168,843.70)
4th place:    2Maise$U ($95,870.00)
5th place:    shipshipit ($76,696.00)
6th place:    Legacy10 ($57,522.00)
7th place:    LISTILLO ($38,348.00)
8th place:    Hape2006 ($21,091.40)
9th place:    pimpstackn89 ($14,859.85)

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series is held every few months and is, as the name suggests, a series of tournaments hosted on Full Tilt Poker. The buy-ins for these can be pretty steep and we don’t all have the budget for expensive tournaments, so the nice people at Full Tilt came up with the idea of MiniFTOPS – all the same events at one tenth the buy-in. This MiniFTOPS XVII, for instance, has the same 34 events as FTOPS XVII but at one tenth the buy-in while still guaranteeing a staggering $6,000,000 in combined guaranteed prize pools.

The big event to watch today was Event 12, the MiniFTOPS Heads Up No Limit Hold’Em Event. In a Heads Up Shootout tournament such as this, each player is paired with another, the two then having to battle it out until only one remains. Once each pair is left with one victor, a new set of pairs is created. This way half the playing field is lost each round until finally there are just two players left battling it out for the MiniFTOPS XVII Heads Up title. It’s a great format that allows you to get really personal with your opponents over the course of the tournament.

The event proved incredibly popular, drawing 3,952 entrants in total, whether they bought in for the $50 + $5 directly or won their way to the virtual tables through the plethora of satellite tournaments Full Tilt has been running. The guarantee for the prizepool was set at $150,000 and this was easily topped with the final figure being $197,600. 512 places paid with the official first place prize being over $30,000; a fitting reward for surviving the 11.5 of heads-up play.

Full Tilt markets itself as the site at which one can learn, chat and play with the pros, and the MiniFTOPS events are certainly no exception. Each event is hosted by a member of the Full Tilt family, and in the case of Event 12 it was Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger stepping up to the plate. The American pro is all too familiar with FTOPS, having won $107,226 in the series in 2007. Since then he’s smoothly made the switch to live play, doing extremely well there too, including an 18th place finish in the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event. Unusually, he wasn’t to be seen on the tables in today’s event, which would surely have been a relief to many.

Full Tilt was certainly being represented strongly by others, however, with a bunch of red pros showing up to prove their might. Luigi Kwaysser proved the most successful of these, earning himself a 58th place finish. The young Hungarian pro already has a World Series of Poker Bracelet, not to mention his seven other WSOP cashes. No stranger to poker success, Kwaysser didn’t manage to get another title under his belt today but his finish was nevertheless good for $592.80.

In the end it came down to JMaster130 versus PrincessGlo heads up for the title. With first place prize money at over $30,000 and second place prize money just under $17,000 there was quite a lot of cash up for grabs, and the two quickly decided upon an even chop. Each would get $21,000, leaving just over $5,000 and the coveted title to play for. Despite the quick decision to split the money, the match itself was not so quick, and was surely trying for both players with eleven and a half hours of heads-up play under their belts. It was JMaster130 who eventually triumphed, earning himself $26,028.80 plus the title. A very solid prize for an equally solid day’s poker.

The great crowds at these MiniFTOPS events continue to prove that they’re a big success, due largely to the awesome variety of formats put on by Full Tilt. There’s really something for everybody on offer, so if you haven’t already then definitely head over and check out the schedule to see if there’s something that takes your fancy. With a bit of solid poker skill and some help from lady luck you should have no problems following the example of JMaster130 and walking away with a solid chunk of cash.

The official final four are as follows:

1. JMaster130 – $26,028.80
2. PrincessGlo – $21,000.00
3. darkhawk-2000 – $8,496.80
4. T Gottem – $8,496.80

Paddy Power, a gambling, sports betting and poker site focused on Irish customers, expected Woods to accept the five year contract. After his refusal, the company said it would return with a higher offer, TMZ reports.

Paddy Power is the largest bookmaker in Ireland and a member of the popular iPoker network. Though it does not welcome US players, the company hoped to use Woods’ international recognition to attract more users the site.

Last year, a University of California study determined that Woods personally made $100 million from sponsorships – more than any other athlete. Since then, reports of Woods’ infidelity caused him to lose sponsorship from Accenture, AT&T, Gatorade, and Gillette. If accepted, the $75 million offer would bring Woods up to $6 million per year.

Paddy Power Poker is a popular site that offers new users a 150% deposit bonus up to $600 and is currently running a promotion called Cashpoint. This promotion gives users $1 for every 20 player points earned on their tenth highest point day every month. Paddy Power is known for its sponsorship of the Gay Rugby World Cup and a festival dedicated to the comedy “Father Ted”.

If passed, the Congressmen’s plan would make Iowa the first state in the nation to allow and regulate in-state online poker and sports betting — bringing an estimated $11.5 million per year to the state in the process.

The plan would allow any casino in Iowa to create an online poker network that players could access from a home computer. As a regulation measure, the players would be required to physically go to a casino to open an account or make a deposit, but are not required to stay at the casino to play.

The proposal is described as a rational response to the popularity of out-of-country gambling sites, which take millions of dollars out of the state every year. Rep. Doug Struyk, R-Council Bluffs, said that the plan would not cause people to spend more money on poker because “these dollars are already going offshore.”

Another proponent of the plan, Brian Quirk, D-New Hampton, said “look, either we’re a gambling state, or we’re not, and with 17 casinos, I’d say we’re a gambling state.” Quirk urged fellow congressmen to approve the plan rather than continue to allow Iowans to send money out of the country.

The proposal may get a hearing in the Souse State Government Committee as early as next week. If a bill eventually passes the legislature, Iowa’s proposed regulations could set an example for other gambling states, and perhaps even the federal government.

The next few weeks will mark a milestone for Poker Heaven as we are about to deal our 2 Billionth Hand…To celebrate this occasion we are giving away €250,000 in cash with 50 opportunities to win. Players will be awarded cash prizes for simply being dealt cards in our bonus hands on any table stakes.

€130,000 MTT Leaderboard

The MTT Leaderboard promotion will reward all regular multi table tournament players with great cash prizes on top of their tournament winnings. The top 100 players in each month’s leaderboard will receive a cash prize, and compete for a €10,000 WSOP package.

€200,000 Head Hunter Guaranteed

Poker Heaven is proud to announce this exciting €200,000 Head-Hunter tournament on the 17th of January at 17:00 GMT. Knock out your opponents and collect bounty prizes on your way to the top! All bounty prizes are added value on top of the guarantee. Qualifiers are running daily. Don’t miss out.

€60,000 Rake Race

The race is on from the 7th to the end of the 21st of February with a break day on the 14th of February. The only thing you have to do to win a cash prize on top of your rakeback or VIP bonus is to play poker. The rules are simple; the more points you generate, the higher you will place on the leaderboard and the better you will be rewarded.

Further details on all promotions at PokerHeaven.com

(Poker Heaven Press Release)