This year’s Super High Roller event attracted some of the biggest names in the poker world, including Eric Seidel, Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Patrik Antonius and Jason Mercier. The event also included some wealthy businessmen in the field, including Paul Phua, Richard Yong and Winfred Yu.

Negreanu ended up being eliminated on the bubble in 4th place, when his shove with A8 from the big blind couldn’t win against Antonius’ pocket jacks. Gus Hansen finished in 3rd place for $800,000 after his K8 fell to Ivey’s J4, all in on a flop of KJ4.

Heads up began between Ivey and Antonius with nearly equal chip stacks. Ivey had just a slight lead with 2.2 million chips against Antonius’ 1.8 million. Less than an hour into the heads up battle, Ivey won a large pot to give him a commanding lead. A few hands later, Antonius pushed all in with K3 offsuit, which Ivey called with AQ. The flop gave Antonius a pair of three’s, but a queen of clubs on the turn and a blank on the river secured Ivey as the winner. Antonius won $1.2 million for his efforts.

Ivey’s win is surely a welcome one, as he hasn’t had a great amount of success in poker lately. This was likely due to the troubles between him and the now defunct Full Tilt Poker, as well as personal relationship issues.

In June 2011 Ivey, at one time a part owner of Fulltilt Poker, filled a $150 million lawsuit against Tiltware/Fulltilt Poker for “irreparably” damaging his reputation. This came after Fulltilt being unable and/or unwilling to process cash outs from their players, due to the site shutdown and account freezes following Black Friday.

Then there is the ongoing “divorce saga” in which Ivey’s ex-wife, Luciaetta Ivey, filled a suit against Phil Ivey. They divorced in December 2009, which left Ivey paying $180,000 a month in alimony. He claims that these alimony payments were set up to be taken out of the money he received from Tiltware (parent company of Fulltilt Poker), which sponsored him. Ivey’s attorneys stated that when the payments stopped coming in, he was no longer liable to continue the alimony payments to his ex-wife. According to Ivey, his ex-wife was left with no debt, a $1.2 million collection of purses, over $1 million in jeweler y, among other assets. Ivey accepted $15.1 million in “gambling and other debts”, including $170,000 in credit card debt.

With the World Series of Poker getting underway, many of the game’s biggest sites have battened down the hatches. Which means, unfortunately for this blogger, there aren’t a ton of big name stories to talk about at length!

But fear not. Here at FlopTurnRiver, we like quick cashes just as much (if not more) than grinding sessions. So here, without further ado, are some quick tidbits from around the Poker Universe.

GSN Launches Aussie Millions Coverage and More

Thanks to a sponsorship from FullTiltPoker.Net, GSN will begin airing a televised presentation of the 2010 Aussie Millions poker tournament. Episodes kick off on June 5 at 9:00 EST, bringing you all the action from the land down under. Thanks in large part to the popularity of High Stakes Poker (which is slated for a move to Saturday Nights), GSN is also set to host another pair of poker programs, Full Tilt’s Double’s Poker Championship (starting August 14, 9 PM EST) and the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Championship (debuting on June 5, 11 PM EST).

Lacey Jones is Absolutely Done

On the eve of the 2010 WSOP in Vegas, renowned pro and announcer Lacey Jones has decided to part ways with Absolute Poker. While no reason has been provided, a spokesman from the Cereus Poker Network stated that the parting was an amicable one. No word as of yet if this has anything to do with the recent heat brought down on UB and their security holes.

Hall of Fame Lowers Standards

The Poker Hall of Fame has lowered the criteria for induction. Rather than requiring prospective candidates to receive 75% voting approval, a tally of just over 50% will now land you a seat in the game’s Holy-of-Holy’s. The Voting committee reserves the right to strike a name from the ballot, if the public nominates an unqualified player.

Harrah’s CEO Takes Pay Cut

You all know Gary Loveman, the jovial-looking fellow from the problem-gambling commercials. He also happens to be the CEO of Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. and makes a lot more money than you or I do. Or at least, he used to. After making an astounding $39.6 million in 2008, the top dog agreed to take a substantial pay cut. Rather than receiving nearly $40M, the CEO cut his wages to $5.97 million in 2009. This comes largely as a result of the waived stock options.

With ratings going up and up, and with the start of the 2010 World Series of Poker today, watching poker is more popular than ever before. Starting next week, GSN will move its popular poker block to Saturday nights and introduce two new shows: “Aussie Millions” and “Doubles Poker Championship.” Every week, these series along with “High Stakes Poker” will combine to form a nine hour poker marathon from 6pm ET to 3am ET (3-12pm PT).

GSN decided to make the move because of the dramatic increase in ratings for “High Stakes Poker” last season. David Schiff, the Vice President of Programming for GSN, said he hopes that “Saturday nights on GSN will be the go-to destination for serious poker fans.”

The first new series, “Aussie Millions Presented by Full Tilt Poker.net” is a 10-episode coverage of the three biggest events at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship, one of the largest tournament series in the world. All three events attract many of the biggest names in poker, including Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, Tony Bloom, Tom Dwan, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren and Jeffrey Lisandro.

Coverage starts with the $100K Challenge, a major tournament with a $100,000 AUD buy-in. Next, the series shows the Heads Up Championship, an intensely competitive event where each match goes to the best of three winner. Finally, the series shows the Main Event, with a $10K buy-in and $7.46 million prize pool.

The next new series, “Doubles Poker Championship Presented by Full Tilt Poker.net,” is a 13-part series covering an unusual event at the Golden Nugget Casino in Vegas. In this tournament, thirty two of the world’s best players competed as two-person teams that shared each hand. With so many big names in such a strange format, the event is sure to be filled with great plays. This series begins on August 14.

There is a reason that ratings for professional poker games continue to climb: the skill and intensity of the world’s best players is amazing. If you want to see these players in action, GSN on Saturdays is the place to be.

Phil Ivey is widely considered the best poker player in the world, but his story to the top is just as remarkable.  Playing as an underage teen in Atlantic City in the early ’90s, Ivey went by the name “Jerome” which appeared on his fake I.D. After dominating the stud games in AC for years he finally made the move to Vegas where he quickly became a household name in the poker world. One of his more storied ventures was playing for the “corporation” who took on Texas businessman Andy Beal for huge sums of money in 2006. Playing up to $50k/$100k blinds it was rumored that Ivey won more than $16,000,000 from the amateur, forcing Beal to quit the game.

While he does have seven WSOP bracelets it is his two near misses in the Main Event that most remember. In 2003 Ivey finished 10th when he took back to back bad beats against Freddy Deeb and eventual winner Chris Moneymaker.  This past year he finished 7th when his AK was outdrawn by Darvin Moon’s AQ when all the money went in before the flop.

Despite those “failures” Ivey continues to plug away, winning bracelets in many different games including Pot-Limit Omaha, 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo, SHOE, 7 Card Stud, NL 2-7 Lowball, and OE Split.  Overall he has collected nearly $5,000,000 in cashes at the WSOP alone. This past year he won two bracelets and collected more than $2,000,000 in prop bets from fellow poker professionals.  Ivey also owns one WPT bracelet for winning the LA Poker Classic in 2008 for $1,596,000.

While Ivey has claimed the top spot he does sit on a perilous perch, as less than $2,000,000 separates the top six players:

1. Phil Ivey $12,813,990
2. Daniel Negreanu $12,432,367
3. Jamie Gold $12,201,061
4. Phil Hellmuth Jr. $11,018,271
5. Scotty Nguyen $10,955,557
6. Joe Hachem $10,856,216
7. Peter Eastgate $10,729,565
8. Allen Cunningham $10,398,118
9. Erik Seidel $9,925,179
10. T.J. Cloutier $9,925,179

Going into the final table, the chipstacks were as follows:

Seat 1: Bill Jordanou – 195,000
Seat 2: Phil Ivey – 328,000
Seat 3: Tony Bloom – 227,000
Seat 4: Jonathan Karamalikis – 508,000
Seat 5: Howard Lederer – 141,000
Seat 6: Dan Shak – 453,000
Seat 7: Tony G – 200,000
Seat 8: Barry Greenstein – 388,000

The Professor, Howard Lederer, had barely warmed his seat before he was walking to the rail. All in with A-10 against Tony G’s A-A left him with little hope, which the board did nothing to aid. Jonathan Karamalikis demonstrated that he is skilled enough to compete with the best in the game, but made the elementary error of doubling up the indomitable Phil Ivey. Shortly after, he failed to win a coin flip and exited the event in 7th place. With just one place to go until the money, it was left to the Robin Hood of Poker, Barry Greenstein, to be the unlucky bubble boy. After having his Kings cracked a few hands earlier, he got his last chips in with Q-10 against the K-K of Tony Bloom. Sadly for Barry, history would not repeat and he left the tournament in 6th. Tony G’s new PartyPoker sponsorship was just enough to propel him into the money, before he ran into Dan Shak. A classic race between pocket 10s and A-K was all but over once the A-K-5 flop arrived. The turn and river held nothing for Tony and he was out in 5th.

From here until heads up it was all about Phil Ivey. By making it this far, the 7-time WSOP bracelet winner had confirmed that he would move ahead of Daniel Negreanu as the all-time leader in live tournament winnings. He now stands on $12,804,162 – just $400k ahead of his plucky Canadian rival. Phil’s first victim was Tony Bloom, who found himself dominated with Q-9 against Q-10 on a Queen-high board. Following him was Bill Jordanou, who can consider himself unlucky not to win the pot with his J-10. Both players got their stacks in the middle on an all-club J-10-6 board. Ivey was behind with Qh-Qc, but he had three queens and lots of clubs to draw to. As it happens, he got both. A Queen arrived on the turn to give him the lead and a 3c on the river finished off his flush. With just two players remaining, you would have put your money on Phil to take it down, but his opponent, Dan Shak, was no slouch. By employing an aggressive strategy, Dan was able to assume a solid chip lead before the final hand, in which he was all-in with A-7 against Ivey’s A-10. This time, the board was not so kind to Phil and a 7 on the flop was all Shak needed to take down the $1.2 million AUD first place prize.

Full payouts were as follows:

$1,200,000 AUD – Dan Shak
$600,000 AUD – Phil Ivey
$300,000 AUD – Billy Jordanou
$200,000 AUD – Tony Bloom
$100,000 AUD – Tony G

Event #5 was a $1,650 AUD No Limit Hold ‘em tournament with bounties, one of a few tournaments at the 2010 Aussie Million Poker Championship to feature a very strange structure. Bounty or knockout tournaments are not uncommon, usually featuring a few famous players with money in their heads or a portion of the buy-in sliced off and placed as a bounty on every single player. In Event #5, things were done a little differently. There was one randomly assigned bounty per table with $1000 AUD available to anyone who could eliminate him or her. In addition, although the tournament begun as a standard MTT freezeout, once there are 32 players remaining it switched to a shootout format.

The player who managed to most successfully negotiate all the madness was Australian Jonathan Karamalikis. The player known as xMONSTERxDONGx online is one of the country’s finest young talents, who appears to be making something of a name for himself at this year’s Aussie Millions. To clinch the title, he played heads up against Steve Friedlander. In the final hand of a brief one-on-one contest, the flop fell 5-J-7 and Karamalikis check raised his opponent to 175,000. Steve Friedlander wasted no time pushing all in, but was aghast to see his opponent call and flip over J-9 for top pair, dominating his own 9-7 middle pair. The final two cards missed both players and confirmed Jonathan “The Dong” Katamalikis as the $80,025 AUD Event #5 winner.

Event #6 marked the first appearance of the hallowed H.O.R.S.E. format, generally regarded as one of the toughest tests of a player’s all-round ability. Only 91 players felt well-rounded enough to take on the challenge and played down until 4:30 am in a single day to decide a winner. The players with the most stamina were Paul Ramondetta and John Joannou. In the final hand of the tournament the duo were both all-in on a round of stud, with Paul’s pair of Jacks mercilessly crushed by a nines-full boat from Joannou. The victor picked up $27,300 AUD for his efforts, while his vanquished opponent pocketed $20,020 AUD for second place.

Elsewhere in the Crown poker room, Event #7 was underway. This $1,150 AUD No Limit Hold ‘em Rebuy tournament attracted 108 players and a whole mass of rebuys and add-ons. With the figures had been tallied up, it was revealed that there would be a very healthy $464,000 AUD on offer for first place. Legendary Australian spin bowler Shane Warne demonstrated that he is no slouch on the felt by making the final table, but sadly fell away in 10th place. The eventual winner was another internet phenom, Mike “SirWatts” Watson. Mike has already proved his ability on the live circuit, picking up $1.6 million for his win in the WPT Bellagio Cup IV Championship in 2008. Back in the present, he defeated Gary Benson heads up for his first Aussie Millions title.

Obrestad, part of the Betfair Pro Team, bested 159 other players in a Pot Limit Omaha preliminary event, earning $40,000. Annette has had significant success in both live and online Hold ‘Em tournaments. Online, Annette_15 has won the UB 100k guaranteed and trudged her way through a field of 20,000 players to win the PokerStars’ Sunday Hundred Grand. Obrestad revealed her prowess for live poker by winning the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event in 2007. She has also had impressive results in Pot Limit Omaha. Her first place finish in this $1000 PLO Aussie Millions tournament surpasses her impressive third place finish in a Pot Limit Omaha event at WPT Barcelona in 2008.

Obrestad began the final table third in chips, but quickly became chip leader by eliminating Tony Bloom in eighth place. The Norwegian poker prodigy continued to steamroll the field by eliminating PokerStars Pro Emad Tahtouh when she held AAQK versus Tahtouh’s KK8T. Obrestad won a major pot with 4 players remaining, showing down a fullhouse, propelling her to 600,000 in chips.

After the dinner break, Annete_15 eliminated another player. At showdown, her fullhouse beat Ryan Gutch’s flush, sending Gutch to the rail in third place with $22,800. Heads-up play lasted just 3 hands. Both players got all in preflop with Billy Seri holding K8J9 and Obrestad showing KJJ2. The board ran out A9A2T and Obrestad won the pot with a pair of Jacks.

Once again, congratulations to Annette on her impressive showing and finish at the Aussie Millions!

The series got off to a record breaking start with Event #1, a $1000 AUD No Limit Hold ‘em tournament. In total, 1,143 players registered, making this the largest tournament ever held in Australia. To help reach such a high volume of entrants, the Aussie Millions staff gave eliminated players a second chance to buy in. Anyone sent to the rail on Day 1a or Day 1b could rebuy back into the tournament on Day 1c. In total there were 914 players registered to start the event, with an extra 229 coming back for seconds. All these players helped boost the prize pool to over $1 million AUD.

The last big name in the tournament busted on the final table bubble. Tony Hachem, brother of former WSOP champion Joe, finished in 11th place. Joining him on the sidelines were, Sam Vakili in 10th and Aaron Wilt in 9th. Anthony Kingston then ran into a rampant Trung Tran, who dominated his pocket tens with A-A. Brad Rawiller and Glenn Croft would both fall to Tran over the next few hours, before Tran himself exited in 4th place. It took some time before Brent Thomas found himself out in third, leaving Matthew Ephraums and Brendan Edmonds to contest the first Championship Ring of the series. In the final hand of the tournament, Edmonds was all in with J-10, but could not find the cards required to beat Ephraums’ A-10. The $200,025 AUD first prize was awarded to Matthew Ephraums as the first Aussie Millions champion of 2010.

1. Matthew Ephraums – $200,025 AUD
2. Brendan Edmonds – $142,875 AUD
3. Brent Thomas – $97,155 AUD
4. Trung Tran – $74,295 AUD
5. Glenn Croft – $57,150 AUD
6. Brad Rawiller – $45,720 AUD
7. Anthony Kingston – $34,290 AUD
8. Jim Mastorakos – $22,860 AUD
9. Aaron Wilt – $13,716 AUD

Across the hall from the mammoth first tournament, Event #2 and its elite 90-player field were competing for the second Championship Ring. The $550 PokerPro No Limit Hold ‘em tournament was a tightly run affair, eventually coming down to a one-on-one confrontation between Andrew Hinrichsen and Paul Schenbri. Ace-Jack looks like a pretty strong hand heads up, and Paul Schenbri obviously thought so when he called his opponent’s all-in raise. Sadly for him, he ran straight into the Aces. The board was no help and Andrew Hinrichsen took down the second title of the series and became $12,825 AUD richer.

1. Andrew Hinrichsen – $12,825 AUD
2. Paul Schenbri – $8,550 AUD
3. Shannon Vandenberg – $6,300 AUD
4. Chris Brammer – $4,500 AUD
5. Glen Goldberg – $3,600 AUD
6. Michael Dix – $2,925 AUD
7. Michael Guzzardi – $2,250 AUD
8. Gary Benson – $1,800 AUD
9. Suzy Khoueis – $1,350 AUD
10. Kalan Shuttlewood – $900 AUD

The first non-NLHE event has also reached a conclusion. This $1,100 Limit Hold ‘em tournament had a cap of only 90 players, but every single seat sold out before the tournament started. The final table of Event #3 finished in just 4 hours, sure to be one of the fastest times recorded in Aussie Millions 2010. Much of the action centered around Simon Morris, who held a solid chip lead going into the final nine. By the mid-point of the contest, he had lost a large chunk of his stack, but bravely battled back to retake the lead. He eventually defeated Steve Krmpotic heads up and claimed the title for his own. As payment for his victory, Simon picked up $25,650 and a coveted Aussie Millions Championship Ring.

The only contest currently underway is Event #4, a $1,100 Pot Limit Omaha tournament. The field has played down to the final table and action was suspended for the night with the tantalizing prospect of this year’s first big-name winner. At just 21 years of age, she already has over $2.1 million in live tournament winnings and is the former WSOP Europe Main Event champion. She heads into the final nine third in chips and with a good shot at taking down her first Aussie Millions title.

The $10,500 Aussie Millions Main Event begins on Monday January 25th. Also on the schedule are a the $5k Australian Heads Up Championship, a $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, and the incredible $100,000 Challenge.

An Aussie Millions prize package from bwin
bwin is offering comprehensive prize packages including a Main Event Buy-in of $8,800, a 6 Handed Side Event Buy-in of $1,800, flights and spending money of $2,500 and a stay in a luxury hotel worth $2,900, bringing the total package value to $16,000.

Qualify today with bwin
bwin is offering four incredible ways to qualify for the Aussie Millions. The four routes are as follows: the $300+20 qualification route paying out prize packages via the Online Finals, qualify for this route for just $2 or buy in directly to the Online Finals. A 100k freeroll paying out superb Aussie Millions prize packages for free! Prize packages are also available via the regular Big Bounty tournament at bwin. And finally, the Head Hunter tournament: knock out the most players in this all-new tournament concept and you’ll win a superb Aussie Millions prize package.

Live events with bwin
bwin consistently offers superb prize packages to the most prestigious live events. A trip with bwin to play in a live event is so much more than poker: join us at any of our featured events and we can promise you a trip of a lifetime. Join bwin on the live circuit.

More information can be found on the bwin website.

(bwin Press Release)

On the first Monday of each month, poker’s hottest new tournament comes to town. Brand new to Ladbrokes Poker the unique €30,000 100 Series Tournament is now set to become the hottest poker ticket around.

Capped at just 100 runners, demand for places is sure to be intense.

The first event kicks off on Monday 7th December 2009 at 19:00 GMT. With a buy in of €300 + €20, a massive €30,000 tournament is guaranteed!

Ladbrokes Poker will be running satellites to the €30k Guaranteed 100 Series Tournament from as little as €3.50 throughout November!
• Main Event: 7th December
• Buy In: €300 + €20
• Prize pool: €30,000
• Starting Chips: 5000
• Blinds: 20 minutes

Kate McLennan, Head of Ladbrokes Poker, said: “Christmas kicks off early with the 100 Series. It’s the first of a series of high value formats we’re lining up to give poker players a feast of festive treats.”

Payout structure:

Position – Payout
1st – €10,000
2nd – €6,000
3rd – €4,000
4th – €2,500
5th – €2,000
6th – €1,600
7th – €1,350
8th – €1,100
9th – €800
10th – €650
Total – €30,000

Further details can be found on the Ladbrokes Poker webiste.

Ladbrokes Poker nominated for Poker Operator of Year 2009 by Egaming Review.

Winners will be announced on 30th November 2009.
BREAKING NEWS – LADBROKES POKER ANNOUNCE QUALIFICATIONS TO AUSSIE MILLIONS 2010
The Aussie Millions is one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world and will be held between 24th-30th January 2010 at the Crown Casino in beautiful Melbourne, Australia. You can join some of the biggest names in poker such as Joe Hachem, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Tony G, Jesse James and many more.

To be part of this fantastic experience, you can qualify online with Ladbrokes for as little as €4.

For two weeks in January, Melbourne has it all… not just Poker… The eyes of the world zoom in on this vibrant precinct as the best tennis players from around the world fight it out for one of the biggest grand slam titles the sport has to offer – The Australian Open 2010. That’s another good reason why you should qualify to win an Aussie Millions package now with Ladbrokes.

The Aussie Millions package is worth €10,000 and includes $10,500 AUS Main Event buy-in, 10 nights’ stay between 22nd January – 1st February and you’ll be staying at the luxury Crown Promenade Hotel and €2,150 travel / spending money. Players’ accounts will be credited in advance with the travel/spending money.

Two packages will be guaranteed, one through each of the Monthly €1,350 Finals. Daily Satellites buy-ins start at from just €4. Ladbrokes has a history of qualifying players to this Melbourne showpiece as well as other highly regarded tournaments such as Master Classics in Amsterdam, World Series of Poker and the Irish Open.

Online satellites to this major live tournament will be running on the Microgaming Poker Network from 9th November 2009.

For all the details please go to the Ladbrokes Poker website.

(Ladbrokes Press Release)