Main Headlines

High Stakes Online Cash Report: Ivey Pockets Over a Million

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom has another losing week.

  • Pokerfuse highlights some of the biggest winners and loser in the high stakes online cash games.

The Global Poker Index Newsmakers: Kaverman and Chidwick Climb the Rankings

All the week’s major news from the worldwide live poker tournament circuit.

  • A summary of the recent accomplishments of players ranked on the Global Poker Index.

Ultimate Poker Boss: Red Tape Responsible for Disappointing Online Poker Numbers

Breitling says regulations create complications that cut into market.

  • A video released by Ultimate Gaming co-founder Tom Breitling last week entitled “Year One: Lessons Learned – Market Size” provides a somewhat scathing opinion of regulations in the legalized US online poker market.
  • “Each computer click you ask someone to make during the e-commerce process turns away about 10-20% of those customers. Looking at it another way, you lose 1 in 10 customers with every click.”
  • After explaining that Ultimate Poker was “pushed off balance” by unrealistic Y1 revenue projections for legalized online poker in the US, Breitling opined that a market breakthrough is right around the corner.

All 135 PokerStars SCOOP Events Smash Guarantees

$80 million paid out in PokerStars spring tournament series, as many events attract enough to more than double prize pools.

  • The Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) has almost concluded, and the entrance numbers are staggering.
  • Every single event has smashed its guarantee—with some attracting double, even triple the expected turn-out.
  • The highroller $10.3k event guaranteed a $3 million prize pool and $500k for the winner, but with 657 players attracted, over $6.5 million will be paid out in prizes—and the winner will take home $1.2 million.

This Week in Poker Podcasts: Greg Raymer, Joe Stapleton and More

The latest from the Pokerfuse Poker Podcast Directory.

Poker Training Videos This Week: Check Raising the Flop, High Roller Hand History Review, and an Introduction to Triple Draw

Improve your poker game with our top picks from the pokerfuse poker video directory.

Picks from F5 Poker:

“Downtown” Chad Brown Featured In Mini-Documentary

Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown has been fighting for his life for the past three years against a rare form of cancer and continues to battle every day. In this mini-documentary that features Chad, his one-time adult league baseball team needs a miracle if they are to win the championship game, at the same time, Rick Cohen, a team leader reflects on his friendship with Brown and how the love of life isn’t unlike the love of the game.

Phil Laak – Just Chillin’, Hanging Out at the Heartland Poker Tour

Laak discusses how he’s “running.” Heartland Poker Tour’s Jaymz Larson catches up with one of our favorites, Phil Laak, on break from the action at the Commerce Casino. Unfortunately for Jaymz, he asks Phil the ambiguous question of “how you running?” and gets an unexpected answer.

Ryan Eriquezzo Temper Tantrum Ends In Tournament DQ

One time WSOP National Champ booted from Parx Big Stax. World Series of Poker 2012 National Champ Ryan Eriquezzo apparently lost his temper after losing a massive hand during the PARX Poker Big Stax $1500+$100 buy-in last night and found himself disqualified from the tournament.

Gus Hansen On a $500k Upswing

At the Online Nosebleed Tables As with Phil “polirizing” Ivey, the online poker tables have not be kind to Gus Hansen as of late, but yesterday proved to be a crucial turning point for ‘The Great Dane’ as he slowly edged his way up to a $546,668 profit by the end of the day.

Exclusive Articles on pokerfuse PRO:

partypoker’s Low Buy in Pokerfest: Micro Turbo Edition Starts This week

$115k guaranteed for the partypoker tournament series targeted at casual players. The mini version of partypoker’s Pokerfest begins on May 23. The “Pokerfest: Micro Turbo Edition” includes 42 events over the ten days of the series, with buy ins from $1.

Player Receives Cheating Reimbursement at WSOP Nevada

Following a high-profile public discussion and complaints to the regulator, WSOP reimburses player with confiscated funds. A “re-investigation” of a case of collusion on WSOP Nevada, one of three sites regulated in the state of Nevada, has resulted in reimbursement of funds to the victim of the cheating.

PokerStars Spain Tied with Italian Sibling

Growth at Spanish poker room means PokerStars’ cash game traffic in Spain and Italy are matched. As PokerStars Spain and PokerStars Italy converge to almost identical levels of cash game traffic, the Rational Group can cheer the fact that it has two of the top five poker rooms, and five of the top ten.

Poker Podcasts and Training Vids:

Podcast: Top Pair Episode 211, May 17, 2014 Top Pair Poker Podcast

I Have A Great Hand – When Can I Raise?
A Player Does Too Good Of A Job Protecting His Hand
Regular Poker – It’s Probably More Boring Than You are Thinking
Once Announced, Game Details Should  Be Set In Stone
A Sad Goodbye To Co-Host Eric – Excited About New Co-Host Robbie
 
Is It Smarter To Be Lucky Or Lucky To Be Smart?

Podcast: Thinking Poker Podcast Episode #79: University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group PokerNews Podcast

On Episode #79 of the Thinking Poker Podcast, Nate and Andrew offer a warm welcome to newcomers of both the podcast and the iBus Media Network, Andrew gets leveled by an eight-year-old, and the pair breaks down a hand from an online MTT. They are then joined by Dr. Michael Bowling and PhD candidate Mike Johanson from the University of Alberta Computer Poker Research Group to discuss their ongoing efforts to build poker bots, the difficulties that come with constructing a decision tree in poker, the hidden complexities of bet sizes, and much more. 

Training Video: Beating Live SSNL: Check Raising the Flop Deuces Cracked

Check-raising the flop can be a great way to build a big pot. However, some players have a tendency to overdo it. In this video, Chuck covers the basics of check-raising the flop. When and why do we want to do it? Would we be better off just leading the flop? Check out the differences between 2 examples that will help you decide whether or not this is a time to get tricky or just lead out.

Training Video: Crushing the Micros (2014 Edition) Part 4 Drag The Bar

In this series I will return to live play and rise up the micro stakes in 2014. I want to show the viewer the strategies and tools that are effective for maximum success at these stakes in today’s games. I will be covering both full ring and 6max at both regular and Zoom tables on Pokerstars.

Training Video: Ghost: BalugaWhale – 2014 MSNL Live Play – Part 16 Deuces Cracked

Andrew 'BalugaWhale’ Seidman continues his series of multi-tabling live play videos on WPT Poker, discussing the action on two tables while occasionally bringing new tables in to discuss interesting situations. Featuring discussion of both standard and non-standard adjustments against loose-aggressive opponents, including postflop play in limped pots, limp-reraising and open-limping on the button,