Eric Liu, Cardrunner.com instructor and professional online poker player, recently cashed in his PokerStars Frequent Player Points for a brand new shiny toy—a Range Rover! Liu purchased the new vehicle at the PokerStars online store, but the million dollar question is how does this FullTilt Red Pro end up with so many Poker Stars Points?
The one online poker room that threatens to come anywhere close to FullTilt in size and popularity is the one online poker room that bought Liu a new Range Rover. It is somewhat of a surprise that Liu would be so blatantly obvious about the purchase, since poker rooms have been dropping misbehaving pros like flies. Two Red Pro players have just recently been let go from FullTilt in the past month.
The Rover is no longer listed as “In Stock” at the PokerStars online store, but Liu has his sights set on the Porsche that goes for 3 million FPPs. Apparently there is nothing wrong with a player who is sponsored by one site spending so much money at another site he that he racks up millions of FPPs.
CardPlayerTV.com has created a new show, Felt’d, in the likes of MTV’s series Punk’d, in which producers play practical jokes on professional poker players. The first to get “felt’d” was Mike “SirWatts” Watson, known for being one of the nicest guys in the poker community, which made him the perfect candidate for the series premier…
One-time WSOP bracelet winner, Francois Safieddine, is suing Sean Ahn, for a chip debt that he owed players at a home game hosted by Safieddine. He often hosts home games at his Denver residence, which is legal because Colorado law allows social gambling at home, as long as the players are friendly acquaintances, as opposed to being strangers. When friends got together at Francois’ home, they didn’t buy-in, they just grabbed some chips and made even at the end of the night. Ahn, however, found himself without the $29,000 he owed the other players after a game back in March. After three checks bounced, a letter was sent to Ahn by Safieddine demanding the money within 15 days. According to Colorado law, if a letter like this one is sent and no reply is made, the owed party can sue for 3 x the amount of the original debt. Since only $1,000 was paid, and Ahn now owes $87,000, a lawsuit has finally been filed.
Ahn, however, is nowhere to be found. His telephone numbers have been disconnected, and the lady who got his old number, but claims she doesn’t know him, says banks call for him all day. Perhaps the poker pro should call this one a gentleman’s bet and let the guy off the hook. Safeiddine’s $1.5 million poker winnings should cover Ahn’s debt to the other players, who were all supposed to be friends, right?
Andy Bloch made a visit to the University of Nevada Las Vegas last week to talk to students about his experiences with the MIT Card County Team, the movie “21,” and his new life as a poker pro. (No he wasn’t there recruiting new blackjack team members). Apparently the hand gestures the team used in the movie were not the same as reality, but many of the card counting terms used to indicate the count were accurate. He also discussed his deeply emotional reactions to certain scenes in the movie like when the lead character first arrives in Vegas. He also told a story about one of the team members stealing a shield from the Excalibur hotel to decorate his dorm room with and joked about family and friends wishing him luck on tournaments that haven’t yet aired on TV, but that he’s already played in.
Gus Hansen, a.k.a. “The Great Dane,” is up this month with a $3.2 million winnings total for the month of October, alone. He’s made $2.7 of his winnings playing Omaha Hi/Lo and HORSE at FullTilt. He’s played 33,800+ tracked hands, which breaks down to almost $100 per hand played, making him up $2.4 million for the year. But Gus isn’t alone. Phil Ivey has racked up $2.134 million this month, Tom “durrrr” Dwan is up $1.94 million this month, and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies comes in last with a $1.06 million profit for October.
Hansen’s winnings alone has made October one of the best in FullTilt’s history, or in the history of any online poker site, for that matter.
On the other hand, the biggest loser for the month is Patrik Antonius with a $1.6 million defecit on more than 12,700 tracked hands, and lost a total of $2.23 million for the whole year in 2008.
It is not hard to imagine that a man who wears a cowboy-hat 24/7 is into country. We are not talking about Doyle Brunson but Kenna “Cowboy” James. Listen to his latest single “Dream this dream” below.
Pokerstars is announcing a sponsorship deal with Norwegian online poker legend Johnny Lodden. The terms for the deal is not clear but “bad_ip” will probably receive 100% of his staked tournament winnings.
Johnny Lodden has several deep finishes in the EPT and Pokerstars are hoping to pick him up before he gets his live poker breakthrough.
Thomas Udness, Pokerstars Marketing Director in Norway:
“We want the best players at Pokerstars and it is not a hard decision when he is available. We are waiting for his big breakthrough.”
“bad_ip” used to crush the high-limit tables at the Prima network back in 2005 but had a huge downswing and is now grinding lower stakes. He is famous for losing the biggest pot in online poker history.
Lodden will start representing Pokerstars in EPT Budapest.
Di “Urindanger” Dang made online poker history Saturday night when he set the record for biggest online poker pot ever played at $723,000. It all went down on FullTilt from morning to dawn as this record was broken two times before it the current amount was set. A $610,000 pot was won last month and broken the first time by Tom “durrrr” Dwan when he took a $618,000 pot, only to lose it later to John Juanda when Juanda took a $678,000 pot from Dwan. But they weren’t through yet. Ivey took $687,000 from Juanda on the very next hand, breaking the record a second time that night.
The biggest online poker session ever played culminated when Dang set the current record amount with pocket Aces, taking the pot from Dwan with pocket Kings.
Lifetime Television will air Ted Binion’s story Saturday Oct. 25, 2008 at 9:00 EST. The movie is called “Sex and Lies in Sin City” and portrays the true story tale of the suspicious death of Las Vegas casino heir, Ted Binion, played by Matthew Modine. Ted’s death was initially ruled an overdose, but as investigators dug deeper, they began to suspect murder. Ted’s lover, a stripper named Sandy Murphy, played by Mena Suvari, and her boyfriend were tried for Ted’s murder. What really happened is still not quite clear, after Ted’s collection of silver that was worth more than $7 million brought up more questions. Hopefully this movie will shed more light on this legendary Vegas tale.
Eli Elezra admits to having 17 different screen names on FulTilt. Listen to the dialogue on this video. Apparently Howard Lederer looks quite surprised if you look at his reaction. Watch for Lederer’s poker face to change at the end of the video as Elezra reiterates his multiple FulTilt identities! The controversy over whether this is fair or not will ensue!
