Virtual Felt
Monday, 7 October 2013
Adam 'Snoopy' Goulding on Miller, McGain, Eisenhower and Payday!
Barcelona Blues
Barcelona is famed for its bullfighting, beautiful weather and stunning architecture, but in the world of poker it’s become marred by tales of crime and theft, with muggings and pickpocketing a constant threat.
September’s EPT event was no different as players flocked to the Hotel Arts for the opening stop of the new season. Sadly for several pros, their bad beats transcended the tables as it emerged that rooms had been broken into and laptops hacked.
The news first broke on a thread on the Two Plus Two forums with Finnish pro Jens 'Jeans89' Kyllönen regaling members with his story of failed key cards, disappearing/reappearing laptops, and mysterious phone calls.
Given the hotel’s lack of interest (including an implausible accusation that his room mate was the perpetrator) and the revelation that fellow countryman and high stakes pro Ignat '0Human0' Liviu had been the victim of the same crime, Kyllönen sought assistance from PokerStars security in a bid to solve the mystery.
As both parties continue to dig deeper, this is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of the travelling poker player and the misconceived assumption that your laptop is safe from cyber crime when perched on a bedside table in your hotel room. Players, it seems, should either padlock their laptops or take them with them wherever they go.
As a renowned high stakes pro with millions in online winnings and an EPT title under his belt, Kyllönen was an inevitable target. Whether those responsible are found and tried is another matter, but it'll be interesting to see how Hotel Arts react under pressure from PokerStars, and whether they'll be on the calendar this time next year.
Ninjary Time After months of lurking in the shadows, Ninja is back and ready to pounce with another series of exclusive online poker tournaments. Running from October 21st to 27th, Ninja III will see players battle it out across six eclectic events with buy-ins from as little as $5+0.50, culminating in a $50+5 Main Event.
Ninja is available to players of all bankrolls with qualifiers from as little as a single buck. And if you can do the double on Mondays and win the Turbo Takedown (20:30) and Nifty at Nine (21:00) events, you'll win a Ninja Season Ticket!
“Poker players love to wear a hoodie while playing poker,” commented Ninja King and Black Belt Poker co-founder Neil Channing. “With Ninja we’re giving them the perfect opportunity to don their hoods and test their skills against some of our pros.
“We received very positive feedback on our two previous efforts,” he continued. “I think, in today’s climate, people appreciate the chance to play good-structured online tournaments at an affordable price.”
Check out
Blackbeltpoker.com for the full schedule.
An Update on Updates PartyPoker took its first step towards becoming the Facebook of poker in early September with the launch of a new software client. Boasting a fresh lick of paint, Party is hoping to target recreational players by integrating poker with social networking and encouraging increased communication between members.
A number of unique additions have been made, including a one-click lobby, improved filters and missions and achievements, with players rewarded for reaching certain milestones.
Meanwhile, several other sites have been busy under the hood, most notably Ultimate Poker which has added groundbreaking new features, such as updated graphics, resizable tables and preset betting buttons. It’s like living in the future!
Millar Time For most of 2013 I’ve been banging on about Viktor Blom and gracing the page with his brooding mug, but it’s with good reason: nobody in the online realm enjoys/endures the swings quite like “Isildur1”, and it's for this reason that he has built up an almost legendary status with more followers than the Pied Piper.
The most common adjective associated with the Swedish whiz is “fearless” but in a recent interview,
Alex “IReadYrSoul” Millar challenged this “anyone, anytime” reputation by revealing that Blom would only play him at heads-up hold'em if he agreed to always raise three times the big blind.
With this stipulation in place, the nosebleeders clashed numerous times over the last couple of months at $400/800 on
Full Tilt Poker, with Millar ultimately coming out on top. Having taken just 10 minutes to win $237K in mid August (that’s an hourly rate of $1.42 million, in case you were wondering…), Millar then took a further $771K in early September.
Proving that it’s not just about aces and kings, one of the biggest pots came when Millar raised preflop with 2d7d. Blom called with 8d6h before check-raising on a 5dTc7s flop and firing out bluffs on the 2c turn and Ad river. Millar called on both occasions to win a juicy $380,492 pot.
A high stakes pro from Bristol, Millar is often overlooked when it comes to highlighting poker’s biggest online stars, but his recent activity has seen the spotlight finally shift in his direction. Given his $1.76 million in online winnings since August 1st and his success against Blom, it’s not too hard to see why.
Top of the Eisenhower With Full Tilt Poker quenching the thirst of the nosebleed fanatics and supplying high stakes action at a rollercoaster pace, the online tournament rankings have taken a back seat of late. But despite the ring-game shenanigans of Isildur and co, tournaments have continued to flourish, with tens of thousands flocking to the MTT tables each and every day.
With Black Friday shutting out American players, the rankings have witnessed a dramatic changing of the guard, with a number of talented European players marking their territory. While mainstays
Chris “moorman1” Moorman and
Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth remain in the top 10 for 2013, the current best of the best is unknown entity “eisenhower1”.
With lifetime cashes of $4.8 million (including a $112K win at the start of the year), the enigmatic Swede has taken the MTT world by storm and shown a level of consistency unmatched by his rivals.
Showcasing the global reach of poker,
Caio “pessagno” Pessagno of Brazil is snapping on his heels in second, while Belarus’
'Legenden' and
Calvin “cal42688” Anderson (currently residing in Mexico) sit in third and fourth, respectively.
Results
1st: eisenhower1 - 16,324.53 points
2nd: pessagno - 16,302.81 points
3rd: Legenden - 15,339.93 points
4th: cal42688 - 15,241.45 points
5th: j.thaddeus - 14,651.50 points
6th: r4ndomr4gs - 14,533.53 points
7th: moorman1 - 14,405.52 points
8th: jdpc27 - 14,367.62 points
9th: mjw006 - 14,190.74 points
10th: Vinkyy - 14,178.81 points
McCain Governs Chips It was scandal o’clock Stateside recently when the Washington Post's stealthiest of ninjas snapped a photograph of senator
John McCain playing online poker on his smart phone during a Senate committee hearing.
With Obama waffling on about some kerfuffle in Syria or something, McCain was understandably “a little bored” and so decided to dabble in a touch of five-handed Hold'em in order to pass the time.
Although critics have argued that playing poker during a hearing of such importance was irresponsible – in particular given his stance on arming Syrian rebels – the biggest controversy to us was that he’d limped under the gun with Q-2… off-suit!
“Scandal! Caught playing iPhone game at 3-plus hour Senate hearing - worst of all I lost!” the former (phew!) presidential candidate Tweeted in the aftermath. “I lost thousands in fake money,” he revealed in the CNN confession box.
And who’s paying for these play-money losses? The taxpayer, that’s who…
PAYDAY! A mere two and half years following Black Friday, Garden City Group announced that US players will finally see a return of Full Tilt Poker funds seized from the US government.
Email claims are now being accepted with repayments based on final balances from August 15th, 2011. While this is great news for players who had money sitting in their account on Black Friday, it will prove yet another crushing blow to those who were in the process of withdrawing funds.