Poker in the News — Weekly Round-up for December 08, 2017

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Dec 8, 2017

Big Money As Dan Smith And Daniel Negreanu Clash At Bellagio High Roller

Even the first elimination at this final table took home $234,000

The $100,000 buy-in Five Diamond World Poker Classic lived up to its reputation for quality poker and big money over the weekend when Daniel Negreanu and Dan Smith provided an exciting heads up finale with a main prize of $1.4 million at stake.

The super high roller event took place at the Bellagio and attracted 39 entries, many of them world class players who made it to the final table.

Smith and Negreanu mixed it up in the heads up, which started with Smith holding a chip stack of 3.2 million vs. Negreanu’s 2.6 million. Despite a valiant effort Negreanu was unable to overcome the disadvantage and had to be satisfied with the runner up prize of $936,000, bringing his live tournament career earnings to $34,151,327.

A jubilant Smith claimed the $1.4 million main prize, bringing his live tournament career earnings to $19,207,368.

Other final table cashes looked like this:

Stefan Schillhabel $624,000
Isaac Haxton $390,000
Sergio Aido $312,000
Bryn Kenney $234,000

Impressive Entry Field For World Series Of Poker Circuit Sydney Event

1,357 sign-ups for opening World Series of Poker Circuit event

The Star Poker Room in Sydney hosted the first of 13 events in the World Series of Poker Circuit, with a record 1,357 entrants taking their seats; six days later it was local player Johan Lees who claimed the main prize of $105,416.

However, during final table action it appeared that Matthew Velcic would be the victor – he eliminated six of the nine final table contestants and entered the heads up stage with 7.1 million chips against Lees’ 6.2 million.

Lees showed discipline and skill in maintaining a successful strategy that enabled him to grind down Velcic’s advantage and then open up a significant lead to ultimately claim victory, sending Velcic to the exit and a $65,539 runner-up prize.

Chengdu Pandas Win Inaugural Global Poker League China

Million yuan prize for top team in a national field of twelve

The Chengdu Pandas team has bested eleven other teams from across China in the inaugural Global Poker League China, winning the one million Chinese Yuan (approx. $151,000) champions prize.

After battling through series of tough competitions, the Pandas found themselves facing the Hong Kong Treasure Ships in the best-of-three finals featuring six-max, heads-up and “2v2” action.

The first round went to the Pandas despite struggling in the six-max contest as the team racked up wins in 2v2 and traditional heads-up competitions.

In round two the Pandas won the 2v2 element, but Winfred Yu held them at bay with a heads up victory for the Treasure Ships, leaving the six-max contest to decide the winner.

That proved to be a cliff hanger as the three final players – a single Panda against two Treasure Ship players – went all-in and the Panda player prevailed to give his team an overall 2 vs 1 victory.

Unibet Poker Open Concludes In Bucharest

Marius Pertea wins main event

Marius Pertea (37), a general manager from the Romanian city of Buzau, is Euro 90,925 wealthier after winning the main event of the 2017 Unibet Open Poker main event in Bucharest, Romania.

The Euro 1,100 buy-in event celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Unibet Open and attracted 502 entries, creating a Euro 486,940 prize pool from which 71 players cashed.

Pertea had a roller coaster of a final table, where he was almost continually among the low chip stacks, interspersed with spectacular comebacks.

The heads up mirrored his overall performance, starting with final opponent Robert Vukovic (31) holding the advantage and declining to negotiate a chop.

Vukovic continued building his lead, but then Pertea achieved consecutive double ups to equalise the stacks and then go on to call a Vukovic bluff and eliminate him, sending him home with the runner up prize of Euro 56,500.

Brian Cullingworth

Infopowa news was a staple of Casinomeister’s news from 2000 until 2019. Brian Cullingworth was the main writer, contributor, and was one of the most knowledgeable persons I have ever known involved in the online casino industry.

We first met in January 2001 at the ICE in London where I observed him going booth to booth interviewing online casino, software, and licensing jurisdiction representatives. Brian was also heavily involved with our forum as “Jetset“, he was involved as an informal consultant to eCOGRA, the OPA, and was a player advocate who assisted countless aggrieved players with his connections to industry folks. He also published “Casino Cautions” via Infopowa news for quite a number of years. These can be found in our news archives.

His passing in February 2019 was a dark day for us. He will be forever missed.


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