Poker in the News — Weekly Round-up for February 25, 2018

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Feb 25, 2018

Viktor Blom In Another High Octane Poker Finale

Isildur1 calls heads up player’s bluff in a spectacular end to an exciting game

Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom provided railbirds with another spectacular finale this week, emerging as the victor in the Euro 5,300 buy-in PartyPoker Live Millions Germany main event after a calling his last opponent’s bluff in a ballsy decision that made mainstream press headlines and earned him Euro 850,000.

The event, held at Kings Casino in Rozvadoiv, Czechia, attracted swarms of top live and online international players, with 1,022 entries for the main event generating a prize pool of Euro 5.11 million.

Local poker pro Ondrej Drozd started the final table action as chip leader and appeared to be the man to watch as he built his stack even higher, but he came short in a confrontation with Moldavian ace Pavel Plesuv and was eliminated at sixth.

When Britain’s Rickie Silcock – an online qualifier by way of a $109 satellite – busted out at third for Euro 400,000, the heads up survivors were Plesuv and Blom, with the former holding the chip lead.

The duo paused at this point to negotiate a chop, agreeing on a split that would give the winner a main prize of Euro 850,000 and the runner-up Euro 750,000.

When the action recommenced, Blom wrested the lead away from Plesuv in characteristically bold and aggressive play, but then lost almost everything in a bad hand that saw Plesuv surge into an almost 9 to 1 lead.

Keeping his cool, Blom managed a crucial double up and was then able to claw his way back into the game…and the lead despite his calamitous earlier setback.

The climax of the game came after 14 hours of final table action when Plesuv went all-in, and Blom went into the tank to consider his options. In the end he decided on a gutsy move, calling Plesuv’s bluff in a spectacular finale that saw even the commentators gasping – see the Twitch record of the moment here: http://www.pokergurublog.com/content/dont-try-bluff-sicko-who-doesnt-care.

Other final table cashes included:

Joao Simao Euro 280,000
Radoslaw Wesierski Euro 200,000
Ondrej Drozd Euro 140,000
Aristeidis Moschonas Euro 100,000
Niko Wieland Euro 70,000

Physio Takes Down WSOP Coco Main Event

Third time lucky… Kammar Andries outplays 827 entries

Kammar Andries, a physical therapist from Orlando, has outplayed a field of 827 entries to win the WSOP Circuit Seminole Coconut Creek main event.

His third cash of the series, which included two final table appearances, Andries defeated Mike Linster for the $241,898 first prize and his first WSOP Circuit ring.

Final Table Results:

1 Kammar Andries – $241,898
2 Mike Linster – $149,480
3 Brian Altman – $110,107
4 Jason Hill – $82,171
5 LaVann Williams – $62,124
6 Dafney Adisson – $47,573
7 Michael Foley – $36,892
8 Kevin Schaffel – $28,966
9 David Gunas – $23,024
10 Dominique Mosley – $18,521

Pokerstars Hails Success Of Fresh Series

Smashes Euro 5 million prize pool guarantee

PokerStars has hailed results from its first joint tournament series, FRESH, following the launch of the shared player pool of French and Spanish players.

The series, which ran from January 28 to February 11, attracted over 30,000 unique entries and a total prize pool of Euro 6,149,751 across 50 scheduled events, exceeding the Euro 5 million prize pool guarantee.

“It was great to see French and Spanish players challenging each other on the virtual felt,” Rafi Ashkenazi, Chief Executive Officer of The Stars Group, said. “The success of the FRESH Series is an encouraging start as we look forward to extending the shared player pool to Italy and Portugal in the future.”

German Ace Clinches Last High Roller Event In Rozvadov

Dominik Nitschke takes home Euro 300,000 after winning PartyPoker Live Millions Germany high roller event

German poker pro Dominik Nitschke wopund up his PartyPoker Millions adventure at Kings Casino Rozvadov this week with a resounding Euro 300,000 win in the last of the high roller events – a Euro 10,300 buy-in competition that attracted 120 entries and created a prize pool of Euro 1.14 million.

Many top names, as well as a surprising number of recreational players, were among the entrants, with the final table featuring high profile players like Nitschke, Marcel Luske, Koray Aldemir, Dan Cates and Ole Schemion.

When local pro Philipp Zukernik busted out at third place for Euro 130,000 it was Dutch pro Marcel Luske whom Nitschke faced in the heads up.

The two top players fought a fierce back and forth battle for supremacy with the lead changing several times before Nitschke was finally able to dominate the action and claim the victory, sending a tough opponent to the exit and the Euro 180,000 runner-up prize.

Other final table cashes were:

Koray Aldemir Euro 100,000
Daniel Cates Euro 80,000
Ashkan Fattahi Euro 65,000
Ole Schemion Euro 50,000
Bartlomiej Machon Euro 40,000.

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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