Poker in the News — Weekly Round-up for March 23, 2018

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Mar 23, 2018

Big Pay Day For Kirsten Bicknell In Poker High Roller

Defeats David Peters to take down Asia Pacific Poker Tour High Roller

Canadian PartyPoker pro Kristen Bicknell has claimed a HK$2,192,000 ($279,549) pay day after defeating top poker player David Peters in the $10,200 buy-in PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour High Roller in Macau on St. Patrick’s Day.

With this victory, Bicknell also becomes the first ever APPT High Roller champion.

Bicknell’s first prize for besting a talented field of 117 entrants was HK$2,192,000 ($279,549), the lion’s share of a total prize pool worth HK$8,714,160 (just over $1.1 million).

The field included respected names in poker like Luc Greenwood, Rainer Kempe, Jan-Eric Schwippert, and Michael Addamo.

Former GPI Player of the Year Peters took home $188,767 as runner up, with the rest of the final table cashes including:

3. Klaus Pautrot – $122,813
4. Felix Daniel Schulze – $101,642
5. Hong Zhu – $82,003
6. Matt Moss – $64,658
7. Yong Wang – $49,482
8. Allan Bedwick – $37,239

$963,900 Poker Victory For Alex Foxen

Another big win for young US poker pro

There’s a new star rising on the live tournament poker scene in the shape of young New York pro Alex Foxen, who has just added $963,900 to his list of big wins after besting a field of 68 entries (including 19 re-entries) that included names like Rainer Kempe, Isaac Haxton, Brian Rast, Sam Greenwood, Christoph Vogelsang, Patrik Antonius and Kahle Burns in the $51,000 buy-in Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau Super High Roller.

His massive prize is the latest in an impressive run; since December last year he has finished second in the WPT Five Diamond Classic main event for $1,134,202, and in February this year he won the $25,000 L.A. Poker Classic RockStar High Roller for $424,625. His public record shows a list of 28 cashes in major live tournaments and career earnings north of $3.5 million.

In his latest victory Foxen secured entry through a live satellite win, and he wasted no time in establishing dominance, ending the first and second days of the tournament as chip leader, and leading the final table with just short of 50 percent of the chips.

Heads up, Foxen faced local businessman and high stakes poker player Shan Huang, who had just demolished Sam Greenwood and picked up over 10 million chips, which gave him a 10 vs 7 chip lead.

Undeterred, Foxen set about closing the gap, a task which he steadily and methodically completed before taking the lead and finally eliminating a tough opponent, sending Huang home with the runner up prize of $692,198.

Other final table cashes included:

Sam Greenwood $449,948
Rainer Kempe $339,533
Kahle Burns $263,670
Patrik Antonius $204,383
Brian Rast $161,543
Christoph Vogelsang $125,190
Isaac Haxton $95,625

One Penny Satellite Winner Takes Home Euro 180,000 In Irish Poker Open

Ferdia O’Connell scores a serious ROI

UK poker player Ryan Mandara may have won this week’s Euro 1,150 buy-in 2018 Irish Poker Open Main Event in Dublin, but it was Irish player Ferdia O’Connell who scored the biggest return on investment, taking home a second place Euro 180,000 after winning his seat in a PartyPoker one penny satellite!

The two players tangled in the heads up of the event after agreeing a chop; Mandara at that point had 23 million in chips vs. O’Connell’s 17 million, and the duo greed that Mandara would take Euro 197,000, O’Connell Euro 180,000 and that Euro 13,000 and the trophy would be left on the table for the winner.

Mandara managed to stay in charge to be declared the victor, taking home his biggest career win yet.

The event attracted a 1,348 entries and generated a prize pool of Euro 1,347,164…around 20 percent higher than last year’s equivalent.

888Poker Teams Up With One Drop Foundation For First Online Poker Charity Tournament

Partnership celebrates World Water Day on March 22

888Poker has announced a significant partnership with the One Drop Foundation to celebrate World Water Day tomorrow (March 22) by presenting the charity’s first ever online poker tournament.

The $11.11 buy-in event has a $5,000 guarantee, and all fees will be donated to One Drop, a charity that provides clean water to underdeveloped communities around the world.

One Drop is already well-established in the live tournament environment at major events such as the World Series of Poker, and it has raised $20 million since 2012, positively affecting the lives of 170,000 people.

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