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

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated May 25, 2018

Pokerstars Launch Shared Pools Between Portugal, France And Spain

Hopes Italy will be next

Poker Players in Portugal are now able to play against French and Spanish players following Portuguese authorities green lighting the country’s participation and PokerStars is first off the mark, offering a shared poker pool between the three countries.

“We have worked hard to become the first operator to bring the benefits of shared liquidity to Portugal,” Guy Templer, COO of The Stars Group, said. “Our players will see a huge increase in the variety and scale of our tournaments and promotions and will enjoy more excitement, more competition and more fun!”

“This dramatically strengthens our offering and demonstrates our commitment to the Portuguese market. We look forward to working with the Portuguese regulator to further improve the poker product offering for Portuguese players, and additionally hope that Italy will soon progress so that their players can also enjoy the significantly better experience that shared liquidity brings.”

Montenegro Millions Won By Top International Players

The 2018 Triton Series attracted most of the big names in the game with multi-million dollar prizes

It’s been a hectic – and lucrative – few days at the Maestral Resort & Casino in Budva, Montenegro, scene of the latest Triton Series of live poker tournaments that has attracted many of the best players in the world, lured by the prospect of multi-million dollar prizes.

The biggest event concluded over the weekend and saw US poker pro Jason Koon score his biggest ever win – $ 3,579,914 – in the $127,000 buy-in Short Deck Ante-Only competition, in which he bested a field of 103 that generated a massive $ 12,350,000 prize pool.

Among those competing were names like Phil Ivey, Winfred Yu, Rui Cao, Peter Jetten, Paul Phua, Devan Tang, Tom Dwan, Mikita Badziakouski, Patrik Antonius, Bryn Kenney, Dan “Jungleman” Cates, Elton Tsang and Romain Arnaud.

After over 8 hours of tough final table action, the event was finally decided around 05h30 when an exhausted Koon finally managed to despatch Chinese high stakes pro Xuan Tan with a consolatory second placing prize of $ 2,308,434.

It was an exciting finale as the Chinese pro fought his way back into the game after starting the heads up at a 2 to 1 disadvantage, only to find his progress matched by Koon in a series of big pot wins that increased the US player’s lead to 4 to 1 and ultimately enabled him to clinch the win.

Other final table cashes included:

• Phil Ivey $1,666,516
• Winfred Yu $1,172,752
• Rui Cao $802,430
• Peter Jetten $641,918

Ivey also did well in the Triton $32,000 buy-in Short Deck Ante-Only event, where he tangled with Daniel “Jungleman” Cates in the heads up and came out with the winner’s $ 604,977, sending Cates home with a still impressive runner-up prize of $ 407,515. The event attracted 63 entries and generated a prize pool of $1.83 million.

In the $127,000 buy-in NLHE Main Event Belarus pro Mikita Badziakouski came out on top, winning the $2,499,090 main prize after defeating Rui Cao in the heads up and sending him away with the runner-up’s $1,683,648. The event pulled in 63 entries and created a prize pool worth $ 7.55 million.

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