Poker in the News — Weekly Round-up for November 17, 2017

By Brian Cullingworth, Last updated Nov 17, 2017

BSL – World Poker Tour Main Event Concludes

$109,860 victory for Argentina’s Juan Gonzalez in Uruguay

The inaugural Brasil Poker Live – World Poker Tour live poker tourney has concluded in Punta Del Este, Uruguay with a main event victory for Argentinian poker pro Juan Gonzalez, who started final table action with the lowest chip stack.

Gonzalez took home the main prize of $109,860 – his biggest score yet – after besting Brazil’s Kaue Vinicius De Souza in a four-hand heads up which began with Gonzalez holding a 2 to 1 chip lead.

De Souza’s runner up prize was $76,960.

410 entries were recorded for the $1,500 buy-in main event.

Tragic Death Of UK Player In Czechia For Poker Tournament

Promising poker pro Emma Fryer killed in car crash

The Stoke Sentinel newspaper reported over the weekend that a week ago, on November 5, a local poker pro died in a car crash whilst attending the World Series of Poker Europe tournament in Rozvadov, Czechnia.

Emma Fryer (42) was a mother of two and a former VIP client manager at online gambling group bet365 who decided to become a poker professional and was showing great promise, the newspaper reveals.

Her family told the newspaper that Fryer was a passenger in a car travelling through thick fog when it collided with a concrete post on a roundabout, a traffic hazard that was not recorded on the car satnav. She died instantly.

Fryer’s tournament record can be viewed here: http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=194453#

Spanish Player Takes Down The World Series Of Poker Europe Main Event

Marti Roca De Torres wins his first bracelet and Euro 1,115,207

Spanish poker pro and former economics lecturer Marti Roca De Torres (36) is a WSOP bracelet and Euro 1,115,207 richer after winning the Euro 10,350 buy-in World Series of Poker Europe main event in Rozvadov, Czech Republic over the weekend. The huge prize completely eclipsed his previous career live tourney earnings of just Euro 30,000.

Making his victory truly cost effective, De Torres won his seat in the event through a Euro 220 satellite on 888Poker.

529 hopefuls entered the event, which culminated in a 14-hour final day and a gruelling 4-hour heads up.

Among the many well-known and respected players in the field were Kevin MacPhee, Vivian Saliba, Pierre Neuville, Phillip Gruissem, David Peters, Mike Leah, Ismael Bojang, Anthony Zinno, Rainer Kempe and Kristin Bicknell…none of whom made the final table but were among the 80 players who cashed.

High profile US poker pro Maria Ho started the final day of play with the chip lead after an outstanding performance in preceding days, but she fell early on in sixth place following a clash over a major pot with Niall Farrell and De Torres. Farrell quickly followed her to the exit, leaving De Torres with a significant lead. That probably enabled him to weather the storms ahead as the remaining four players gave it their all in pursuit of a top prize of over a million Euros.

At one point De Torres found himself the shortest stack, but he managed to hang in and then fought his way back into the game to eventually face Italian ace Gianluca Speranza, who started the heads up with a 3 to 1 chip advantage and seemed to be in control of the game.

De Torres fought on, however, reducing Speranza’s lead and after 75 more hands of intense, chip leader-changing action finally defeating the Italian.

For his spirited and skilful performance Speranza earned the second prize of Euro 689,246, whilst De Torres scored the biggest win of his career so far, along with his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet.

Other final table cashes were:

Mathijs Jonkers – Euro 476,585
Robert Bickley – Euro 335,089
Niall Farrell – Euro 239,639
Maria Ho – Euro 174,365

New Online Poker Room Uses Blockchain Technology

CoinPoker debuts in play-money format this week

Canadian poker pro Isabelle Mercier has been using social media to vigorously promote a new online poker room which launches this week in play-money format pending the real thing later in the year.

CoinPoker will in future operate on CHP token using blockchain technology.

“CoinPoker’s key mission is to provide safe, transparent, and trustworthy online poker games,” Mercier said over the weekend. “Blockchain opens so much more opportunities for the community even in those regions where fans of the game have constant payment problems, like Asia or Latin America. Players around the world can be confident that their funds will be secure, their cards will be random, and their games will be fair.”

Using cyber currency enables operators to make global player transactions measurably faster, Mercier claimed, revealing that CoinPoker will be using a special cryptocurrency called Chips (CHP) based on Ethereum smart contracts.

CoinPoker has also placed its random number generator on blockchain; head of security Michael Josem, who is respected for his industry work in exposing major poker industry scandals in the past, said that fairness and integrity considerations motivated the decision.

“We are developing a Fairplay blockchain-based security and fraud system that is going to help us discern the real players from the bots, preventing cheating,” Josem revealed.

Future plans for CoinPoker include an initial coin offering (ICO) in January next year, with a pre-sale of the tokens next week giving early birds an opportunity to benefit by around 30 percent.

CoinPoker has published a Youtube vid on the new enterprise, which can be viewed here:

https://youtu.be/Sb_LGKh1-FI

Lowery Wins Sixth WSOPC Ring In Choctaw Main Event And Title

Finally ticks elusive WSOP Circuit main event title off bucket list

Dan Lowery has won the World Series of Poker Circuit Choctaw Main Event which despite having won five Circuit rings previously, the main event title remained elusive, until now.

Lowrey outlasted a 908 entry field in the $1,675 no-limit hold’em main event to win $258,784 at Choctaw Casino and Resort in Durant, Oklahoma after defeating Walter Rodriguez heads-up.

“I’ve been in so many big spots and come up second three times,” Lowery said. “I felt pressure today that I’ve never felt. There’s been so many people saying ‘Oh, you’re going to get second again?’ and it just rings in my head. After a while it does get to you, I guess.”

Final Table Results were:

1: Dan Lowery – $258,784
2: Walter Rodriguez – $160,062
3: Nick Schwarmann – $118,140
4: Jared Hemingway – $88,394
5: Mason Vieth – $66,970
6: Jonathan Hanner – $51,375
7: Chance Steed – $39,893
8: Kevin Eyster – $31,367
9: Venkata Chinta – $24,95

Inaugural Wpt Indian Poker Tourney Concludes

WPTDeepStacks India main event won by Vikash Mantri

The inaugural World Poker Tour Deep Stacks India main event has reached a successful conclusion at the Deltin Royale Casino in Goa, with Vikash Mantri claiming the victor’s spoils of $92,540 after besting a competitive field of 526 other players.

After powering through the field Mantri started final table action holding the chip lead and managed survive through to the heads up against Arjun Arora.

The latter held a solid chip advantage as the heads up started, but within a few hands Mantri had levelled the stacks and went on to take and extend his lead despite some bold moves and bluffs from Arora, who was finally caught out and eliminated at second for $60,573.

The relatively inexperienced Mantri (he has only two previous live tourney cashes on his resume) said he had been under massive pressure from Arora and was relieved to have correctly called his opponent’s bluffs.

55 players cashed from the $420,622 prize pool.

Pokerstars Launches A Tourney Series For High Stakes Players

Breaking from its usual recreational player model, online poker provider aims to attract High Rollers to this competition

Moving temporarily away from its usual recreational player focus, online poker provider PokerStars has announced a new high-stakes online tournament series designed to appeal to high rollers.

The tournament will begin November 26 and run through December 4 with 22 high buy-in events covered by a total of $11.4 million in guaranteed prize pools. Buy-ins range from $1,050 minimum to $10,300 maximum.

There will be 18 No-Limit Hold’em competitions, 4 PLO, NL Omaha Hi-Lo and 5-Card PLO, with a main event on December 3 that carries a $2 million prize pool guarantee.

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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