2011 January 26, Elaine Chaivarlis

PokerStars.net has just announced the first three stops of season two of the North American Poker Tour. It’s more like the next two stops though, as the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure was the first one, and that’s already in the books. So where should you schedule your flights?

Next up on NAPT’s season two schedule is Los Angeles. The event, which is being held at the Bicycle Casino, kicks off March 5 and runs through March 10. NAPT LA will have a full “festival” format with plenty of events and buy-in levels for everyone. There will also be “Live at the Bike” cash games on the docket. Both the $5,000 Main Event and the $10,000 81-player capped Bounty Shootout will be filmed for broadcast on ESPN2 in the United States, TSN in Canada, and other networks around the world.

“This year’s NAPT LA event is eagerly anticipated by the players and the Bike is going all out to make this a memorable tour stop. The nine-day NAPT event will take centre stage in our March poker festival, which kicks off February 25. Players will find a game or tournament of their choosing, every day, every night,” Director of Marketing at The Bike, Kelley O’Hara said.

The third stop that was announced is Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. The Main Event at Mohegan Sun will begin April 9 and run through April 13. The Main Event isn’t the only event scheduled for Mohegan Sun, just like NAPT LA, this stop will host a wide range of events, though those haven’t been released yet. Also, just like NAPT LA, both the Main Event and Bounty Shootout will be filmed for television broadcast.

“In addition to the $5,000 NAPT Main Events, there will be plenty of side event action. With no-limit side events up to $2,000, a mixture of turbo, bounty and heads-up tournaments, along with Omaha and 8 Game, there will be something for everyone during NAPT Season 2,” PokerStars Team Pro Daniel Negreanu said.

He added, “I’m also very happy to see the return of the incredibly popular Bounty Shootout events. This year the BSO format has been standardized as $10,000 buy-in double-shootout nine-handed open events capped at 81 players. These really put players to the test, and result in great television!”

If you want to check out the schedule of events for these stops, head on over to NAPT.com and why not try to qualify on PokerStars while you’re at it. And remember, follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

2011 January 25, Elaine Chaivarlis

Tuesday concluded the Day 1 flights of the 2011 Aussie Millions Main Event. After three Day 1s, a total of 721 players handed over the AUD$10,600 to get their shot at taking home the title. Those 721 players created a total prize pool of AUD$7,210,000, with first place taking home an astounding AUD$2,00,000. Two players will be made millionaires at the end of this event, as second place will be taking home AUD$1,035,000.

Day 1c saw 274 players enter the Crown Poker Room and take their seats. Among them were local hopefuls James Obst, Matthew Pearson, Tony Hachem, and Peter Aristidou. Joining them were Full Tilt Poker Red Pros James Bord, Matthew Jarvis, Peter Jetten and Simon Watt.

When all was bagged and tagged, 109 players made it through the day, to combine with the 83 from Day 1a and the 80 from Day 1b, giving Day 2 a total number of 240 runners.

Australia’s Oliver Keefe came out of no where to bag the largest number of chips at the end of the day, 198,200. That’s good enough to give him the overall chip lead going in to Day 2. He’s not going to have it easy though, Erick Lindgren, chip leader from Day 1a is just behind him on the leaderboard with 186,200. Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey are also looming with 176,500, and 134,200 respectively.

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be there to bring you all the action from Day 2 of the Main Event, so keep it locked to the Live Reporting Page for all the updates.

Million Dollar Cash Game

The second day of high-stakes action kicked off around 4:00 p.m. Tuesday inside Studio 3 at Crown Casino. The Million Dollar Cash Game cast included Patrik Antonius, Justin Smith, Tom Dwan, Andrew Feldman, Mike Matusow, David Benyamine, Erik Cajelais, and David Oppenheim and the game was $400/$800 with a $1,000 ante. All the players started with a starting stack of $100,000. About two hours after play began, Phil Ivey took Smith’s place, and while two of the Chinese businessmen visited the set, Tom Dwan just couldn’t close the deal in getting them to sit down. The big winners of the second session were Matusow, Oppenheim and Feldman. Cajelais and Smith each lost two $100k buy-ins, and Ivey played for less than an hour.

Want to check out the play-by-play? You can, on the Live Reporting Page.

Remember to follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

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