Fri, 03/04/2011 – 22:54 – PokerPages Staff

#5 – Cannes
To the dismay of the WSOP Europe’s traditional hosts in London, in 2011 the new venue for the tournament will be this impressive and classy casino with its generous and plush poker room in sun-drenched Cannes.  Much bigger than the UK venue, Casino Barriere de Cannes Croisette is ideal to absorb the burgeoning success of the tour.

#4 – Dublin
Dublin is the centre of a thriving poker playing community in Ireland, and it plays host to the infamous Irish Open every year, along with several other major poker tournaments.  Players from around the world converge on the beautiful Irish capital in droves – a highly recommended destination, we think.

#3 – Melbourne
Home of the fabulous Aussie Millions poker festival, Melbourne’s magnificent Crown Casino is a glittering palace of poker-playing luxury, offering quite possible the biggest and most scintillating gaming facilities you’ll find anywhere in the Southern hemisphere.  A stunner.

#2 – Macau
This place generates more revenue than the infamous Las Vegas Strip and some would even place it ahead of Vegas as the gambling capital of the world.  The surging successes of the various Asian poker tours have helped place it there and the 53-story Grand Lisboa Hotel-Casino, with its exquisitely “oriental” architecture has become an international hub of poker activity.

#1 – Las Vegas
It’s still the most unbeatable place on earth for playing poker.  Home to the daddy of all tournaments, the WSOP, “Sin City” is bursting with fabulous casinos and cardrooms at every turn.  Open day and night, it has more tournaments and cash games on offer than any place on the face of the planet.

Thu, 03/03/2011 – 18:34 – PokerPages Staff

Poker pro Andrew ‘azntracker’ Li has set a new record for being the fastest ever player to attain the ‘Supernova Elite’ status on the world’s biggest online poker site, PokerStars.

Li accomplished the feat in only two months, shattering the previous record set by Team PokerStars Pro George ‘Jorj95′ Lind in 2008.

Li reached the 1 million VIP Player Points target on February 28 and is now set to reap the rewards for his efforts with a huge $114,000 in cash bonuses and promotions.

The American admitted it had been difficult to maintain his assault on the record.

“I am tremendously happy that I was able to accomplish this. I will most definitely relish many things I took for granted in the past.”

“I will relish not having to play every single game that goes off. I will relish not having to play as soon as I wake up and not ending until after normal people’s dinner times.”

Li played in 14,000 Sit n Go events during the first two months of the calendar year, an average of 280 a day.

He regularly recording losing and winning sessions of up to $15,000 though his eventual ROI (Return on Investment) came in at 0%.

Li has a superb overall record on PokerStars, earning $240,809 from 83,387 SnGs.