March 21 2011, Matthew Pitt

After a smaller than expected field of just 180 walked through the doors of the picturesque Alpine Palace Hotel in Saalbach-Hinterglemm Sunday afternoon for Day 1a of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Snowfest you would be forgiven for expecting another compact field for Day1b. How wrong you would be though, as a field of 302 players exchanged €3,750 for 30,000 tournament chips and the dream of becoming a EPT Champion.

While 302 players bought in, the truth is is that there were only 301 of them present for the first few hours of the day, since Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier missed his flight to Austria and turned up to the tournament six hours late. Amazingly, despite having his stack blinded off during that time, he still managed to sit down with a rather healthy stack of 25,000 chips. He managed to turn that stack into 60,000 at one point, but with his loose-aggressive style he lost them all by the time play came to an end.

There were plenty of Monsieur Grospellier’s PokerStars team-mates in the field today too including the de Meulder twins Mattias and Christophe, Dario Minieri, Sandra Naujoks and Julien Brecard, the latter was celebrating his 32nd birthday but the poker gods failed to bring him any extra luck, and he and all the above mentioned Pros were eliminated by the end of the day. A number of Team PokerStars Pros did make it through to Day 2, including the man who has cashed a record 17 times in EPT events – Luca Pagano. Max Lykov and Liv Boeree also made it though and Boeree will return to nurse a stack of 19,000, though she says she is happy with that total, considering the cards she was dealt throughout the Day 1b proceedings.

Along with the vast team of PokerStars Pros, there was a very talented field packed tightly into the tournament area including the likes of Fabian Quoss, who made the final table of the EPOT London High Roller event, John Eames who finished third at the recent EPT Copenhagen Main Event, and Anton Wigg who won EPT Copenhagen in 2010. As is usually the case when there is a pro heavy field, a so-called “Table of Doom” forms, and Monday was no different as, ironically, Table 13 was the home to a whole host of familiar faces. First EPT San Remo Champion Liv Boeree took her seat and she was sandwiched between Luca Pagano and James Sudworth. At the opposite end of the table sat EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee and a few minutes into play, EPT Tallin Champion Kevin Stani sat down in seat five. As far as tough tables go, this was one of the toughest we’ve ever seen.

Throughout the day, there was not one person who looked as if they were going to become a runaway chip leader, but a couple of hours from the end, Michael Tureniec went on a mini-heater and he went from under-the-radar, to flashing brightly on it, with over 200,000 in chips. A large percentage of his stack was won in a hand with Sandro Ruegg. In the hand, Tureniec called a 12,200 bet on a board reading before seeing Ruegg bet another 16,500 when the peeled off on the river. This last bet sent the reigning EPT Copenhagen Champion deep into the tank for around two-and-a-half minutes and he finally made the call, turning over which was enough to beat the of Ruegg. Tureniec could not keep the momentum going right up to the end of the day, though he did finish with 186,800, a more than respectable total.

The man who everyone will have to catch Tuesday is Vladimir Geshkenbein, who managed to turn his 30,000 starting stack into a colossal 253,700 during the eight levels of play Monday. He burst onto the live poker scene in 2009 when he won the APPT Macau High Roller Event for $266,705 and will be looking to go deep in this event over the next four days.

Play resumes at 2:00 p.m. local time on Tuesday, when the 102 survivors from Day 1a combine with the 166 from Day 1b, all hoping to make it through to Day 3 where they will have a chance of making it into the money or even walking away with the €390,000 first-place prize for winning the PokerStars.net EPT Snowfest.

Be sure to keep it locked to the PokerNews Live Reporting Page for all the action, and as always, follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

March 21 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

Most of you were probably too busy with March Madness and online poker tournaments to enjoy the first day of spring. Maybe by catching up on the latest poker news stories, you’ll have a little bit of time to enjoy the second day of spring. Read on to find out the results from Zynga PokerCon’s $100,000 guaranteed tournament, the next milestone PokerStars is upon, and the latest brag from Phil Hellmuth.

In Case You Missed It

We recently caught up with Joseph Cheong to talk poker, check out his grind station, and find out how life has changed since he became a member of the 2010 World Series of Poker November Nine. Check out the latest Sunday Grind for more.

FSN’s coverage of the World Poker Tour continued on Sunday night with the second episode from the Borgata Poker Open. In case you forgot the outcome or missed the show, you can get caught up on all the action in our WPT recap.

The MiniFTOPS XIX finished up on Sunday night with the Main Event smashing its $1.25 million guarantee. Find out how many players took their shot, who won, and the results to the rest of Sunday’s biggest tournaments in the Sunday Briefing.

The fifth installment of the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown kicked off on Sunday between Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom and Daniel Negreanu. The outcome wasn’t so great for one of the players and the match didn’t even go the full 2,500 hands, but we’re not going to tell you who got stacked, you’re going to have to read the SuperStar Showdown recap to find out.

The action on GSN’s High Stakes Poker continued on Saturday with one of the amateurs taking control. If you missed Saturday’s episode and want to catch up on things, you can check out the HSP recap.

Zynga’s PokerCon

Over the weekend, Zynga held its first PokerCon at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas. By Thursday, the day before the two-day event kicked off, it was sold out. There were poker seminars hosted by Annie Duke and Ali Nejad, and appearances made by some fan favorites like Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Scotty Nguyen, and more.

Zynga also hosted a $100,000 guaranteed poker tournament for the attendants of PokerCon. The tournament was divided into two flights of 250 players. The top three finishers from each flight moved on to the final table, and 54 players made the money. In the end, it was Aaron Alawen who outlasted the field and took home the lion’s share of the prize pool.

If you want to find out more about the event, and check out some photos, you can do so by heading over to Zynga’s Twitter page.

That’s a lot of Hands

PokerStars has managed to deal 10 billion hands in less than a year. Back in September, the online poker site dealt its 50 billionth hand. Now, about six months later the site is poised to hit 60 billion hands and it wants to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than handing out cold hard cash to the players?

There’s approximately $1 million up for grabs during the 60 Billionth Hand celebration. The amount a player can win is dependent upon the VIP player points a player has won at the table, and prizes are awarded during milestone hands, or millionth hands (ex: 59,700,000,000). The winner of the 60 billionth hand will win at least $60,000.

It’s going to happen in the next few days, so if you want to find out more, check out the PokerStars Blog, and if you want your shot at the money, sign up for a PokerStars account.

PokerStars Backing Nevada Internet Gaming Bill

Earlier this month we told you about a bill that the was introduced into the Nevada legislature that would legalize online poker in the state. According to a recent article in the Las Vegas Sun, former Nevada gaming regulator, Randall Sayre, is now a consultant for PokerStars, and the online poker site is backing the legislation.

“If we don’t approach this in a rational fashion this legislative session, by the time we meet again in two years … we will be left on the sidelines, which is not a good thing for the traditional gaming industry in Nevada,” Sayre said.

The bill would establish Internet poker legislation, and prevent regulators from excluding PokerStars and other sites from a license simply because they accept bets from U.S. players now. PokerStars would also pay a 6.75 percent tax on the rake it collects, which is the same amount Nevada casinos pay on gross gambling revenue.

“We can show the feds that this is a product that can work in the U.S. That it’s not the big taboo, mysterious, ‘Wizard of Oz’ approach to gaming that the feds have made it out to be,” Richard Perkins, a former Nevada assembly speaker said.

There’s plenty more on this issue on the Las Vegas Sun’s website.

Iowa To Look Closer

In more Internet poker legislative news, Iowa Governor Terry Branstad said that he is planning on studying the bill that was introduced in the Iowa legislature and not “prepared to slam the door on an expansion into Internet poker.”

“I’m certainly not advocating it,” Branstad said. “This is kind of a new phenomenon and as I understand it, it’s a pretty significant issue and one that I think deserves to be very carefully studied. I want to make sure the integrity of the state is protected in the process and we certainly want to prevent our citizens from being defrauded by unscrupulous activities.”

Approximately 150,000 Iowans are playing online poker and proponents of the online poker bill have said that the state could collect at least $30 million in annual revenues if it was legalized in the state.

“It’s usually my policy not to threaten veto on anything until I’ve seen it in its final form,” Branstad said. “Things could change dramatically and I think it’s important to learn as much as I can before staking out a position. I learned this a long time ago that it’s important to have all the facts and all the information and not just make a snap judgment based on an inadequate amount of information.”

To find out more, check out EasternIowaGovernment.com.

Honey! I Met the (Former) President!

It seems Phil Hellmuth is on a tour of recent United States Presidents lately. He was previously photographed with former President George W. Bush.

“I love my life! Gonna go hang out with President Clinton for an hour or two, then sitting on floor of Warriors game tonight vs Mavericks,” he tweeted on March 16 and then on March 18, he tweeted a photograph of himself and former President Bill Clinton in San Francisco.

PokerNews’ head honcho, Tony G is offering up $50 to the best caption for the photo, so head on over to the PartyPoker Blog and try your best.

Laura Parties in Snowfest

As you know, the PokerNews Team is in Saalbach-Hinterglemm for the PokerStars European Poker Tour Snowfest. If you checked out the recap from Day 1a of the event, you saw the lovely sights from the Austrian town. Now, new PokerNews hostess, Laura Cornelius gives you an inside look at the Welcome Party and talks to some of the pros.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for up-to-the-minute news.

We have one more $15,000 Sunday Million Freeroll with PokerStars left to qualify for, with $1,000 to the winner and 260 tournament tickets, including 45 Sunday Million Tickets on offer.