March 17 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

St. Patrick’s Day and March Madness all in one day? Want to hear some real madness? A prominent poker tour is planning a big buy-in event; it seems to be the cool thing to do these days. We’ll tell you who it is, give you more details on Zynga’s PokerCon, including which of your favorite pros are attending (hint: look at the above photo for one) and more, so put down that green beer for a minute and catch up on today’s news.

In Case You Missed It

The World Poker Tour Bay 101 Shooting Star played down to its final 24 players Wednesday night. Wondering who made it? You can find out in the WPT recap.

Sometimes when we have middle pocket pairs and an overcard hits the flop, we don’t know what to do. After reading this strategy article from Jon Turner; however, we have a bit of a clue.

You might not be thinking about the World Series of Poker yet, but it’ll be here before you know it. We don’t want the summer tournament series to blindside you, so we’re bringing you some Las Vegas housing options in the latest Around the World with Lynn.

Full Tilt Poker hosted the $1k Monday this week with a $1 million guarantee and multi-entries. Find out who took home the top prize, and some results from the MiniFTOPS in the Midweek Briefing.

The high-stakes cash-game action on PokerStars has picked up over the last few months. To what can this be attributed? Players trying something new or is it the Isildur1 Effect?

Get Your Poker (C)on

Earlier this month, we told you about Zynga’s PokerCon. Well, the time has come and the event is upon us.

PokerCon kicks off Friday, March 18, in a two-day event filled with seminars led by Annie Duke. Participants will then be able to take what they’ve learned to the felt and compete in a $100,000 freeroll.

Plenty of your favorite players will be on hand, as well, including Doyle Brunson, Scotty Nguyen, Mike Sexton, David Williams, Gavin Smith, and Vanessa Rousso.

Tickets for the event are sold out, but if you head over to the Zynga PokerCon website, you’ll soon be able to stay in touch with all the PokerCon action from home.

Add Another One (hundred k) to the List

Earlier today, PokerNews received confirmation from the World Poker Tour that it was in fact planning a $100,000 buy-in event for this season of the Tour. Not all of the specifics are nailed down just yet, but we can expect the tournament sometime around the World Poker Tour World Championship in May.

SCOOP’n Up the Prizes

Recently, PokerStars announced the schedule for its Spring Championship of Online Poker. In all, there are 114 events (low, medium, and high buy-ins), with $45 million in guaranteed prize pools.

On top of the cold, hard cash you can win, winners of SCOOP events will receive a Movado watch. Player-of-the-Series honors that will go to the top three 2011 SCOOP leaderboard finishers. While honors are good, prizes are better. Here is a look at what those top three will take home.

1st: Player of the Series trophy, 2011 WCOOP Main Event ticket, 2012 PCA prize package, EPT Grand Final prize package, and a special edition PokerStars chip set
2nd: 2011 WCOOP Main Event ticket, 2012 PCA prize package and a special edition PokerStars chip set
3rd: 2011 WCOOP Main Event ticket and a special edition PokerStars chip set

If you want to find out more, check out the PokerStars Blog. And if you’re vying for that Movado watch and Player of the Series honors, you should sign up for a PokerStars account.

Eureka!

The first stop of PokerStars’ newest poker tour, the Eureka Poker Tour, kicked off Thursday in Prague, Czech Republic. The tour takes place in several countries around Eastern and Central Europe, with stops planned in Slovenia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, and a second stop in the Czech Republic.

Day 1a of the inaugural €800 event saw 160 players take their seats. At the time of writing, 80 players remained, and PokerStars qualifier Marius Pospiech led the way.

To get complete updates from the event, head on over to the PokerStars Blog.

Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

All week this week you can play in our exclusive Everest Poker ONE password tournaments. The winners of each event will play for a $9,000 Monte Carlo Package on March 23.

March 17 2011, Chad Holloway

Last December, PokerStars took the monumental step of signing an online poker legend to its team roster. We’re speaking, of course, of the then-unknown “Isildur1,” who was revealed a month later as being the long-suspected Viktor Blom of Sweden. While Isildur1′s identity lacked intrigue, why he signed with PokerStars rather than Full Tilt Poker, the site where he literally made his name by playing in the high-stakes cash games, certainly made people curious.

For years, Full Tilt Poker has been known for its high-stakes cash-game selection while PokerStars was the place to go for tournament poker. Many speculated that PokerStars’ signing of Blom, one of the most infamous online cash game players in history, was a move designed to reinvigorate its high-stakes cash-game options and hopefully put it on par with the competition. While the PokerStars high-stakes games may not be on the same level as Full Tilt quite yet, it cannot be denied that the action has increased over the past few months. The question is, can this be attributed to Blom’s arrival on the PokerStars scene?

Given the facts and data, all signs point to “yes” and suggest that there has been an “Isildur1 Effect” indeed. If you look at the numbers from the beginning of the year until mid-March, you can see that two of the top ten cash-game earners have amassed their fortunes on PokerStars – Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane (fourth on the list with +$1,614,987) and Rafael “refaelamit” Amit (ninth on the list with +$717,302). This is in stark contrast to the same period in 2010 when the top ten were all from Full Tilt. In fact, the overall top ten cash-game earners for 2010 came from Full Tilt. PokerStars’ high-stakes traffic has increased so much in the last few months, that to have two players already crack that list is impressive. It is no coincidence that these numbers changed just a few months ago at around the same time Blom arrived.

The Swede’s switch to PokerStars has inspired other online professionals to follow suit, which Blom clearly epitomizes, and as a result the $25/$50, $100/$200, and $200/$400 no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha tables have been going strong. In a recent interview with Pokerisivut.com, Illari Sahamies, who was a regular on Full Tilt under the name “Ziigmund,” explained why he made the switch to PokerStars, where his handle is the ever so appropriate “Ilari FIN.” “The whole Full Tilt software started to give me creeps. It might sound ridiculous, but I am not superstitious. I just thought to give PokerStars a go, and since Isildur1 is also there, it suits better for me at the moment,” he said.

Sahamies is not the only notable player to find action on PokerStars’ high-stakes tables. Since Blom’s arrival, a number of Full Tilt regulars have been spotted playing on the competition’s software including Jared “Harrington10” Bleznick, Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond, Daniel “w00ki3z” Cates, Di “ilvdnfl” Dang, Brian “$tinger88” Hastings, and Scott “urnotindangr” Palmer.

PokerStars was also wise enough to launch a high-stakes challenge with Blom in the form of the SuperStar Showdown. For those who don’t know, the SuperStar Showdown, which conjures up images of Full Tilt’s “durrrr Challenge,” is designed as a one-time high-stakes match where challengers face off against Blom in a heads-up match of 2,500 hands spread across four tables of $50/$100 or higher no-limit hold’em and/or pot-limit Omaha. Thus far the SuperStar Showdown has drawn four challengers, Isaac “philivey2694″ Haxton, Antanas “Tony G” Guoga, Eugene “MyRabbiFoo” Katchalov, and the aforementioned Cates, none of whom were strict PokerStars regulars.

Clearly there are some players gunning for some of that sweet Isildur1 money, and poker fans seem to love it. In fact, there is even a thread on TwoPlusTwo dedicated to Blom and his high-stakes exploits since joining PokerStars. Blom is certainly doing his part, having played 1,177 sessions totaling 138,311 hands so far this year; albeit, at a loss of $324,550. Regardless, his presence seems to be enough to get the money flowing.

PokerStars certainly seems to have a recipe that works in building its high-stakes section to compliment its tournament selection. While the poker boom of 2003 is often referred to as the “Moneymaker Effect,” the recent surge in high-stakes games on PokerStars has been largely, if not completely, due to Blom’s signing with the site. Therefore, if you’ve been playing on the high-stakes games on Pokerstars or simply enjoying the action, it wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to say that you’ve been influenced by the “Isildur1 Effect.”

Top Ten Winners on PokerStars Between January 1 March 15, 2011

Top Ten Losers on PokerStars Between January 1 – March 15, 2011

If you’re not playing on either Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars, you can sign up for an account today. In the meantime, be sure to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.