November 15 2011, Lee Davy

The European Poker Tour and PokerStars.com drove their red spades deep into the sandy beach of a new country on Tuesday. Greece’s Club Hotel Casino Loutraki, which sits on the edge of the east coast of the Gulf of Corinth, hosted Europe’s premier poker tournament in its inaugural EPT event. In this production of Greece, there was no Danny Zuko or Sandy Olsen; however, there were 145 entrants, who each paid “4,400 to participate. At the end of Day 1a, Germany’s Julian Herold held the chip lead with 138,425.

Herold plowed his furrow at the same table as former EPT Champion Roberto Romanello for most of the day. He came to prominence early in Level 2 after hitting the nut flush on the turn, and before he had time to lick his lips, his opponent had moved all-in for an ill-timed, random bluff. Herold quickly called and doubled his stack.

In Level 6, Herold was seated in the big blind and action was three-handed on a flop of . Herold was holding the stone-cold nuts . A raising war on the flop removed Jason Wheeler from the equation and when the dealer turned the , the rest of the chips went into the middle. The two guys scrapping for their lives were Emmanoyil Martorakis and Herold. The latter faded the spade and was up to a tournament high of 155,000.

The wind swirled off the Aegean and whipped up a frenzy of early action on the tournament floor. Chips were flying person to person. The first player to capitalize was former EPT champion Kent Lundmark. Paul Ribaud somehow managed to get all of his money into the middle holding in the very first level of the day.

Lundmark held and shortly after was stacking 60,000 chips. He wasn’t the only former EPT champion who was handed chips on a silver platter. Roberto Romanello also doubled up early, in Level 2. In the end it was a good day for former EPT champions. Five of them began, and five of them finished with Kent Lundmark (31,100), Roberto Romanello (21,300), David Vamplew (34,050), Mats Gavatin (45,775) and Rupert Elder (82,700) all making it through to Day 2.

It may have been a good day for former EPT Champions but it was not a good day for PokerStars Team Pros. Richard Toth, Marcin Horecki and Ana Marquez were the only representatives on Day 1a, and only Marquez bagged up chips at the final whistle (41,475).

Among the 102 players who made it through to Day 2 were Mclean Karr (103,100), Roman Makhlin (102,100), Jason Wheeler (75,325), Steve O’Dwyer (66,250), David Peters (63,950) and Chris Moorman (39,350).

Day 1b will kick off on Wednesday at 1200 EET (0200 PST) so make sure you join Pokernews for all of the action.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

November 14 2011, Josh Bell

This week in the PartyPoker Weekly, the World Poker Tour hits the Bellagio, learn how to dominate the world, Tony G discusses his competition in the Premier League, and more!

World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic

The first World Poker Tour event was played at the Bellagio and was called the Five Diamond World Poker Classic. The tournament was a huge success and helped John Juanda, Freddy Deeb, Scotty Nguyen and eventual champion Gus Hansen become stars. It has been almost 10 years since that event and since then, the Five Diamond World Poker Classic has continued to be one of the most prestigious tournaments of the year.

The Five Diamond World Poker Classic returns to the world famous Bellagio from Dec. 6 to Dec. 11 and as usual, PartyPoker is the best place to win a WPT tournament package.

Five Diamond World Poker Classic $14,000 Tournament Package

• $10,300 Main Event buy-in
• 7 nights’ accommodation in the luxurious Bellagio hotel
• $2,000 spending money

Last year, Antonio Esfandiari was crowned champion of the Five Diamond, taking home a massive $870,000 when he bested the 437-player field. Join Esfandiari at the felt this December at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Make sure you head to PartyPoker now and win your way to the Bellagio. There will be at least one $14,000 package guaranteed every Sunday and plenty of qualifiers for that event throughout the week.

Tony G Talks Premier League

The lineup for the PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker Mixed Game Championship was announced last week and of course, Tony G had something to say about each and every one of his opponents.

A full rundown of what was said can be found on Tony G’s Blog, but we thought we would pick some of our favorites.

Matt Gianetti: “He’s good but not as good as Martin Zasko. Hellmuth loves him too much, he talked about him every second in the live stream at WPT Malta. I’m not sure that’s a good thing Matt.”

Andrew Feldman: “He used to be a paper boy – I gave him his break in TV poker. Don’t try and bum hunt me online at 4 a.m. in the morning Andrew.”

Sorel Mizzi: “Is he cut from the top or bottom of the pack? He could do with the guiding hand of Tony G.”

The Premier League is set to take place from Nov. 13 through Nov. 17 and we expect to hear from Tony G after the event on his PartyPoker blog.

Time for World Domination

The World Domination promotion is back at PartyPoker and it is set to be one of the most exciting promotions run this year.

Taking place from Nov. 7 to Dec. 31, the World Domination promotion is offering players huge cash prizes, just for earning Party Points. The best part about the promotion is that players can take over the world – one city at a time.

Every time a player earns 10 Party Points, they will be randomly awarded one of 72 different cities from all the corners of the world. Most cities will come with an instant award of cash or freeroll seats, but players are encouraged to conquer entire countries and continents in order to win the biggest prizes.

To achieve Total World Domination, players must conquer each of the 72 unique cities. If they do, they’ll win $100,000. Head to PartyPoker now and start conquering cities!

Start Your Bankroll for Free

Because of the special relationship between PokerNews and PartyPoker, you can be the recipient of a very generous free $50 poker bankroll.

Claiming your free bankroll is easy. All you need to do is sign up for a PartyPoker account through PokerNews and you will get an immediate free credit of $25 into your account. Now all you need to do is earn 200 PartyPoints and you will receive an additional $25!

To receive your free bankroll, head to our Free $50 No Deposit Page and use the bonus code “PN50Free” as outlined in the walkthrough guide.

If you experience any problems with this or any of our promotions, please contact our Ticketed Promo Support System.

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