November 23 2011, Brett Collson

Thanksgiving is a time to indulge in the best things in life. But before you rush out to scope out the stores for your shopping spree on Black Friday, we’re bringing you all of today’s poker news in the Nightly Turbo.

We’ll be off on Thursday and Friday, so check back in on Monday for the latest news, views and gossip in the world of poker. Happy Thanksgiving!

In Case You Missed It

Day 1a of the 2011 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event completed on Wednesday. Shih-Chieh Su was the chip leader at the end of the day, but Phil Ivey stole the show.

Why is it important for poker players to maintain a healthy diet? PokerNews’ Lynn Gilmartin explains in the latest edition of the Stay Stacked series.

With the holiday season upon us, it’s time to reflect on what we’re thankful for. Rather than give you Five Thoughts this week, we’re offering Five Thanks.

Massachusetts is now officially a casino state. Find out more in the latest Inside Gaming.

On Tuesday, Anthony Ruberto won the WPT Jacksonville Main Event to collect the $325,928 first-place prize. Get all the details in our recap.

Poker World Remembers Barry Tanenbaum

On Tuesday, the poker world was saddened to learn that admired poker player and writer Barry Tanenbaum, 66, had passed away. Tanenbaum was hospitalized with health problems earlier this month and lost his battle with kidney disease on Nov. 22.

For those who didn’t know Tanenbaum, he was a respected mid-stakes limit hold’em player who was a regular fixture in the $30/$60 and $40/$80 games at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. He was also a long-time contributor for CardPlayer magazine and wrote a book about limit hold’em called Advanced Limit Hold’em Strategy, which is still a go-to resource for players learning the game today.

Jan Fisher, a close friend of Tanenbaum for many years, wrote the following in remembrance of Barry on Wednesday:

“The poker world has lost a true hero, a real champion of the game, who ‘had it all’ going on. Always a gentleman, even during his rare defeats, he inspired me to be a good person both at and away from the table. He always respected the game and the people around him. A class act, he will be missed more than words can describe.”

The PokerNews team offers its sincere condolences to Barry’s wife, Betty, and those who knew him well. You can read more about Tanenbaum in Fisher’s column at PokerPlayerNewspaper.com.

PokerStars Signs Another Online Wizard

On Wednesday, Team PokerStars Online revealed Bjorn “Bjoerni89″ Schneider, 22, as the latest addition to its roster of sponsored pros. With his elevation to the PokerStars team, Schneider joins a team of talented German teammates including Sebastian Ruthenberg, Sandra Naujoks and 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Pius Heinz.

Schneider almost exclusively plays $5,000 head-up sit-and-gos on PokerStars and is on pace to break fellow Team PokerStars Online member Kevin “WizardofAhhs” Thurman’s all-time VIP Player Points record. Last year, Thurman earned 3,055,385 VPPs. Schneider has more than 2,700,000 so far in 2011 with more than a month left to break the record.

The heads-up specialist has zoomed up the levels in stakes since beginning his PokerStars career two years ago. He began playing $5 nine-man sit-and-gos and by the start of 2011 was playing $100 heads-up matches. Now, Schneider is one of the most feared high-stakes players on the site, even facing off against Team PokerStars Pro Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom in a series of heads-up sit-and-gos.

Read more about Bjorn “Bjoerni89″ Schneider at the PokerStars Blog.

Qualify for the 2012 Aussie Millions

With the 2012 Aussie Millions is less than two months away, you still have many ways to qualify for the $10,600 Main Event other than asking Santa Claus to front your entry fee.

Crown Poker, the host of the Aussie Millions, is offering several options for players to satellite into the Main Event on Jan. 22, 2012. You can win your entry fee through a variety of avenues: a direct entry event; a “Fast Track Satellite; a $550 Deepstack qualifier; or a Phase 3 Supershot Satellite. Each qualifier will run daily at Crown from the end of November, which means there will be up to five tournaments a day sending players either into the Phase 2 and Phase 3 tournaments, or directly into the Aussie Millions Main Event.

Players can also qualify online at PartyPoker, 888poker, Titan Poker, Mansion Poker, Winner Poker, or Poker770. Learn more about the satellites to the 2012 Aussie Millions here at PokerNews.com.

SportMoose Has Your Sports Betting Needs

The end of November and early December offer many betting opportunities for fans of the UEFA Champions League, and SportMoose.com is a fantastic source to get advice on which side to place a wager.

On Wednesday, the new online gambling site ran a preview of each game on the Champions League slate. The site’s expert writers picked their favorites and provided insight into each matchup, including the anticipated matchup between AC Milan and FC Barcelona, where Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic faced off against his former team for the first time.

Also covered at length was the game between Chelsea and Bayern Leverkusen, which played host to a Chelsea squad that had only lost one of its past nine Champions League matches. SportMoose projected that a draw seemed the most likely outcome of this particular match.

In addition to soccer coverage, you can find daily articles and updated odds on up to 20 sports around the world at SportMoose.com.

Exploring Macau

Macau is considered by many to be Asia’s version of Las Vegas. The city is currently hosting the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event, so PokerNews’ Lynn Gilmartin gave us a tour around town before the tournament began in the Grand Lisboa Hotel & Casino.

Are you following PokerNews on Twitter? Like us on Facebook while you’re at it, and sign up for the newsletter. You know you want to.

Follow Brett Collson on Twitter – @brettcollson

November 23 2011, Josh Bell

Action in the $10,000 PokerStars PokerNews League is really starting to heat up!

For the first time during the $10,000 PokerStars PokerNews League, a player has managed to take an almost 20 point lead on the leaderboard. “Kanabal18″ has sky rocketed up the rankings after participating in just two events.

“Kanabal18″ won league events in consecutive weeks, taking down 21 points in last week’s league event. That win comes a week after he used his wild card – a well-timed move, which added 42 points to his record. The rest of the league will now be chasing his lead of 63 points.

$10,000 PokerNews League Leaderboard

If you think it’s too late to try and catch “Kanabal18,” remember that his lead comes after playing only two league events. There are currently four events remaining, so make sure you start playing now!

Weekly $10,000 PokerNews League Tournaments

Visit PokerStars

Team PokerStars Pros To Play In Your Leagues!

In what has turned out to be a fantastic turn of events, a number of Team PokerStars Pros have stepped forward and said they will play in their respective leagues with a $200 bounty on their heads! So not only will you be able to play poker with some of poker’s most recognisable faces, you also stand the chance of claiming their $200 bounty and bragging rights that you sent a Team PokerStars Pro to the rail!

The pros we have lined up to play are as follows:

For your chance to play with one of Team PokerStars Pros download PokerStars through PokerNews and get involved in our amazing value leagues!

Every point counts in the league and players receive one point just for participating, while it is the top 10 players who receive the most points. See below for a breakdown of how league points are awarded.

League Point Payout Structure

Follow the leaderboard standings!

The league may be coming closer to an end, but it’s definitely not too late to start playing and this is mostly due to the wild card tournament.

The wild card tournaments gives players the opportunity to earn double points. This mean if you choose your wild card tournament wisely, then you could earn 42 points and storm the leaderboard very quickly!

If you post some good results over the next couple of weeks then you could find yourself as part of the top 27 players who will qualify for the PokerNews League Final.

The League Final will take place on Dec. 21 at 2100 EST (0200 GMT) and the top 18 finishers in that event will earn a share of the huge $10,000 league prize pool.

$10,000 League Final Payout Structures

The best thing about the $10,000 PokerStars PokerNews League is that it is open to players from all regions! All players need is a password which will be released on PokerNews 48 hours prior to each event.

In addition to the $10,000 PokerStars PokerNews League, there are also seven region-specific leagues which will also award huge cash to players thanks to PokerStars and PokerNews. The leagues are locked to players with accounts from the given region.

Players from these region-specific leagues also have the ability to take part in $10,000 PokerStars PokerNews League and the Australasian League, which is also open to all players.

Iberian League: The league features a $4,000 prize pool and is locked to players with accounts based in Portugal and Spain.

Western European League: The league features a $9,000 prize pool and is locked to players with accounts based in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Luxemburg, Liechtenstein, Austria and the Netherlands.

Central European League: The league features a $9,000 prize pool and is locked to players with accounts based in Solvenia, Balkans, Czech Republic and Hungary.

Eastern European League: The league features a $9,000 prize pool and is locked to players with accounts based in Romania, Bulgaria, the Russian Federation, Poland and Ukraine.

Nordic League: The league features a $4,000 prize pool and is locked to players with accounts based in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.

Baltic League: The league features a $9,000 prize pool and is locked to players based in Estonia, Israel, Turkey, Lithuania and Latvia.

Australasian League: The league features a $5,000 prize pool and is targeted at players with accounts based in Japan, Korea, China, India and Australia. (This league is also open to everyone.)

If you would like to start playing the league but don’t yet have a PokerStars account, make sure to utilize the 100% up to $600 first-deposit bonus by using the marketing code “POKERNEWS.COM” and the bonus code “STARS600″ when signing-up to PokerStars through PokerNews.

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