September 04 2012, Brett Collson

While one Europe-based poker tour is preparing to get off the ground, another is in full swing this week. We’ll touch on those stories and more in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Aaron Massey won the WinStar World Casino Revier Poker Series Main Event on Monday. Read about his road to victory in our final table recap.

A massive $250,000 buy-in tournament flew under the radar last week. Rich Ryan discusses that and more in his latest Five Thoughts piece.

How did the first WCOOP events play out on PokerStars? Who took down the biggest score? Find out in the Sunday Briefing.

Did you miss Sunday’s World Poker Tour coverage on FSN? Read our WPT recap to get caught up.

How has Tristan Wade’s life changed since entering poker? Find out that and more in the latest Seat Open.

New Face of the ISPT

The International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) continues to add star power ahead of its inaugural event in London next May. On Tuesday, the tour announced the signing of poker pro Liz Lieu as an ambassador for the Europe-based tour. She joins Michael Mizrachi and Sam Trickett on the ISPT team.

“ISPT is pioneering the world of poker in a bold and creative way. This event will create a lot of positive attention for this game,” said Lieu. “I am very excited by the concept and I’m sure that ISPT will be remembered in poker history. My role will be to act as an ambassador of the tournament and share my opinion on this event. I not only want players to know about the historic nature of the event, I want them to see that it’s going to be a tremendous amount of fun.”

The first ISPT event is scheduled to kick off on May 31, 2013. Organizers are expecting the tournament to begin with 30,000 players in the stands of Wembley Stadium playing an online tournament from their seats. From there, the top 3,000 players will advance to the live tournament, which will be played right on the Wembley Stadium field. The event has a “20,000,000 guaranteed prize pool and will be broadcast on television via six channels.

Read more about the event at ISPT.com.

Trickett’s Title Defense

The 2012 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event began Monday with the first of two starting days at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes. Day 1a had 325 entries into the “8,500 event, and after seven levels 155 had advanced to Day 2.

The chip leader after Day 1a was Marcello Marigliano with 187,300, but several notables finished with healthy stacks. Former WSOP November Niner Antoine Saout was fifth with 150,900, and Michael Mizrachi (144,800), Todd Terry (132,500), Davidi Kitai (129,100), Martin Jacobson (114,700), Joel Nordkvist (111,100), Thomas Wahlroos (103,500) and Vanessa Selbst (102,400) cracked the top 30.

Others still alive include Leo Margets, Justin Bonomo, Jonathan Duhamel, Pius Heinz and Jason Mercier. Here’s a look at the top stacks from Day 1a:

Among the players taking part on Day 1b were Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and defending champion Sam Trickett. Check back for daily updates right here in the Nightly Turbo.

iPoker Splits Player Pool

The iPoker Network’s new tiered platform has been successfully implemented as planned, dividing the player pool of the network’s 40-plus skins.

Among the skins residing on the top tier going forward include William Hill, Poker770, bet365, Titan Poker and Paddy Power Poker. Those sites each met the set of requirements introduced by iPoker owner Playech in June. Skins were required to maintain a base of at least 6,000 active players, as well as 850 new real-money players per month from July 1 through the end of August.

The top tier will offer larger player pools and more games to select from. While multi-table tournaments will be shared across the entire network, many ring game tables and sit-and-gos will be separated. The smaller sites which didn’t qualify for the top tier are expected to draw less recreational players and more sharks looking to maximize volume.

Get more information about the split at TwoPlusTwo.com.

Ivey Leads The Nuts … Again

The latest edition of ESPN’s The Nuts was released late last week. The monthly blog post ranks the best poker players in the world at the moment. The 10-person panel includes Elaine Chaivarlis, PokerNews’ editor in chief; Don Peters, PokerNews‘ tournament reporting manager; and ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, among others.

Phil Ivey maintained the top spot, receiving all 10 first-place votes from the panel, but his reign is being threatened by two of the hottest players of 2012. Marvin Rettenmaier, winner of back-to-back World Poker Tour titles this year, entered the rankings at No. 4, and Dan Smith made his debut at No. 6. Smith has six wins this year and currently leads the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race.

John Juanda and Sam Trickett also returned to The Nuts rankings. Juanda is fresh off an eighth place finish in the EPT Barcelona Main Event ($93,500) and fifth place result in the Macau High Stakes Challenge ($1,645,753). Trickett also cashed in Macau, and his runner-up finish in the Big One for One Drop won’t soon be forgotten.

Here’s a look at the top 10 for September.

For more analysis on The Nuts rankings, check out ESPN.com.

Goodbye, Oklahoma

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team recently made its first trip to WinStar World Casino for the River Poker Series Main Event. Sarah Grant took a look back at the highlights from the five-day event.

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September 03 2012, Josh Cahlik

Another grueling day of tournament poker ended on Sunday at the WinStar World Casino’s River Poker Series Main Event. Players from three starting flights combined on Day 2 to wage war on the felt for their share of the $2,500,000 guaranteed prize pool. It took a mere 10 levels for the 141 players who began the day to become the final 15. Matt Newcombe, who finished Day 1a as the chip leader and was the overall chip leader coming into Day 2 has once again finished at the top of the field with a stack of 3,245,000.

Aaron Massey held onto the second largest stack at the end of the day with 2,890,000 in chips. Massey was able to gain a majority of his stack during a three-way all in that occurred fairly early on during Day 2 play. Mark Eddleman opened the action preflop with a raise to 9,000 and was called by Jerry Lorett. Massey moved out a three-bet to 24,000 from the button and both of his opponents called.

The flop fell and Eddleman checked. Lorett open-shipped all in for an unknown amount and Massey called. Eddleman then moved all in over the top and Massey snap called for his tournament life.

Showdown

Massey:
Eddleman:
Lorett:

Massey was in the lead with his flopped set, but needed to dodge Lorett’s straight and flush outs. The fell on the turn and the on the river. An excited Massey jumped into the air and gave powerful fist pump at the sight of two small black cards. This hand propelled him to 655,000 early on in the day and his stack continued to grow exponentially as the day progressed.

Day 2 saw a slew of notable names return to the felt from their various starting flights. Having already cashed, these players were searching for glory and the ever elusive final table appearance. Among those to finally see their tournament come to an end on Day 2 were Brett Schwertley, Chris Moneymaker, Maria Ho, Heath Herring, AP Phahurat, Kurt Jewell and 2012 World Series of Poker Octo-Niner Robert Salaburu.

David “Doc” Sands was expected to make a strong showing on Day 2 and did not disappoint. Sands seemed to be a magnet for action throughout the day as we saw him come from behind twice to double up for his tournament life during play. Sands remained one of the top stacks for a majority of the day, but finally met his untimely end before the field combined for the final two tables.

Sands moved all in on a board of only to have Peter Zhmutski quickly move all in over the top. The third player in the hand folded and Sands showed for a straight. Unfortunately for Sands, Zhmutski held for the nut straight and was able to send Sands home in 20th place.

While Sands was ultimately disappointed with his finish, he had nothing but positive words to say about the event and tournament staff after the fact.

Final 15 Chip Counts

At 1200 CST (1800 BST) on Monday the final 15 players will return to the Global Events Center in the heart of the WinStar World Casino to play down to a champion. Make sure to stay tuned to our live reporting page to follow as this exciting event reaches its dramatic conclusion!

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