September 26 2012, Brett Collson

Who’s the latest high-profile pro to speak out about Howard Lederer and Full Tilt Poker? We’re bringing you that story, plus more on the unbelievable run by a micro-stakes grinder in the WCOOP Main Event, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Didn’t have time to watch every episode of The Lederer Files? Check out the recap written by Chad Holloway.

Antonio Esfandiari won his third WSOP bracelet on Tuesday. Read about his incredible story and more in the WSOP Europe Day 5 recap.

Did you miss ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker on Tuesday night? Get caught up in our weekly recap.

Former Survivor contestant Amanda Kimmel has made the transition to poker. Chad Holloway caught up with Kimmel to learn a little more about her venture into the poker world.

Shootout tournaments offer a different style of poker to the World Series of Poker schedule every year. Sarah Grant caught up with 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Oliver Speidel to get some shootout strategy.

Tennis icon Rafael Nadal has been picking up plenty of poker pointers since joining Team PokerStars in July. Check out The Muck to see Nadal’s latest lesson about bluffing.

Tom Dwan on The Lederer Files

When PokerStars completed the deal to purchase the assets of Full Tilt Poker in July, former FTP Team Pro Tom Dwan seemed ready to discuss his thoughts on the demise of his former employer. In fact, Dwan promised his Twitter followers that he would write a blog or do an interview to talk about the issue. Neither happened.

On Tuesday, though, Dwan discussed his views on Full Tilt Poker after watching The Lederer Files here at PokerNews.com and reading the recent Andy Bloch interview at DiamondFlushPoker.com. Surprising to many, Dwan said he believes most of what the two former FTP owners said, and that their comments lined up with independent information that he knew.

Still, Dwan admits that he made a mistake by not speaking up when he should have.

As we reported in Tuesday’s Nightly Turbo, Howard Lederer will be joining the TwoPlusTwo PokerCast Wednesday for a follow-up interview to The Lederer Files. He’ll also be speaking with Diamond Flush later this week.

Read all of Dwan’s comments at his Twitter page.

Maratik’s $1 Million Freeroll

On Tuesday, we brought you the incredible story of “maratik,” the Russian microstakes grinder who qualified for a free seat to the $5,200 buy-in PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) and turned it into a $1 million payday. If you want to see how “maratik” emerged as the improbable champ, the final table highlight show provided by PokerStars.tv can be found below. Commentary is provided by Nick Wealthall and special guest Rupert Elder.

Read the inclusive recap of maratik’s victory at the PokerStars Blog.

Global Poker Index Player of the Year Update

The Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings were released on Wednesday with Dan Smith again on top of the standings.

Smith maintained his lead for the sixth consecutive week thanks to his five major victories on the circuit this year. With 1,010 points, Smith leads his next closest competitor, Andrew Lichtenberger, by nearly 200 points. Lichtenberger, Marvin Rettenmaier and Kyle Julius round out the top four, respectively.

The only movement in the Top 10 this week came from David Baker and Jonathan Duhamel, who swapped places in the rankings. Baker jumped one spot to No. 5 after his 14th place finish in World Series of Poker Europe Event #1. Duhamel, who spent the first 13 weeks atop the GPI Player of the Year rankings, dropped to No. 6.

Others making moves outside of the top 10 were Roberto Romanello (up 13 spots to No. 17), Phil Hellmuth (up 16 spots to No. 29), Kyle Bowker (up 39 spots to No. 88), Govert Metaal (up 52 spots to No. 55), Vyacheslav Igin (up 30 spots to No. 63), and Micah Raskin (up 45 spots to No. 72).

Here’s a look at the Top 10 of the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings:

The Global Poker Index Player of the Year, presented by PokerNews, honors the player who has the strongest performance in live tournaments during the calendar year, according to the USA Today Global Poker Index point system.

For the full GPI Player of the Year standings, head on over to GlobalPokerIndex.com.

LAPT Panama

This week, the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) breaks new ground with its first visit ever to Panama. LAPT Panama kicks off on Thursday with the $2,300 Main Event, with the final table taking place on Sunday, Sept. 30.

The Main Event will have two Day 1 flights, with the fields combining for Day 2 on Friday. On Saturday, the remaining players will work their way down to a final table of eighth, and the first-ever LAPT Panama winner will be crowned on Sunday.

In addition to the Main Event, LAPT Panama will host a series of side events, including a two-day $4,700 buy-in High Roller starting on Saturday, Sept. 29. The full schedule of events can be found at LAPT.com.

To follow along with live updates from the Main Event, be sure to visit the PokerStars Blog all week long. We’ll also provide daily recaps right here in the Nightly Turbo.

Who Would You Rather: Daniel Negreanu

On Wednesday, Daniel Negreanu found himself at a very talkative table at the World Series of Poker Europe “3,250 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout. Sarah Grant asked Negreanu several questions about his tablemates for the latest edition of Who Would You Rather.

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

Follow Brett Collson on

July 14 2012, Samuel Cosby

Day 4 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event began with 720 hopefuls sitting just a few dozen spots away from the money bubble. Many saw their series come to an end throughout the day, but several big names were among the 282 that advanced to Day 5.

Daniel Negreanu, Joseph Cheong, Vanessa Selbst, Gaelle Baumann, Eric Buchman, Marcel Luske, JP Kelly, Matt Marafioti, Andrew Lichtenberger all survived Friday’s play in the Amazon Room. Leading the way after Day 4 was Paul Volpe, who bagged up an astounding 2,750,000 chips, and at one point was just one card away from 4 million chips.

In one of the final hands of the day, Volpe and Eric Pratt got involved in a preflop raising war which saw Volpe five-bet shove and Pratt call off his entire 631,000-chip stack. Volpe was holding the while Pratt held the . The flop fell keeping Volpe in the lead. The on the turn changed nothing, but the on the river Pratt a pair of aces and the double up. Volpe took it in stride and still finished the day as the leader.

While Volpe and several others thrived on Day 4, there many who hit the rail after the money bubble burst at 666 players. Among them were Big One for One Drop champion Antonio Esfandiari, Chris Moorman, Roberto Luongo, Liv Boeree, Jason Mercier, Maria Ho, JC Tran, Huck Seed, and Johnny Chan.

There were also some delays in play, including an incident involving pepper spray, as well as a payout issue. Players were only able to get four levels in, there was still lots of action.

The day got off to a quick start with the money bubble quickly approaching, and before you could think twice, hand-for-hand play was already in effect. During the first hand of hand-for-hand play, five players found themselves all-in, and four were eliminated. On one of the bubble hands, Roberto Riva made it 11,000 from under the gun, only to have Desmond Portano three-bet to 32,000 from middle position. Riva moved all-in with a covering stack, and the pressure was on Portano, who went into the tank. Finally, after Riva called the clock, Portano put his chips in with . Riva was holding and was behind, but not for long. The flop fell to give Riva the commanding lead. The turn was the to give Portano a flush draw, but the on the river was a brick and Portano became one of the four bubble boys.

The other three bubble players were Steve Rosen, who ran into ; Dane Lomas, whose couldn’t hold up against ; and David Kelly, who shoved into . The four bubble boys split 666th-place money ($19,227) and each took home $4,806.75. In addition, there were all invited to take part in a four handed sit-and-go for a $10,000 seat in the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Eliminated not long after the money bubble was burst was Antonio Esfandiari, who was short stacked after he ran his into Brian Meinders’ . On Esfandiari’s final hand, he found himself all in holding against Michael Shelton‘s . The board ran out and Esfandiari could not catch up to stay alive. He was sent home in 501st place collecting $24,808, just a small payday compared to his recent $18 million score.

Also hitting the rail Friday was NHL goalie Roberto Luongo, who got his chips in with against Bryan Vanrijsbergen‘s . He was unable to catch up and was eliminated, collecting a small payday. Another player to hit the rail Friday was Johnny Chan, who also shoved a small pair into his opponent’s bigger pair. Chan got all his money in with but found himself up against Isaac Baron‘s . Baron flopped quads on the board, and that was it for Chan. Huck Seed was also eliminated earlier in the day, so Chan’s bustout marked the elimination of the last Main Event Champion still in the field.

Matt Marafioti was at the feature table for most of the day and had a memorable roller coaster ride. At one point, Marafioti was down under 75,000 chips, but he was able to finish the day with 673,000 after cracking aces to double up on one of the last hands of the night. In the hand, Marafioti found himself all in with against Nghi Van Tran‘s . He was in huge trouble, but the flop fell giving him a shot at survival. The turn gave him the flush he needed and secured his double up. He shot out of his chair and jumped around the main stage in celebration as the dealer put out the to complete the board.

Another player who surged after the money bubble was Andrew Lichtenberger, who was on the winning end of a massive three way pot late in the day. In the hand, Jeremy Ausmus opened to 17,000 from middle position. Action folded to Filip Verboven who moved all in for 120,000. Lichtenberger cold-called on the button, and Ausmus moved all-in. Lichtenberger quickly called with the , but found himself crushed against Ausmus’ . Verboven was in the worst shape though holding the . The board was kind to Lichtenberger though when it ran out giving him a set of kings and the pot which moved him up to 930,000 chips. Lichtenberger was able to finish the day with 1,150,000 and a chance to surpass his best finish of 18th in the 2009 Main Event.

Here’s a look at the top chip stacks moving into Day 5:

On Tap

On Day 5 of the 2012 Main Event, the remaining 282 will continue playing their way down to the final nine. Action will resume at 12:00 PST (20:00 BST) in the Amazon Room and will end after five levels.

Make sure you don’t miss any of Saturday’s action by following PokerNews’ live reporting blog where we will bring you all the updates you need throughout the day.

Video of the Day

In the Video of the Day, Kristy Arnett caught up with Grant “Mister Fish” Hinkle. Hinkle offered some poker tips to players including how to play on the bubble, being patient, and playing with gloves on. To see the whole interview, make sure you check out the video below.

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

No comments yet. Be the first to post one!