August 14 2012, Brett Collson

Who deserves induction into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2012? It’s up to you, the poker fan, to make your nominations. We’ll cover that story, plus Viktor Blom’s departure from Team PokerStars, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Only 16 players advanced to Day 4 of the World Poker Tour Parx Open Poker Classic. Anthony Gregg led the way, but some notables still had their eyes on the title.

How did PokerNews‘ Chad Holloway fare in the 2012 ESPN Fantasy Poker League? Holloway took a look back at the results.

Last week, Marvin Rettenmaier made history by winning back-to-back titles on the World Poker Tour. Rich Ryan gives his take on the accomplishment in his latest Five Thoughts piece.

Poker Hall of Fame

It’s that time of year again. The World Series of Poker has opened nominations for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2012, giving fans a chance to nominate their favorite players for induction into the group of poker’s elite.

The Poker Hall of Fame traditionally elects one or two members annually and inducts the chosen members in November as part of the WSOP Main Event Final Table festivities. This year’s final table will take place in October because of a conflict with this year’s U.S. presidential election.

Among those already inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame are Johnny Moss, Puggy Pearson, Doyle Brunson, Jack Strauss, Benny Binion, David “Chip” Reese, Thomas Austin “Amarillo Slim” Preston, Stu Ungar, and Phil Hellmuth. Last year, Barry Greenstein and Linda Johnson were added to the prestigious club.

The main criteria for the Poker Hall of Fame are as follows:

• A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
• Be a minimum of 40 years old at time of nomination (the “Chip Reese” rule)
• Played for high stakes
• Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
• Stood the test of time
• Or, for nonplayers, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

Once the list of nominated individuals is complete, a committee of media members will review all nominations and determine which candidates are most eligible for induction. Last year’s nominees who didn’t make the Class of 2011 were Annie Duke, Jen Harman, John Juanda, Macel Luske, Jack McClelland, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen and Huck Seed.

To submit your nominations, visit WSOP.com.

PokerStars, Viktor Blom Part Ways

PokerNews learned Tuesday that Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom has parted ways with PokerStars and is no longer a member of Team PokerStars Pro.

Eric Hollreiser, PokerStars’ head of corporate communications, told PokerNews that Blom and the company mutually agreed not to renew the Swede’s expired sponsorship agreement. Said Hollreiser: “In his short time as a poker player, Viktor has played against the biggest names in poker at the highest stakes in the toughest games. It’s hard to recall a player who has kept the poker world so riveted at such an early stage of his career. We’ll be watching with great interest and we wish him nothing but success.”

Blom joined PokerStars in 2011 after exploding onto the scene by playing the highest stakes available at Full Tilt Poker. His heads-up battles against pros like Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius and Brian Hastings instantly changed the landscape of high-stakes poker on the internet. Since joining PokerStars, one of Blom’s shining achievements was winning 11 of his 14 matches in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown, earning more than $1 million in the process. He also won the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller for $1,254,000.

“I’ve enjoyed my time as a Team Pro and I wish everyone at PokerStars the best,” Blom said about his departure from PokerStars. “Now I just want to concentrate on playing poker.”

Read the breaking story at PokerNews.com.

DOJ Seeks Help

Full Tilt Poker customers in the U.S. may be waiting awhile to make a claim for the funds frozen in their accounts.

The Department of Justice is seeking a third-party payment processor to help facilitate the remission process for FTP players located in the U.S. An employment notice listed on the DOJ website calls for a claims administrator to “design and execute a process to solicit, receive and evaluate claims, and to process payments, for losses incurred by U.S. victims that are attributable to the fraud alleged in the above complaint.”

The deadline to apply for the position is Aug. 31, meaning players may be forced to wait several more weeks before information about the remission process is made public.

The remission process has been a bit of a concern for U.S. players, even more so after a Forbes article questioned whether the government will actually repay players in full. Forbes writer Nathan Vardi also suggested that the government may pay out the money deposited by players on the site, rather than the actual funds in their account.

Meanwhile, PokerStars still intends to repay all non-U.S. Full Tilt Poker customers by Nov. 6. As part of the agreement with the Department of Justice last month, the company promised to refund players within 90 days of the formal closing of the deal to acquire Full Tilt Poker. The deal was finalized last week when PokerStars made its initial $225 million forfeiture payment to the government.

Read more at PokerNews.com.

PokerStars Mobile, Eh?

Following successful launches in Europe and Austral-Asia, the PokerStars Mobile App is now available in Canada. The popular app is available for download on Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPad Touch, and on many Android phones and tablet computers.

PokerStars Mobile offers real-money games in varieties like Texas hold’em, Omaha and Omaha hi-lo, and players can participate in the same tournaments, sit-and-gos and ring games they would on their laptops or desktop computers.

Some of the features on the mobile app include multitabling (up to five tables on the iPad), player and tournament search, lobby filters, chat, and hand histories. The fast-paced Zoom Poker is also available on all devices.

For more information, visit pokerstars.com.

Watch and Win on ESPN

ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker Main Event begins tonight, and viewers of the telecast will have an exciting opportunity to win a $12,500 package for next year’s WSOP Main Event.

In the first hour of each two-hour telecast, viewers will see a promotional spot providing an overview of the sweepstakes with a mention to keep watching for the night’s unique code. Once it is revealed, viewers can log into WSOP.com, register for an account at the WSOP’s free-to-play poker software, and enter the code.

There will be one winner chosen for each of the next 11 weeks of ESPN’s coverage. The final winner will be selected after the broadcast on Oct. 23.

“This officially becomes the first way to qualify for the 2013 WSOP Main Event,” joked WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “For ten consecutive years, WSOP telecasts have showcased that in Vegas everyone can play and anyone can win. This is our way of thanking loyal viewers and giving them a chance to go from their couch to the championship in 2013.”

For official rules of the sweepstakes, visit WSOP.com.

A teaser for tonight’s Main Event coverage can be found at ESPN.com.

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June 02 2012, Samuel Cosby

Day 6 of the World Series of Poker is over and one more bracelet has been awarded. Nick Jivkov, from Des Plaines, Illinois, took home the bracelet for Event #5: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em. Event #6: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Mix-Maxed played its way down to heads-up play with Warwick Mirzikinian leading the way and Aaron ‘aejones’ Jones not far behind. David Williams, Andy Bloch, and Barry Greenstein found their way to a final table in Event #7: $1,500 Seven Card Stud. Finally, Event #8: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better kicked off with 967 players and notables like Todd Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, and Dan Shak crawled their way onto the leaderboard.

Event #5: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em

Nick Jivkov found himself seated at a stacked final table that included Daniel Negreanu, Tommy Vedes, and Jonathan Aguiar on Friday. At the beginning of the day, Jivkov was fourth in chips with 281,000. All eyes were on Daniel Negreanu though, not Jivkov, who attempted to win his fifth World Series of Poker gold bracelet.

Negreanu had a good start to the day and found a couple of crucial double-ups, but in the end, Negreanu’s luck ran out when he needed it most. Negreanu was all-in with against Nick Jivkov’s . Negreanu had got it in good and was in even better shape with the flop fell . The turn was a blank . But Jivkov spiked the river hard with the , which gave him the winning straight to eliminate Negreanu who earned $41,638 for fifth place.

Vedes was next to go when he moved all-in on a flop with against Jivkov’s . Jivkov was unstoppable though and binked the on the river to eliminate Vedes in fourth place for $55,960.

Going into heads-up play, Jivkov already had a 3-1 chip advantage after eliminating five of the seven other players. In the final hand of the match, Bryan Pellegrino shoved all-in preflop after Jivkov had reraised from the button. Pellegrino showed and Jivkov held . The board ran out and it was good enough to give Jivkov the win and the bracelet. Pellegrino earned $117,199 for his runner up finish. Jivkov earned $189,818 for first.

To see who else Jivkov eliminated along with action from the first two days be sure to check out our live tournament blog.

Event #6: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Mix-Maxed

Day 2 of Event #6 brought players into the money as well as into heads-up play for Day 3. The field is still riddled with young blood as several pros were able to chip up during the six-handed play on Thursday. Among them are Joseph “subiime” Cheong, Marvin Rettenmaier, Eric Froehlich, Victor Ramdin, John Hennigan, Joe Tehan and Brian Rast. Also still alive is Aaron “aejones” Jones who is among the chip leaders with 409,000 in chips.

Among those to hit the rail Friday as the field was reduce from 112 players to 31 were Olivier Busquet, Phil Collins, Will Failla, Daniel Negreanu, Eli Elezra, and Eugene Katchalov.

The play of the day goes to Jones through, for this hand he played with Michael Ferrell. Marvin Rettenmaier opened under the gun for 6,200. Jones called directly behind, as did Tom McCormick on the button. Ferrell decided to pump it up to 19,500 from the small blind, and all but Jones folded, bringing a flop of .

Ferrell fired again – this time 18,000. Jones called and the turn brought the . Ferrell led at the pot again, this time for 34,000 and Jones called once more. The fell on the river fell and Ferrell slowed down and checked. Jones thought momentarily before making it 52,000, and Ferrell didn’t think long before letting it go. After he folded, Jones showed for a bluff. “I had blockers he said after the hand.”

On Saturday, the final 31 players will return for heads-up matches that will begin at 1300 PDT (2100 BST) in the Amazon room. Players will play down to the final eight on Saturday and return on Sunday to crown a winner.

To see all the exciting action and the epic conclusion, be sure to stay tuned to our live updates blog.

Event #7: $1,500 Seven Card Stud

It was in this very same event in 2006 that David Williams won his first bracelet. Now, six years later, he’s leading the final table for a chance to do it again. But close behind Williams are pros Barry Greenstein and Andy Bloch.

Players played all the way down from 111, to the final nine on Friday, bursting the money bubble on the way. Players who cashed, but did not make the final table included Artie Cobb, David Singer, Brett Richey, Sam Grizzle, Marco Traniello, Chau Giang, and Fabrice Soulier.

David Tighe was the last player not to receive any money. Greenstein managed to eliminated Tighe on the bubble with two pair. Tighe’s elimination secured a spot in the pay charts for the other 40 players.

Shortly after this, players began to drop like flies and Williams began to pick up chips. One notable hand occurred when Williams won a very substantial pot against four other players. At the end of the hand, William’s board read (x)(x)//(x). Greenstein bet on fourth street and Williams raised. Scott Abrams called, then William Thompson called. Stephen Su raised, Greenstein folded, Williams called as well as both Abrams and Thompson. On fifth street, Thompson bet out with a pair of fives, Su folded, Williams called, and Abrams folded. On sixth street, Williams picked up his second pair on board and bet, Thompson called. On seventh street, Williams bet again, but this time Thompson folded. This pot pushed Williams to nearly 180,000 in chips, and from there he was on cruise control to the final table.

On Saturday, the final nine will battle it out for the $126,363 first prize and the gold bracelet. Play will reconvene at 1400 PDT (2200 BST).

To make sure you don’t miss any action from Saturday’s final table, make sure you’re keeping a close eye on our live reporting blog.

Event #8: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split Eight-or-Better

On Friday, 967 players walked into the Amazon Room hoping to become the next bracelet holder. All but 220 players’ dreams were crushed. Among those who didn’t make it to Day 2 were Andrey Zaichenko, Owais Ahmed, Mike Leah, Allen Kessler, David Benyamine, Eric Baldwin, Phil Ivey and Xuan Liu.

Ivey had started to pick up some momentum when he flopped the nuts in a three-way all-in pot. With the board reading , Ivey and two other opponents capped the action. The fell on the turn, and the rest of the money went in. Ivey held the and was a lock to win the high pot unless the board paired, which it didn’t when the fell. Sadly for Ivey though, he was eliminated later in the day by Mike Matusow.

Some of the players returning on Saturday to play out past the money bubble and to the final table include Daniel Negreanu fresh off his Event #5 final table, Mike Matusow, Betrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Dan Shak, Todd Brunson, Amnon Filippi, Men Nguyen, and Jeff Madsen.

On Saturday, the final 220 players will try to grind it down to a final table. With just over 100 spots to the money, the action will be fast an furious when it picks up at 1300 PDT (2100 BST).

To make sure you don’t miss any of the crazy action from Saturday, make sure you’re checking in on the live reporting blog.

On Tap

Saturday, Event #6: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Mix-Maxed will play down to the final eight players. Event #7: $1,500 Seven Card Stud will award a gold bracelet and Event #8: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split Eight-or-Better , will play past the money bubble on the way to a final table. Event #9: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry kicks off at 1200 PDT (2000 BST).

To make sure you don’t miss any action from the World Series of Poker, make sure to check in to the live reporting blog.

Video of the Day

If you missed Kristy Arnett’s interview with Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, you can catch up now. In the video, Mike gives everyone his opinion on the status of online poker and shows why people still call him “The Mouth.”

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