February 27 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

Miss any news this week? There’s no better time to catch up than on a lazy Sunday. What’d you miss? Well, we now know where the PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final will be held, there was drama surrounding Sorel Mizzi and John Racener, and more.

Hola Madrid!

Last April, the season seven schedule of the PokerStars European Poker Tour was announced. Since then, we’ve been wondering where the Grand Final would be held. Well, wonder no more, the EPT Grand Final is headed to Madrid, Spain.

“It is with the greatest pleasure that we are able to announce Casino Gran Madrid as the new venue for the EPT Grand Final. We wanted somewhere new, dynamic and inspiring, and knew that Madrid would tick all the boxes for the travelling poker player, regardless of age or desires. The same familiar team will be running the event and the schedule will, I am sure, provide something for everyone. All the usual qualifying satellites will be held on PokerStars.com and other regional versions of the site, giving all players of all nationalities the opportunity to join us in launching from our new home. Hasta la vista,” chief executive of the EPT John Duthie said.

The Grand Final well run from May 7 to 12 at the Casino Gran Madrid. There will be a full schedule of events, including a €25,000 high-roller.

In addition to the announcement on the Grand Final, the dates for the San Remo stop of the EPT were also released. San Remo will take place April 27 through May 3, giving players four days to relax in between the two events.

Satellites are running now, but you can’t win your seat without having an account, so sign up for a PokerStars account today!

Did He Do It?

Over the weekend, Shaun Deeb started a thread on TwoPlusTwo providing a detailed account of alleged cheating by Sorel Mizzi. Deeb recounted the story as told to him by John Racener, the alleged victim in the cheating scandal. In short, Racener and Mizzi were playing Chinese at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and apparently Racener noticed that Mizzi was dealing from the bottom of the deck.

To clear his name, Mizzi replied to the thread, giving his side of the story from that night, denying all of the allegations.

While John Racener hasn’t replied on the thread, he did go on a podcast on Quad Jacks, to get his side of the story out there, saying that Mizzi texted and called him, begging him not to release the information on what happened at PCA.

Racener and Mizzi were the only two in the room at the time, so there is no third party story to corroborate the accusations.

You’ve got all the links, check out the stories and come to your own conclusions.

Who’s on the List?

With the Draw Party for the NBC National Heads Up Poker Championship next week, we’re glad to finally have the full list of 64 players who will participate. The buy-in for the event is $25,000, up $5,000 from last year, with first place taking home $750,000. The event will be filmed for broadcast on NBC and will take place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, March 4 though 6. Now for “The List.”

If you want to find out more, check out the press release.

CBS to Broadcast New Poker League?

Rumor has it, the yet-to-be-named new poker league that has been announced by Annie Duke and Jeffrey Pollack is in discussions with CBS to broadcast the first season of the league.

Variety reached out to CBS for either a confirmation or denial of the report, but CBS declined to comment.

For more, head on over to Variety.com.

I See You

888poker has launched a new innovation to its online poker software – the Pokercam Table. Players who sit down at Pokercam tables will be able to play face-to-face with their opponents. The tables will be specially marked and will employ the use of built-in online communication technology similar to Skype.

“We believe that real poker is not just about winning money, but it’s about the thrill, the fun, the excitement and the social poker experience. Online poker has been traditionally focused on the ‘money making’ element – we feel that there is no reason why online poker should not enable players to meet, socialize and play together. Our new pokercam tables offer our customers a place to meet, play and socialize and are a true indication of our commitment to play different. It’s all about opening our doors to customers that want a casual game of poker, some may play for fun and some may play for real money what we offer is a fun and exciting game of poker against people who share the same interests as you and now you can actually see and talk to them,” VP of poker at 888Holdings, Maytal Ginzburg said.

Want to check out these exclusive 888poker tables? Sign up for an 888poker account through PokerNews and you’ll also be eligible for our $5,000 Leo Margets Freerolls!

Challenge Durrrr

If you think you have the chops to take on one of the best players in the game, you could win $1.5 million. Full Tilt Poker has just announced the Challenge durrrr promotion. Tom “durrrr” Dwan hasn’t even finished his other Challenges, but is adding another one to his plate — this one won’t take as long.

Challenge durrrr vaguely reminds us of another showdown going on in the online poker world, but the rules are a little different. To Challenge durrrr, players will have to prove they’re capable of playing ring games, tournaments, matrix tourneys, heads-up challenges, and show they are capable of playing multiple tables at the same time.

This is open to players across all stakes, who earn a top spot on the leaderboard through Sunday, March 13. Players earn leaderboard chips by winning pots while playing two or more no-limit hold’em or pot-limit Omaha ring game tables at once, or one Rush Poker table.

The top leaderboard finishers will then play a $25,000 Matrix Tournament, and the player who earns top Matrix score will take on Dwan in four simultaneous heads-up sit-n-go’s with the winner taking home $1.5 million.

Round one of the promotion begins February 26, and to play, you’re going to have to get a Full Tilt Poker account.

Same Rules; 1/10th the Stakes

The SuperStar Showdown is back this Sunday — sort of. It’s a special one-tenth-size edition of the challenge. Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom will be taking on Hungarian player DodgyFish72 on Sunday, Feb. 27, at 15:00 EST.

The same rules of the SuperStar Showdown apply, 2,500 hands across four tables, but the stakes are much smaller. The two will be playing $5/$10, with each player putting up $15,000. DodgyFish72 qualified though an $11 satellite, which put him into a 140-player heads-up tournament for the chance to play Blom. He will be staked by PokerStars for the match and whatever he has left at the end, he gets to keep. There’s a $10,000 knockout bonus that will be awarded to the winner if a player goes broke before the end of the challenge.

Want to check out the match? You’ll need a PokerStars account first.

Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.