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

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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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April 08 2011, Jen Mason

The third day of play at the Spielbank Berlin brought the number of players remaining in the €5,000 European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event down from 119 hopefuls to just 24. Leading the field is Daniel Pidun with 2,429,000 chips, while ten players return with over a million. The next to leave the Main Event will do so with €20,000 in prize money, and by Saturday night the final table will be determined.

All 119 players returned Friday afternoon with the security of having already cashed and maybe this contributed to the early all-in frenzy. The first to be eliminated today received €7,500; the last person to fall short of Day 4 – Anton Thotatinsson – received €17,500. Cashing for the second time in a row on the EPT circuit was Team PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo who could not develop her short stack and joined Paco Torres, Jack Ellwood, Sam Chartier and Team Pro Sebastian Ruthenberg on the rail in the opening levels. Also finishing in the money were the top three players from EPT Snowfest: Vladimir Geshkenbein, Kevin Vandersmissen and Koen De Visscher.

In contrast, Maximilian Heinzelmann, who started the day in 91st place, clawed his way to second place (2,140,000) by the time the final hand was over. Anton Morgenstern also made a bid for the chip lead eliminating Felix Schulze in one of the biggest pots from early in the day, winning a queens versus ace-king flip to jump over the million-chip mark. He busted to Ben Wilinofsky late in the day, however, and Wilinofsky now sits in third with 2,046,000.

All the experience of a pro with a knack for the comeback did not stop George Danzer from exiting in 26th place after a roller coaster day in which the deck ran alternately hot and cold for the popular Team Pro. Start of day chip leader Fabrice Soulier’s stack also dwindled during his lengthy stint on the feature table, down to 890,000 as he prepares for Day 4. There’s no shortage of experienced players left in the field, although all prior EPT champions and all but two PokerStars Team Pros (Henrique Pinho and Joep van den Bijgaart) are now in the side events.

Among the players who’ve consistently been in the thick of the action today are young, aggressive Lithuanian Kristijonas Andrulis (1,650,000 chips) and Martin Jacobson, whose EPT cash list sports two runner-up finishes (both this season) and one third place. He’ll be looking to make the final for a chance to better this already impressive achievement.

After tables had broken speedily all day, the last stage (28 players down to 24) was a more contemplative, hard-fought affair, and the final table bubble could not help but raise the tension of all the players in the room, and slow them down accordingly. The pace was further slowed by the fact that “all in and call” has to be shouted whenever it occurs and the hands frozen so that their holders’ expressions may be captured on film for posterity. Meanwhile the heads-up, €2,000 and €1,000 events continued to pack every inch of the Spielbank.

Drifting into the weekend brings no rest for these 24 players. They return Saturday at 1 p.m. CEST (0400 PDT) to start the penultimate leg of the EPT Berlin Main Event journey: the climb to the final table. Join PokerNews for live coverage throughout the day, and check out the video below to meet some of the team behind the tournament.

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