March 29 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

It feels like a Friday to us, and we can’t believe that bodes well for the rest of the week. In any case, we’re getting straight to the point and bringing you the top poker news stories of the day, so we can go veg out on the couch and grind online a little. What we won’t be partaking in is the PokerStars 60 billionth hand celebration – that already happened. We’ll tell you about that, how Mike Sowers double final tabled the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday and more.

In Case You Missed It

The World Series of Poker Circuit is in Rincon for the West Regional Championship and the total field of 98 was whittled to 18 on Day 2. To find out who’s still in the running for the National Championship seat, check out the WSOP-C recap.

We figured it was about time to lay down the Twitter law. Here are our ten rules for poker players to follow when tweeting.

If you want to broaden your gaming industry knowledge, we’ve got just the scoop for you to read. Inside Gaming is back this week with news on the PokerListings and Cake alliance, fourth-quarter results for some Las Vegas properties, and more.

Gus Hansen is still doing his thing at the high-stakes online poker tables on Full Tilt Poker. He recently took on Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and we’ve got a recap of some of the action in the Online Railbird Report.

Celebrating 60 Billion

PokerStars celebrated its 60 billionth hand Tuesday at 9:35 a.m. EDT (1335 GMT). The hand was dealt at the $5/$10 limit hold’em table called Isa II, where six players were seated. The players were guaranteed $500 and then any extra prize money would be based on the number of VIP Player Points they had picked up over the previous 50 hands at the table. The winner of the hand was guaranteed at least $60,000.

The players were told, “The winner of the hand will have their prize money doubled. On top of that, they will receive an extra $60,000. And you can’t win a hand by folding.”

It was “Pogo650″ who ended up winning the hand with on a board. When everything was tallied, Pogo650 added $102,090 to his bankroll. Four players at the table pocked $21,045, while the sixth added $11,040 to his bankroll.

“I’m possibly the biggest luckbox alive over the last week or so. Two losing sessions ended in milestone hands,” Pogo650 said.

Head on over to the PokerStars Blog for a replay of the hand.

Sowers’ Double Double

It’s Double Guarantees Week at Full Tilt Poker and there’s over $30 million in guaranteed prize pools up for grabs. On Monday, Mike Sowers took advantage of that and the fact that all guaranteed tournaments were converted to Multi-Entry tournaments.

Sowers finished in both first and ninth place in the $1K Monday. How’d he do that? Well, he bought in for the maximum six entries and he still had two of his entries left when the final table was reached, therefore merging his two stacks. For his smallest stack, Sowers received ninth-place money and kept his momentum going throughout the tournament to finish in first place, pocketing $490,295 — taking home over $500,000 total for the tournament.

Want to double final table an event of your own? Sign up for a Full Tilt Poker account, and to find out more on Sowers’ win, check out Poker-King.com.

Gromov Wins WPT Vienna

After four days of play, the World Poker Tour stop in Vienna has crowned a winner. The final table started Tuesday with Dmitry Gromov at the top of the chip counts and when all was said and done, he topped the pack, taking home €447,840 in first-place prize money. The final table was streamed live, complete with hole cards and commentary by Mike Sexton and Jesse May.

WPT Vienna Results

If you want to check out how the action went down, head on over to the PartyPoker Blog.

Live the Dream with UB

UB wants to get you a seat at the World Series of Poker. All you have to do is win your way to the Main Event freeroll by playing in a series of freerolls. One lucky player will win a $12,000 WSOP prize package.

“One of the most tried and true traditions in online poker is winning your seat to the WSOP Main Event on UB. We have so many ways to do so, even starting with freerolls that a player would be crazy not to get in there and snag their seat. We are so excited to fill the Rio this summer,” Team UB Pro Joe Sebok said.

All you have to do is make it through four rounds of play. Round 1 freerolls are already under way and run six times a day. The top 100 players from those will qualify for the Round 2 freeroll which takes place on Sundays. If you finish in the top 150 of that, you’ll be entered into the Round 3 monthly freeroll and the top 150 from that make their way to the WSOP Main Event freeroll where they’ll have a shot at the $12,000 prize package.

The only way to get your start, is by signing up for a UB account. Good luck!

Negreanu Talks SuperStar Showdown

Kristy Arnett caught up with Daniel Negreanu on Monday at the World Series of Poker Circuit West Regional Championship at Harrah’s Rincon. Negreanu discussed his match against Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown and whether there will be another rematch.

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

If you have the skills, we have $55,000 in added prizes. The PokerNews Skills Challenge at Full Tilt Poker is a series of money added tournaments every Wednesday night, which culminates in a $20,000 freeroll.

March 31 2011, Eric Ramsey

On Wednesday, the final nine players at the World Series of Poker Circuit Western Regional Championship set up shop under the bright lights of the Versus cameras to play down to a winner. It took about ten hours to meet that goal, and in the end, it was Ali Eslami left standing with all 2.94 million chips.

During the first full level of action, the nine-handed table was reduced by one, as short stack Miller Dao was the first to go under. Dao moved all in with , but Dylan Wilkerson woke up with , in the big blind. When the board ran , Miller was parted with the rest of his chips and was whisked away to the interview booth to tell everyone what happened. Dao’s story was one of the most intriguing of the week as he turned an $80 satellite into a $10,000 entry, and eventually, a payday of $24,235. Even better, he’ll continue the parlay in Las Vegas since this result was good enough to earn him one of the 100 seats in the WSOP-C National Championship in May.

Despite that knockout, Wilkerson was still short on chips, around the twenty big blind mark, and he was the next to fall, in eighth place. Wilkerson got it in with , flipping for double or nothing against Dana Kellstrom and his . The board failed to find Wilkerson’s overcards, and he was out, with more than $30,000 to show for his efforts this week. It was the second time in two days that Big Slick betrayed Wilkerson. Very late in Day 3, he lost a huge pot and the chip lead when his ace-king ran into Tim West’s pocket aces.

About 90 minutes of seven-handed poker went by before another player dropped out of the mix. It was one of the favorites, too. Dwyte Pilgrim, one of the many huge success stories to come out of the WSOP’s little brother tour, is no stranger to Circuit wins. Pilgrim made another charge through the field at Harrah’s Rincon (a building in which he’s tasted victory before), but this time, his run came to an end in seventh place. On the turn of a board, Pilgrim shoved his ten big blinds in with . Chip leader Ali Eslami called with his out in front, and Pilgrim could not find the card he needed, as the river ushered him to the exit. If the table didn’t know it then, they soon realized that they needed to get used to the sight of Eslami sending players home early.

Kellstrom, for one, was presented with that truth just moments later when, in a cooler of a hand, he was eliminated in sixth place. It was Eslami in the pot again, and he called a continuation bet on the flop. When the hit fourth street, Eslami check-raised all in, and Kellstrom quickly called with for the wheel. As it turned out, he was already drawing dead to a chop. Eslami’s had made the bigger straight with that same turn card, and the river was no help to Kellstrom. He’ll be the first to tell you he’s not as experienced as some of his table mates, but Kellstrom certainly held his own on the felt over the last four days. This cash moves him over $200,000 in tournament earnings as his 2011 has gotten off to a career-best start.

Eslami was well in control of the match by the time Kellstrom left, and he went ahead and took care of the next elimination, too. Short stack David Peters shoved with , and Eslami’s was plenty good enough for him to call with. The flop was a disaster for Peters, and it looked like he wouldn’t even be able to manage a chop. The turn was no help to him, and the river was nothing but a needle in his side. Two pair was good but not good enough in that spot, and Peters hit the rail to leave four players on the felt. That number would shrink to three a couple hands later.

Another of the pros, Full Tilt Poker Red Pro Steve Brecher, never once had a big stack to play with over the course of this four-day event. Still, he played his middling chips with great precision, and he picked through a few all-ins on the final day to work his way to a fourth-place finish. There wasn’t much he could do on the flop, sitting with in the hole and less than ten big blinds. His last 155,000 chips went all in, and it was — you guessed it — Ali Eslami doing the deed with his superior . The turn teased Brecher with chop outs, but the river was all she wrote.

When the players broke for dinner, Eslami had close to 60 percent of the chips in play, but West would draw to within striking distance just minutes after their return to the table. The man stuck in the middle was D.J. Blanchard, starting the after-dinner session with just over twenty big blinds. He didn’t waste much time getting those chips into the middle preflop, holding , and it was West’s three-bet with that forced his hand. Off to the races they went, and West’s horse ran faster on the board. Blanchard was out in third place with a six-figure cash, and West and Eslami were heads up for the ring.

The battle figured to be a marathon with the stacks deep and the play particularly methodical. For about two hours, the two men traded jabs as they bantered back and forth and felt each other out. The match was either going to end quickly in a cooler or wear on laboriously for six hours. It was a cooler.

At the 4,000/12,000/24,000 level, West opened to 62,000, and Eslami stuck in a rare three-bet to 138,000. After some consideration, West shoved all in for about a million chips, and Eslami couldn’t have called quicker. West was working with , and he was in all kinds of trouble as the rolled over on the other side of the felt. The at-risk West couldn’t even find anything to sweat as the board ran to put the final punctuation on the third Regional Championship of the 2010-2011 WSOP Circuit season.

In his interviews with the television crew, Eslami was very gracious in victory. He chose his words carefully so as not to sound arrogant and over-sure while he explained that even as early as Day 1, he knew he’d be in this spot come Wednesday. He went on to thank Jerry Buss, owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, and Chad Brown, his poker mentor, for the encouragement and motivation he needed to make it to this point. The victory comes as a double celebration; Eslami celebrated his birthday this week in Rincon.

Even with all his confidence, he probably didn’t expect to get a diamond ring for his birthday, but this is one present Ali Eslami won’t soon forget.

Final Table Payouts

That’s all from Harrah’s Rincon, but the WSOP-C keeps on rollin’, and so do we. We’re heading to St. Louis next, and in the meantime, you should follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to keep tabs on bits of poker news from all the world around.