August 10 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis
We’re here to bring you the top poker news stories of the day. Not the news about the “poker” game Bill Belichick and Rex Ryan are playing. Yes, we have football on the brain. Back to why you’re here. PokerScout has posted the online poker traffic numbers from last week and there’s been a shake up in the top three. On top of that, Haseeb Qureshi has written a blog about his involvement with Jose “Girah” Macedo. If you want to find out more, you have to keep reading.
In Case You Missed It
The Epic Poker League kicked of its first Main Event on Tuesday and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team was there to bring you all the action. The $20,000 buy-in event attracted 137 players and by the end of the day, only 63 remained.
Sometimes you’re too busy to watch TV. We understand. That’s why we watch it and bring you the recaps. ESPN continued its 2011 World Series of Poker coverage Tuesday night with the final table of the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship.
Kristy Arnett caught up with Joe Hachem Tuesday night at the Epic Poker League Main Event to talk strategy. Hachem recounted a hand he played that day where he played the player and won the hand.
Shakin’ Up the Top Three
Last week, we told you that online poker traffic had fallen. It seems that online poker traffic is like a yo-yo, because this week, PokerScout is reporting a 1.7 percent rise in traffic for the first week of August.
PokerStars is yet again the site to beat. The site has seen a 30 percent increase in traffic since the Full Tilt Poker shutdown in June, and the online poker giant now holds over 50 percent of the worldwide online poker market. PokerStars may have a strong hold on the top spot, but the second and third spots have switched places. PartyPoker lost ground last week, allowing the iPoker Network to inch ahead and take over second place.
Five of the top ten sites saw decreases in traffic. Everest Poker also saw a decrease in traffic, falling three spots to 16th. Some sites that are moving on up include IPN, which moved up one spot to 13th and Bodog, which moved from 16th to 14th. PartyPoker.fr joined the party again and found itself in the top 20 again, in 19th place.
In the last year, PokerScout’s ACES indicator has determined that online poker traffic has decreased by 22 percent.
If you’re into numbers, there’s plenty more data where that came from over on PokerScout.com.
Qureshi Responds
We’ve told you about the Jose “Girah” Macedo dramabomb, so you know that Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates and Haseeb “INTERNETPOKERS” Qureshi were also implicated.
After the drama, CardRunners parted ways with Qureshi and released a statement saying, “Effective immediately, CardRunners has decided to part ways with Haseeb Qureshi. While Haseeb is a talented instructor, he has shown poor judgement in using a stakee’s poker account for his own play. We’ve informed Haseeb of this decision and it is final.”
Qureshi took to his blog to tell his side of the story. Yes, we know it’s TL;DR, but we read the whole thing to give you the CliffsNotes version. Qureshi admitted to playing under Macedo’s account, which resulted in Macedo’s disqualification from the BLUFF Challenge. He then goes on to detail how Macedo’s scam unfolded and what he did to break the news to the people who were scammed.
“When Jose’s Lock account got locked once we reached Gibraltar and I spoke with Jungle in person, we agreed that we should pay via bank wire to ensure that everyone involved received their funds immediately without worry. We wanted to be as amenable as we could to those who got scammed, recognizing that we were in a position of authority, and spent most of that night cursing Jose for being so f***ing stupid and working out the details with the group,” he wrote.
Read Qureshi’s entire blog at CardRunners.com.
Australian Poker Hall of Fame
The Australian Poker Hall of Fame recently announced two members of the 2011 Hall of Fame class. Leo Boxell, who just won APPT Melbourne, has over $1.1 million in winnings and is a familiar face in poker rooms around Australia.
The second member of the 2011 class of the Australian Poker Hall of Fame is tournament director Danny McDonagh. He is the first non-player to be inducted into the Australian Poker Hall of Fame. McDonagh is currently PokerStars’ director of live operations in the Asia-Pacific region.
“I’m honored to be the first administrator in the Aussie Hall of Fame alongside such select company like Joe Hachem and Jeff Lisandro. When I began my poker career as a tournament director at Crown Casino, the team was running a $1,000 event that eventually became the Aussie Millions. I mean, who would have known that it would become the international icon that it is today,” said McDonagh in a press release.
The Australian Poker Hall of Fame committee is still deciding on the rest of the 2011 HoF class. Jason Gray, Sam Khouiss, Keith Sloan, and Tino Lechich are among those being considered.
PokerNetwork.com has more on the Australian Poker Hall of Fame.
ESPN Inside Deal
ESPN’s Inside Deal is back this week with a new episode. Jon Anik, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Feldman were all together again in the Bristol studio. The three discussed the Epic Poker League, the 2011-2012 World Series of Poker Circuit, and Full Tilt Poker.
We would have embedded the video for you, but we’re not huge fans of the auto-play function. You can check out the latest Inside Deal at ESPN.com.
Are You Livin De Life?
We’d like to give a shoutout to TwoPlusTwo for this gem you’re about to watch.
According to the YouTube page, A. Samuels “is a 55-year-old casino executive with a passion for hip-hop music.”
Phil Ivey makes a cameo in the video and lyrics at around the 3:15 mark. “MJ, Ivey, Shaq, and AI, the bosses looked at me and said damn you fly.”
This not only gave us a laugh today, but also made us scratch our heads. Did this guy lose a prop bet or is he actually serious?
Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook. We can’t really think of a reason not to.
March 29 2011, Donnie Peters
Day 3 of the West Regional Championship at the 2010-2011 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Rincon concluded on Tuesday. Just two tables of nine players each returned to action and when the day was all said and done, half of them remained. Leading the final table is Tim West with 843,000 in chips.
There was plenty of firepower left in the field when the day began. One of the most notable names in poker, Daniel Negreanu, was still alive and entered the day with 173,800 in chips. That was right in the middle of the pack, but his day ended short of the money after being eliminated by Tim West.
In Negreanu’s elimination hand, there was a three-way pot with about 20,000 in it when the PokerNews Live Reporting Team walked up to the table. The flop was 
. The first two players checked to Negreanu, and he bet 12,500. From the small blind, West check-raised to 33,900 to get heads up, and Negreanu three-bet all in for his last 80,000. West quickly called, and Negreanu was at risk as the cards were turned up.
Negreanu: 
West: 
The 
on the turn was a disaster for Negreanu as West found the spade to fill his unbeatable flush. The river was a mere formality, and Negreanu wished his table luck, signed a few autographs for the spectators, and headed out of the room with a camera trailing him.
Full Tilt Poker Red Pro and former World Series of Poker November Niner Scott Montgomery also fell short of the money, as did Todd Terry and Kyle Bowker. Bowker was the actual bubble boy of the tournament on a crazy suck-resuck hand against Dana Kellstrom.
Bowker moved all in for 72,000 and Kellstrom called, turning over the 
. Bowker held 
and began making his way out the door. Bowker was about halfway to the door of the tournament room when the flop came down 
and a few of the players called him back. Bowker came back to the table and needed to sweat the last two cards.
The turn brought the 
and that wasn’t the ace Kellstrom was looking for. The river delivered though, and in a big way. The 
hit the felt and Kellstrom cheered loudly with a big clap of his hands, having resucked to send Bowker to the rail in 13th place. This time, Bowker hit the exit and didn’t so much as turn his head back.
With Bowker out the door, everyone left in the event was guaranteed a minimum of $19,653 and just three more eliminations away from the final table along with a guaranteed seat in the $1,000,000 National Championship Freeroll at the end of the season. Joe Parker was eliminated in 12th place and then Alejandro Garcia fell in 11th place.
With the field down to 10, the remaining players redrew to one table. Dwyte Pilgrim was leading the way at the time with 451,000, while Ali Eslami held 420,000 and West held 400,000 to round out the top three. The short stack at the “unofficial” final table was Miller Dao with 98,500.
The last player to be eliminated on the day was Kwinsee Tran, who started the day as the chip leader. Tran and West got all the money in on the flop of 
. Tran held the 
and West the 
. Tran was unable to find help on the 
turn or the 
river and bubbled the official final table. He took home $19,653 for his finish.
Final Table Seating Assignments and Chip Counts
| 1 | Dwyte Pilgrim | 408,000 |
| 2 | Miller Dao | 99,000 |
| 3 | David Peters | 437,000 |
| 4 | Ali Eslami | 395,000 |
| 5 | D.J. Blanchard | 271,000 |
| 6 | Tim West | 843,000 |
| 7 | Dylan Wilkerson | 89,000 |
| 8 | Steve Brecher | 246,000 |
| 9 | Dana Kellstrom | 147,000 |
West will be leading the final table as he continues his hot month of March. Pilgrim, the man with three WSOP Circuit gold rings, is sitting third in chips and Eslami is in fourth. Full Tilt Poker will be represented by Steve Brecher and he’s sixth in chips.
Everyone left has locked up a seat in the $1,000,000 National Championship, but there’s still plenty of money up for grabs including a $282,242 first-place prize. Play kicks off at 12:00 p.m. PDT (1900 GMT) at Harrah’s Rincon and the final table will be filmed. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all the live updates as only our Live Reporting Team can bring it to you!
In the meantime, you should follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to keep up with news from all around the poker world!
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