February 15 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

While we might be in a candy heart coma today, we’re not going to leave you hanging. WSOP.fr got word on its license in France, the rumor mill is buzzing about PartyPoker’s return to the United States, and more.

In Case You Missed It

The World Series of Poker Circuit in Tunica, Mississippi, played down to a final table on Monday. Want to find out which player is that much closer to a WSOP-C gold ring? Check out the WSOP-C recap.

Didn’t make it to Foxwoods for the November Nine Reunion? That’s OK. We did and we have the photo blog to prove it.

The World Series of Poker Europe is moving to France. Allons en France: A Dissection of the WSOP Europe’s Move to Cannes gives you a few reasons why this could be a good thing.

If you aren’t able to catch the soap operas during the day, no worries, the drama between Stanley Ho and his family will get you your fix. Check out Inside Gaming for more.

The high-stakes action heated up over the weekend with Patrik Antonius and Scott Palmer battling it out, as well as Gus Hansen, and Rui Cao. The Online Railbird Report has some of the biggest hands from the matches.

WSOP.fr Gets There

The French online gaming regulator ARJEL has granted an online gaming license to WSOP.fr, the poker site created by the partnership between Caesars Entertainment and Groupe Lucien Barriére.

WSOP.fr is a skin of Barrierepoker.fr and will offer real-money poker and WSOP-branded tournaments. Also, players will be able to qualify for WSOP events in Europe and the United States.

EGRMagazine.com has more.

Rumor: Party in the USA?

The rumor mill is buzzing regarding PartyGaming’s return to the U.S. According to reports in London’s Daily Mail, PartyGaming has signed a deal with at least one major U.S.-based casino so that once the U.S. has regulated online gambling, PartyGaming will be able to provide an online poker platform.

No casino has been named, but Boyd Gaming, MGM, Las Vegas Sands, and Caesars have been mentioned.

You can read more at GamblingOnlineMagazine.com.

Raise Your Hand for Africa

On February 19, poker pros and celebrities alike will get together for the Raise Your Hand for Africa charity poker tournament. The event, which is being held at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, will benefit two organizations: Starkey Hearing Foundation, which helps the world’s hearing impaired, and Pros for Africa, which helps provide basic needs for the children in Africa. The Heartland Poker Tour will be televising the event.

Plenty of you favorite poker players will be there including, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Johnny Chan, Liz Lieu, and more. Joining them are NFL stars Adrian Peterson, Larry Fitzgerald Jr., Roy Williams, and Larry Johnson among others. Don Cheadle, Steve Martin, and Verne Troyer, will also be in attendance.

If you want to find out more, head on over to the Starkey Foundation’s Raise Your Hand for Africa page.

Chilipoker DeepStack Open

Season two of the Chilipoker Deepstack Open has released its 2011 schedule. Seven events are on the docket, each with a €550 buy-in. The first event kicks off on March 31 at Gran Casino Costa Brava in Spain. Next up is Cannes in April and then Marrakech in June. The rest of the year finishes up in Paris, Malta, Vienna, and Marrakech again for the final stop on the season two DSO schedule.

The site is also giving three sponsorship opportunities, which will give players the chance to become a member of the Chili DSO Team complete with a full year of sponsorship for the 2012 DSO.

If you want to win your way to one of these stops, you’ll have to sign up for a Chilipoker account.

Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook for up-to-the-minute news.

Right now, not only can you get a free $50 bankroll from PartyPoker and PokerNews, you will also get a free month at PokerNews Strategy. Hurry because this is a limited offer, but the great thing is you do not even need to make a deposit at any stage, just go to our PartyPoker Free $50 Page and follow the walk-through.

February 16 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

We’re not sure how it happened, but it’s already Wednesday, and the only thing we can hope for is that the remaining two days of this work week go as fast as the first two. In tonight’s Nightly Turbo, we’ve got the results from the World Poker Tour National Series in Paris, the details on the Team PokerStars Challengers, and more.

In Case You Missed It

The 10th Annual European Poker Awards were held Sunday night at the Queenie Club in Paris. Want to know who took home a trophy? Check out our EPA recap.

The World Series of Poker Circuit Tunica stop finished up Tuesday night, and a winner was crowned. Find out how Sam Barnhart navigated his way through the final table in our WSOP-C recap.

While at the WSOP-C in Tunica, Mississippi, we caught up with one of the players trying to qualify for a seat in the National Championship $1 Million Freeroll. Check out the latest PokerNews Interview, to find out more on Chris Tryba and his Circuit grind.

While the Poker Players Alliance didn’t lobby to get the intrastate Internet gambling legislation passed in New Jersey, it will be there if the bill becomes law. Read what PPA executive director John Pappas has to say about the PPA’s role in New Jersey.

*Photo courtesy of the PartyPoker Blog

From Russia, With Love

No, Natalia Nikitina is not the newest Bond girl, she took down the World Poker Tour National Series Euro Finals of Poker Diamond Championship early Wednesday morning. Nikitina was the last woman standing at the end of play, besting the 188-player field, taking home €243,830.

Nikitina battled Alexandre Brivot heads up, with the chip lead transferring hands a number of times before Brivot moved all in with king-jack and was called by Nikitina. Nikitina’s ace-three held and all the chips were pushed her way.

“That was a long and hard contest,” she said shortly after her first live major tournament win, “Three hours before the end I was actually finding it hard to stay awake and keep concentrating on my game but I am delighted to win. I am going to celebrate by buying a BMW 6 Series,” she said shortly after her win.

Sam Trickett, who has had a stellar year so far, was part of the final table, finishing in sixth place, good for €43,545.

Final Table Results

1. Natalia Nikitina – €243,830
2. Alexandre Brivot – €174,170
3. Jean-Louis Tepper – €113,210
4. Benjamin Pollak – €69,670
5. Tobias Wagner – €52,250
6. Sam Trickett – €43,545
7. Ingo Paulus – €34,835
8. Nicolo Calia – €26,120

Head on over to the PartyPoker Blog for more, including an interview with Nikitina.

Team PokerStars Challengers

While we’d like to say we stumbled across the Team PokerStars Challengers while playing online it wouldn’t be accurate, because these guys are playing higher than our $.05/$.10 bankroll will allow us to. We came across a thread on TwoPlusTwo titled, New “team pokerstars pro’ [challenger] ?? and we decided to do a little investigative work. After an email or two to our sources, we’ve figured it out.

Team PokerStars Challengers are three players from Greece, George Kapalas (gkap13), Alexis Zervos (J0hnny_Dr@m@), and Stavros Kalfas (IDOLLS). The Challengers, who will be gradually introduced over the next few months, are professional players who are well known in their local market by their performances online and on the European tournament circuit.

The three have agreed to take on a challenge to determine which one of them is going to be the best overall performer in 2011. Online tournament ROI, most live event cashes, and SCOOP and WCOOP performances are some but not all the categories the three are competing in.

We’ve been told that PokerStars will be releasing more information on the Challengers soon, as well as a way to find out how they’re performing.

Why don’t you sign up for a PokerStars account and rail their tables, or take advantage of our sign up bonus.

Lend a Helping Paw

Every time the Sarah McLachlan SPCA commercial comes on, we have to turn away from the television. What can we say, we’re suckers for animals. On May 21, you can help out the Nevada SPCA at the fifth annual Jennifer Harman Celebrity Poker Tournament at the Peppermill Resort Casino in Reno, Nevada. The event will be included in the Heartland Poker Tour’s fall line-up of televised programming.

Players can enter individually for $230, or $2,500 per team, as part of the third annual Throw Down, team competition. Teams will get a pro/celebrity team captain, customized jerseys, and more.

“The best thing about adopting a pet is experiencing their unconditional love. The Nevada SPCA ensures these once abandoned and abused animals are cared for, given loving homes, or live humanely in its no-kill shelter for the rest of their lives. Everyone who participates is actually saving a life, and that means so much to me,” Harman said.

Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Marco Traniello, Daniel Negreanu, Lacey Jones, Maria Ho, Antonio Esfandiari, Joe Sebok, and Barry Greenstein are just a few of the poker pros on slate to attend.

Want to find out more? Check out GreasieWheels.com.

Macau Poker Cup Begins Soon

As if the high-stakes cash games in Macau weren’t enough to get poker players there, the Macau Poker Cup gets under way next week. Officials are calling for a record-breaking week for PokerStars Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa. The Red Dragon Main Event, which begins February 21, is boasting a HKD $3million guarantee and the 321-player record, set in 2010, is expected to be smashed this year.

Both Day 1 flights have 200-player caps and already, more than half of the Day 1a cap is occupied by PokerStars qualifiers. Marcel Luske, Pieter de Korver, Celina Lin, Raymond Wu, and Bryan Huang have been confirmed to attend the event.

Find out more at PokerStarsMacau.com, and while you’re at it, we can’t think of a reason not to sign up for a PokerStars account and qualify for some events.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news and become a fan on Facebook.

We are tired of tiny freerolls, no doubt you are too. If so then check out our $34,000 Monster Pot Freeroll series with Poker770 – only a $20 deposit and 20 poker770 points to qualify.