April 20 2012, Brett Collson, Donnie Peters

Phil Ivey is often referred to as the “Tiger Woods of Poker.” Will the two superstars collide on the felts next week? We’ll bring you that story, as well as the results of the inaugural Manila Millions, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Jonathan Little was one of countless poker pros affected by the events of Black Friday. Chad Holloway caught up with Little to find out how Black Friday changed his life.

Do you have what it takes to make it in poker? Alec Torelli’s latest blog focuses on finding a passion for what you do.

The European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event played down to a final table on Day 4. Davidi Kitai held the chip lead and was in position to win his third leg of poker’s Triple Crown.

William Hill’s license application in Nevada has been delayed again. Read about that and more in the latest Inside Gaming.

Is data mining good or bad for the online poker industry? Rich Ryan takes a look at the feud between PokerStars and Poker Table Ratings.

Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown Main Event concluded on Thursday. Clyde Hinton held the chip lead, but poker pros Tommy Vedes and John Dolan were close on his heels.

How was the high-stakes action at the PokerStars tables this week? Read the Online Railbird Report to find out the week’s biggest winners and losers.

@AsianSpa was back with his latest blog on Friday. This week he talks about Black Friday, a robbery in Las Vegas, and more.

Did you miss anything from the past week? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Lynn Gilmartin and Laura Cornelius break down all the big stories in the PokerNews Weekly.

Tiger’s Poker Night

Golf legend Tiger Woods will be hosting a charity poker tournament at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on Friday, April 27, 2012. The event will benefit the Tiger Woods Foundation, a program that raises college scholarship money for underprivileged youth.

The $10,000 entry fee includes a seat in the poker tournament plus a guest to attend Tiger’s Poker Night, one suite at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay for Friday and Saturday nights and two VIP tickets to attend Tiger Jam, featuring Jon Bon Jovi and Friends on Saturday, April 28.

The event will bring out the best of the best as Phil Hellmuth will emcee the poker tournament and Doyle Brunson will also be on hand to take part in the action. That’s 21 World Series of Poker titles right there; Tiger has 14 Major Championships of his own.

The winner of the tournament will receive a foursome (of golf) with Tiger Woods. Other prizes include a putting lesson with Woods, Pro-Am spots at PGA TOUR events, golf rounds at exclusive courses across the country, autographed memorabilia items, and a Nike Golf custom club-fitting.

For more information, check out the Tiger Woods Foundation website.

Self-made Millionaire

On Friday, the inaugural HKD$1,000,000 (USD$129,000) buy-in Manila Millions Super High Roller took place at Resorts World Manila’s Genting Club in the Philippines. The prestigious event attracted 30 players, including poker pros Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, JC Tran, Johnny Chan, Nam Le, John Juanda and Joe Hachem.

Surprisingly, all of the aforementioned pros busted out before the money bubble, where the remaining five players were left battling for a top prize of HKD$13,080,000 (USD$1.685 million). After American pro Keith Gipson busted out in fifth place, Macau regular Richard Yong exited in fourth place. According to Poker Portal Asia, Yong was all in preflop with pocket eights against Allan Le’s pocket queens and was unable to improve on a king-high board.

China’s Sun Sheng was the next to bow out, leaving Le and Devan Tang competing for the title. A swingy heads-up match ended when a short-stacked Tang shoved on the button for 800,000 with and Le called with . The brought no help to Teng, who collected just over USD$1million for his runner up finish. Le’s USD$1.7 million score is far and away the largest of his career.

Manila Millions Results

The last player standing in the way of Liu and the win was Larry Abrams. On the final hand, Liu set Abrams all in for his last 750,000 holding the with the blinds at 60,000/120,000/10,000. Abrams made the call with the looking to double up. After the flop gave Liu the lead when the rolled out, the on the turn and on the river left Abrams with the losing hand and a second-place finish.

Borgata Spring Poker Open Final Table Results

Prior to this victory, Liu had $158,913 in career tournament earnings and his largest score was $42,734. This is also his first victory on the felt since November 2009.

For more information, visit the Borgata Spring Poker Open blog.

World Poker Tour Hits Spain

The Main Event of the WPT National Series Marbella kicked off in Costa del Sol, Spain on Friday. The “1,650 tournament at Casino Marbella runs through April 20 and offers players a chance to re-enter if they are eliminated on Day 1a.

Raúl Mestre, Kent Lundmark, Tomeu Gomila, Daniel Hernández, and Juan Maceiras were among the 166 players in the field on Day 1a. Friday’s action was winding down with less than 100 players still alive as of press time.

The World Poker Tour has also WPT National events in Mauritius, Denmark and France this year and expects to announce partnerships with a number of additional venues. Winners do not qualify for a WPT title, Player of the Year points or a WPT World Championship buy-in, but the affordable buy-ins allow players to compete for big prizes against some of the top players around Europe.

For more information on the WPT National Series events, visit the World Poker Tour website.

Girls on Film

Gaëlle Garcia Diaz is one of the hosts of the European Poker Tour television production. Lynn Gilmartin gets to know more about Gaëlle in the inaugural edition of Girls on Film.

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March 16 2012, Brett Collson

The day has arrived. PokerStars has launched the real-money beta version of Zoom Poker, and just in time for the weekend! We’ll cover that story, as well as Jennifer Tilly’s poker cameo on The Simpsons, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

How was the high-stakes action at the PokerStars tables this week? Read the Online Railbird Report to find out the week’s biggest winners and losers.

A final table was reached at the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Madrid Main Event on Friday. Find out which players are in contention for the “545,000 top prize in our daily EPT recap.

Earlier this week, CardPlayer published a story about the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by Federated Sports + Gaming (FS+G). On Friday, FS+G responded to the story with a statement and gave an exclusive interview with PokerNews.

Will online poker be up and running in New Jersey by the end of the year? Sen. Ray Lesniak seems to think so. Matthew Kredell explains the steps that still need to be taken.

The first day of voting for the PokerNews Fan Bracket is in the books. For a look at Rich Ryan’s predictions, check out his story in The Muck.

How do you get over a huge loss at the poker table? Alec Torelli talks about recovering from downswings in his latest Pro Blog.

What does @AsianSpa think about the Epic Poker League and Erick Lindgren’s debts? Head over to The Muck to find out.

Did you miss anything from the past week? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Kristy Arnett and Laura Cornelius break down all the big stories in the PokerNews Weekly.

Zoom Poker Launches

On Friday, to the delight of high-volume poker junkies, PokerStars launched the real-money beta version of Zoom Poker, a fast-paced poker format that allows players to play hundreds of hands per hour and (potentially) increase profits. The game plays exactly the same way as any other online cash game except for one huge difference – as soon as you fold, you are removed from the table you were seated at and placed at a new table with different players.

For now, the beta release is only offering a few tables of micro-limit hold’em and Omaha games, but PokerStars says that more games and limits are on the way in the coming weeks. The client is allowing 1,500 players at a time to partake in the beta games while the kinks (if any) are identified and resolved. After that, PokerStars will unveil bigger stakes, other game types, and possibly even Zoom tournaments in the future.

Check out our Zoom Poker review here at PokerNews.com. You can also find more info at the Zoom Poker page.

Jen Tilly Teaching Lisa Simpson How to Hold’em

Jennifer Tilly has used her voice in a number of cartoons during her career, perhaps most notably as Bonnie Swanson on Family Guy. But now, according to reports, Tilly will get to see herself in cartoon form in an upcoming episode of The Simpsons.

Inside TV reports that the actress and World Series of Poker bracelet winner is set to make a cameo during the next season of the seemingly immortal television series. Tilly, the ex-wife of the show’s co-creator, Sam Simon, will appear in a poker instructional video that Lisa Simpson watches to hone her poker skills.

Tilly has been dating a cartoon character for years, so it’s about time she became one herself.

(Just kidding, Phil)

Read more at InsideTV.com.

Learn from Jungleman

Private poker lessons from the game’s top pros can often be pricey. In fact, Dan “Jungleman” Cates normally charges up to $2,000 an hour for his coaching services.

Next month, however, Cates and poker pro Johannes Strassman will be holding a three-day seminar at the King’s Casino in the Czech Republic for “2,499 per student. The seminar will run from April 1 through 3, placing it directly between EPT Campione and WPT Vienna. It will focus on advanced topics like three- and four-betting optimally, board textures, assigning ranges, and plenty more.

“We will coach you for three intensive days if you are interested in moving your poker game to a much higher level,” Strassman says. “This is a unique opportunity for you to get in contact with other advanced players and to learn from the player who is considered by many as the best online player of the world, Daniel Cates.”

Visit the Card Coaches website for more information.

PokerStars Juices Up UKIPT Nottingham

Poker players love the words “million” and “guarantee.” Tournament organizers have learned through the years that if you push the words together, players will flock to the tables in droves.

That’s exactly what PokerStars and the Dusk Till Dawn poker club did this week, slapping a £1 million guaranteed prize pool to the PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour event in Nottingham next month. The £700 + £70 buy-in tournament will take place at Dusk Till Dawn from April 11 through 16, featuring three Day 1 flights that will need to draw around 1,460 players to hit the guarantee.

“We are delighted to guarantee a £1 million prize pool for the UKIPT Nottingham Event,” UKIPT President Kirsty Thompson said. “The UKIPT has seen huge growth year on year, and the £1 million guarantee cements our position as the premium live poker tour in the UK & Ireland.”

Read more at UK.PokerNews.com

Nut Blockers

High-stakes cash game players Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen and Tom “LearnedfromTV” Chambers have collaborated on a new digital magazine for pot-limit Omaha and mixed-games enthusiasts.

The first issue, released earlier this week, includes strategy articles with WSOP bracelet winners Barry Greenstein and Eric Rodawig, as well as pieces from many of the contributing writes for the magazine.

Among the players offering their expertise for the project are Torbergsen, Mike “Gordo16” Gorodinsky, Phil “Jackal” Shaw, Mike “Schneids” Schneider, and Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane.

“I thought an all-PLO community was long awaited with the first NutBlocker launch, now I think they just nailed it, and threw in some great mixed games stuff for good measure,” said Jim “Lefty2506” Egere. “I’ll be writing for NB as much as I can; so nice not to have to temper the depth to make it accessible to inexperienced players, you’ll get the best stuff I have here.”

For a preview of the magazine from Torbergsen himself, check out NutBlocker.com.

Join PokerNews!

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Why wouldn’t you? We’re awesome.

PokerNews is taking applications for bloggers and interns for the duration of the 2012 WSOP in Las Vegas. We’re searching for experienced bloggers and first-timers looking to get their feet wet in the industry, and what better place than the biggest tournament series in the world?

Check out the PokerNews Career page for more information. If you think you’re qualified, send an application to career@pokernews.com with a resume, cover letter and two writing samples. We look forward to hearing from you!

Who’s Got Moves Like Ronaldo?

Kristy Arnett is a big fan of Real Madrid striker Cristiano Ronaldo. During the PokerStars European Poker Tour Main Event, Arnett scoured the poker room to see if any poker players had soccer skills like Ronaldo.

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

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