February 13 2012, PokerNews Staff

Hello and welcome to this week’s edition of the PartyPoker Weekly where we have news on the recent WPT Venice Grand Prix including Hellmuth-esque entrance, the upcoming WPT Vienna and Premier League Poker V, the Card Rush promotion and details of how you can grab yourself a free $50 bankroll!

WPT Venice Grand Prix Completed

The World Poker Tour Venice Grand Prix came to a thrilling conclusion over the weekend when Rinat Bogdanov took down the “4,950 buy-in Main Event for a cool “229,800. Bogdanov outlasted a star-studded field of 155 entrants to become the latest WPT champion.

The PartyPoker blogging team was in the historical city providing live updates on the tournament along with a recap of the final table.

During Day 1 the infamous Tony G made a, shall we say different, appearance at the casino. He says in his popular blog that his outburst was caused by the fact he was “pi**ed off” with his new PA. To see Tony G’s entrance in full check out his personal blog.

Win a $7,000 Package To WPT Vienna

You only have until Mar. 25 to win your way to a $7,000 package to the World Poker Tour Vienna Main Event. Satellites are now running in the PartyPoker lobby but time is running out if you want to grab yourself a seat.

Last year Dimitry Gromov outlasted a field of 555 to get his hands on the Champions Cup and the massive “447,840 first place prize. Will you be following in the Russian’s footsteps and taking your place amongst poker’s elite?

Each package consists of:

• The $4,700 WPT Vienna Main Event buy-in
• Hotel accommodation for six nights
• $900 spending money
• PartyPoker’s legendary hospitality

PartyPoker Premier League V

During WPT Vienna the famous PartyPoker Premier League takes place and you could be part of it. Until Mar. 18 there will be satellites on PartyPoker that award a massive $13,000 package that could see you compete for a slice of a prize pool expected to exceed $2 million!

Each $13,000 package consists of:

• A $10,450 seat at the televised PartyPoker.com Premier League Poker playoffs. Two qualifiers will win a $125,000 entry into the Premier League Poker V Final
• Four nights’ luxury hotel accommodation in Vienna
• $1,350 spending money

For full details of the PartyPoker Premier League V check out the dedicated page in the promotions section on the PartyPoker site.

Card Rush Promotion Is In Full Swing

The superb Card Rush promotion is well and truly under way but PartyPoker players still have until midnight on Feb. 28 to get their hands on as many of the 1,013,000 remaining cards as they can. Players will receive an instant win card for every 15 PartyPoints they earn and PartyPoker is giving every player their first card for just 5 PartyPoints!

Prizes include instant cash prizes of between $1 and a staggering $5,000, freeroll entries worth between $2,000 and $20,000 or between 10 and 25,000 PartyPoints, all for just 15 PartyPoints!

In addition to these amazing prizes players can also be awarded Card Rush Race points that could win a $9,000 cash prize! There is a Card Rush Race points leader board that will pay out the top 200 Card Rush Race points earners between $200 and $9,000! Also, PartyPoker will also be awarding $50 to every 20th spot between 220th place and 2,000th place so everyone stands a chance of some free cash!

Join PartyPoker Now!

$50 Bankroll For Free

Would you like a free $50 bankroll? Well thanks to the special relationship between PokerNews and PartyPoker you can help yourself to a free $50, all you need to do is follow the simply steps below and the $50 is all yours to keep!

• Download the PartyPoker software through PokerNews
• Create a new PartyPoker account and enter the bonus code “PN50FREE”
• Fill in the registration form in the PartyPoker cashier
• DO NOT make a deposit when prompted
• Return to PokerNews and fill in our small registration form
• Check your email inbox for a confirmation email from free50@pokernews.com

Once you have received the confirmation email $20 will be placed into your PartyPoker account. You must earn at least 40 PartyPoints before you will be able to withdraw the free $20. If you do not earn 40 PartyPoints within 60 days the initial $20, or whatever remains of it, will be forfeited. PartyPoints are earned at a rate of two (2) PartyPoints per $1 in rake or tournament fees so earning 40 of them within a 60 day time frame is quite an easy task.

Once you have earned 40 PartyPoints a further $30 will be deposited into your account bringing the total free cash amount to $50. You must then generate another 160 points before you can cash out any of the the $30 and must do so within 120 days otherwise the $30 or the remainder of it will be forfeited.

If you experience any problems with this or any of our promotions, please contact our Ticketed Promo Support System.

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February 11 2012, Brett Collson

There’s no rest for the weary at the World Poker Tour. Fresh off the conclusion of the WPT Venice Grand Prix, Day 1a of the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open wrapped up at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in sunny Florida on Friday. The day began with 125 players forking over the $3,500 buy-in, and a couple of the game’s top pros were hovering near the top of the leaderboard when the chips were bagged and tagged.

Uri Kadosh (275,500) and Ely Levy (218,500) topped the chip counts at the end of Day 1a, but Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier was the big story. Mercier told WPT’s Jess Welman that he registered for the tournament two hours late, but he went on a big rush in the later levels to finish with 176,400, placing him third on the chip counts. Mercier’s effort was good enough to earn him WPT Player of the Day honors.

Also landing among the top 10 stacks as play concluded was Shaun Deeb, who had a special guest railing him during Day 1a. With his 92-year-old grandmother in attendance, Deeb assembled a stack of 112,700 on Friday, much of which came during a hand near the end of the night.

The WPT Live Updates team discovered Deeb and another player looking at a board with 6,000 chips already in the pot. Deeb checked from the big blind and his opponent put in a bet. Deeb check-raised to 10,000, and the other player three-bet to 22,200. Not to be outdone, Deeb four-bet to 65,000, essentially putting the other player all-in. After tanking for a while, Deeb’s opponent decided to lay his hand down, and Deeb flashed the before raking in a nice pot.

Forty-two players survived Day 1a. Among the other notables advancing to Sunday’s Day 2 were Anthony Ruberto (77,100), Fred Goldberg (59,500), Matt Waxman (59,400), Mohsin Charania (53,100), Matt Giannetti (46,200), Allen Kessler (31,000), and WPT Player of the Year leader Will Failla (22,500).

The bright side for the players who busted on Friday is that they’ll be able to fire another bullet on Saturday. Some of the players who busted on Day 1 a were Dan O’Brien, Darryll Fish, Andy Frankenberger, Christian Harder, Jonathan Little, Matt Sout, Kathy Liebert, Andrew Lichtenberger, and WPT Raw Deal host Tony Dunst. We suspect most of those players will take advantage of the re-entry option on Day 1b.

Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks from Day 1a of the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open:

World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open Top 10 Chip Counts

Play will resume on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET. Stay tuned to PokerNews for daily recaps from the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open in Hollywood, Florida.

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*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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