The Poker Blog

Tom MacDonald has been crowned Leeds champion in the second event of the 2009 Coral.co.uk British Masters Poker Tour.

Tom, an 18-year-old student from Hull, beat 93 other players to take the title, the first prize of £14,300 and a seat at the season final play-off for the coveted Coral.co.uk sponsorship deal in 2010.

Outlasting a final table that included tour regulars Eddie Lundon (2^nd in Edinburgh) and Jamie Coonan (qualified online), Tom was heads-up against Jamie Sykes with a 3:1 chip lead; it was over in just 30 minutes when 10h fell on the river and made Tom’s flush against Jamie’s two pair, giving us our second champion of the tour.

Asked how he felt after the presentation, Tom said: “Oh, it’s great! I’m glad that I won – it’s good to have a tournament win on the British live poker scene. I thought that it was well run and it started on time and I thought that the structure was really good.”

Next stop for Tom, who despite a young age has already chalked up £46,000 in career earnings, is University, but he intends to keep up his appearances at British Masters events; “I’m going to Newcastle University in September to study maths and economics. I learned to play online, and I usually prefer to play online but I’ll play in the other legs now as they’re not too far away.”

Coral.co.uk’s head of poker, Mark O’Donnell, said: “Tom played well throughout and thoroughly deserved his win. He’s only 18 so I think we’ll see plenty more of him.”

Mark added: “That’s the second seat at the end of year play-off [for the 12010 Coral.co.uk sponsorship] sorted and there are six remaining so everyone has got a shot at it.” *

The total prize money for the weekend’s three events was £70,900, with full details of finishing positions and prizes outlined below.

The next event on the tour is Teesside, 24-26 July, at the Gala Casino Teesside. Online qualification is available on  www.eurobet.com.

Coral.co.uk British Masters Poker Tour, Leeds 19-21 June 2009 results:

20-21 June 2009: £500+50 NLHE Main Event Freeze-out

Entrants: 94; Total prize pool: £48,000

19 June 2009: £200+20 NLHE Freeze-out

Entrants: 75; Total prize pool: £15,000

21 June 2009: £100+10 NLHE Freeze-out

Entrants: 79; Total prize pool: £7,900

* The End-of-season play-off is a live 8-seater event, comprising the winners of the six 2009 Coral.co.uk British Masters Poker Tour events, the top money winner on the 2009 tour, and the highest online points scorer (points are awarded for finishing position in CBMPT online finals on www.eurobet.com. The winner of the play-off will receive a £10,000 poker sponsorship package for 2010 from Coral.co.uk.

The dates and venues for the 2009 CBMPT are as follows:

·         Edinburgh – Gala Maybury Casino: May 15 to 17

·         Leeds – Gala Casino Leeds: June 19 to 21

·         Stockton-on-Tees – Gala Casino Teesside: July 24 to 26

·         Nottingham – Gala Casino Maid Marion Way: August 14 to 16

·         Liverpool – Gala Leo Casino: September 18 to 20

·         Bristol – Gala Harbourside Casino: October 23 to 25

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If you can find it in a poker room, you can find it covered at Full Tilt Poker Academy.

Rewards, Bonuses, Academy Credits

The online poker training school offers rewards in the form of Academy Credits and free online tournament entries, based upon achievement in the Academy’s interactive games and real-money play in the online poker room. Credits can be used to obtain shirts, hats, outerwear, electronics, books, DVDs, bags, poker equipment, luxury items, sport/lifestyle gear, tournament tokens, CardRunners memberships, or StoxPoker memberships. Full Tilt Poker also offers a deposit bonus of 100% up to $600, as well as frequent reload bonuses. Download their free online poker game now and join Full Tilt Poker Academy to learn to play better online poker.

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Team Full Tilt pros who have authored educational materials on the site include Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Andy Bloch and Allen Cunningham. Lederer and Gordon are the official deans of Full Tilt Poker Academy and they lead a special Dean’s Tour introducing users to the site.

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Join the 32Red Cash Stampede, their brand new improved performance-based loyalty system designed to reward their most loyal and regular players.

The Cash Stampede boasts an amazing $25,000 prize pool and works on the basis of Redbacks collected throughout the month, with the $25,000 split between players depending on their standings at the end of each month. As soon as you feature on any subsequent leaderboard, your free poker chips will automatically be credited to your account.

The $25,000 Cash Stampede Leaderboard is shown on the site, so download the software today to see how big your share of the loot will be. Good luck at the tables!

As the official sponsor of the World Series of Poker (WSOP), Everest Poker has chosen a fitting time to launch a new, redesigned website. Just as WSOP fever is heating up, with media coverage to be found everywhere, Everest has rolled out a new, “player-focused” website redesign, created to maximize its brand presence and make the Everest experience more satisfying to poker players.

The new site’s mission statement, “Passionate About Your Game”, emphasizes the fact that the company is run by, and for, poker enthusiasts, giving it an advantage in the competitive online poker marketplace.

The site’s navigation has also been reconfigured to make it easier for players to find their way around. The latest offers and promotions will be easier to find; and a more prominent community section has been added to offer more transparency on Everest’s exclusive events and live action.

“We want our players to be able to choose and find their favorite games with ease as well as highlight the differences we offer; namely exclusive live tournaments, a genuine poker community or simply the additional financial gains available,” commented Sandrine Mangia-Park, Everest Poker Director.

Click to check out Everest Poker’s new site.

How many times have you wished that you could take a member of your favorite poker room staff out of a tournament? Reefer Poker have created a fun tournament just for those of you that are itching to get your hands on their chippies!

The New Stoners vs Staff
Bigger Prizes - More Games

All New Tournaments

1. Weekly, Thursdays at 20:00 Reefer Time
2. Until further notice, $3 + .30 NL Holdem – no rebuys
3. $30 bounty on RPDave and RPForumMod
4. $30 bounty on previous week’s tourney winner
5. $10 bounty on any other RP staff that wish to play – they encourage this!
6. $50 bounty if they have a celebrity/pro poker player
7. 2,000 starting chips
8. 10 min blinds with antes
9. Last Thursday of month all RP staff are playing,
directly after the Reefer Forum Chat Meeting at 19:30

In addition they will allow every registered player on their site, now and in the future, one FREE entry into this tournament.

DoylesRoom is going one step further making your WSOP Main Event feeder satellites virtually free with any deposit! This is your last week to satellite to the biggest event of the year, use your bonus to your advantage.

Reload your DoylesRoom poker account between 12:01am ET Monday, June 15th and Wednesday, June 17th at 11:59pm ET and receive 25% in bonus cash up to $100.

Lock in your bonus by using promotion code: WSOPLEGEND when you deposit into your account using one of our fast and easy deposit methods. Bonus code is valid for 1 transaction.

Over €100,000 in packages to be won

Qualification has started!!

You’ve seen them on TV and read their blogs but not everyone has the opportunity to become a poker professional. However that may all change - if you play your cards right you could become the next big name in the world of poker courtesy of Paddy Power Poker.

In their new Poker Pro promotion, Paddy Power Poker are giving all players the chance to live the life of a Poker professional for a year with €100,000 in packages up for grabs - see www.paddypowerpokerpro.com for further details. Whether you are a ‘green behind the ears’ beginner or an advanced player, you could be jetting to cities such as London, Prague, Dublin & Monte Carlo and pitting your wits against some of the world’s leading professionals.

Your qualification for Paddy Power Poker Pro starts today - make sure to book your seat at the final table (which will be broadcast live!) and get in line to take down the €60,000 top prize by checking out www.paddypowerpokerpro.com

Over $64,000 in cash and prizes to be won over the summer months

paddypowerpoker.com today announces that its new Summer Cash Dash cash race will kick-off at midnight on Sunday, 7th June.

The poker room’s summer cash race promotion will award over $64,000 in cash and prizes over the course of twelve weeks, with over $5,000 cash on offer each week.

The promotion is open to every paddypowerpoker.com player and positions on the leader board will be determined by the amount of hands played, the table stakes and the time players spend on the tables.

“It’s summertime and the living is easy up in Paddy Towers!” said Paddy Power, Communications Manager for paddypowerpoker.com. “We’ve been busy getting ourselves in shape for the summer and we think our players will be impressed by what they see; our swimming shorts are fit to burst with all the cash we’ve stuffed in, ready to hand out to our lucky players!”

8th – 21st June

With over $90,000 in prize-money on offer in bet365Poker’s brand new leaderboard competition, this summer is the perfect time to play Double Up Sit & Gos.

Everyone has a chance to get involved as the Double Up Leaderboard is divided into three levels. The size of your buy-in determines at which level you’ll be competing. Play in more than one level if you wish.

How to score Leaderboard Points.

• Enter any Double Up Sit & Go and receive points equal to the buy-in amount.

• Win the tournament and the points received for entry are doubled.

The Double Up Leaderboard consists of two week-long competitions and the prizes are available for both weeks. This means you have two chances to win the top prize of $5,000.

We recently announced that Paddy Power are offering players the chance to become a poker pro. We are pleased to give further details below.

You’ve seen them on TV and read their blogs but not everyone has the opportunity to become a poker professional. However that may all change - if you play your cards right you could become the next big name in the world of poker courtesy of Paddy Power Poker.

In their new Poker Pro promotion, Paddy Power Poker are giving all players the chance to live the life of a Poker professional for a year with €100,000 in packages up for grabs – see www.paddypowerpokerpro.com for further details. Whether you are a ‘green behind the ears’ beginner or an advanced player, you could be jetting to cities such as London, Prague, Dublin & Monte Carlo and pitting your wits against some of the world’s leading professionals.

Your qualification for Paddy Power Poker Pro starts today - make sure to book your seat at the final table (which will be broadcast live!) and get in line to take down the €60K top prize by checking out www.paddypowerpokerpro.com

What is ‘Paddy Power Poker Pro’?

Ever happy to create a buzz in the poker world, paddypowerpoker.com has launched its ‘Paddy Power Poker Pro’ promotion www.paddypowerpokerpro.com , which will award a package worth €60,000 ($80,000) to one lucky player and €100,000 ($135,000) in prize packages in total. 

The mechanics of Paddy Power Poker are easy to understand; if you hold the rank of General (Level 6) in paddypowerpoker.com’s C*A*S*H VIP programme on October 1^st, you will be eligible to play in an exclusive freeroll tournament with the €60,000 Poker Pro package going to the winner.  

The prizes don’t stop there though because if you hold the ranks of Colonel (Level 5) or Major (Level 4) on October 1^st, you will be eligible to play in exclusive tournaments offering €20,000 and €10,000 packages for the winners.  All paddypowerpoker.com players are automatically enrolled in the C*A*S*H programme, so everyone is in with a shot – how far you get in your efforts to become number 1 is up to you.

In addition to having the chance to capture the top prize, players will also be awarded the standard bonuses (which are in excess of $500 a month for players at General level) available in the C*A*S*H VIP programme, so everyone will be a winner!   

In total, paddypowerpoker.com is ponying up over €100,000 for Paddy Power Poker Pro, with players contributing not a thing!

Tell me more about the €60,000…

The top dog who wins the main Paddy Power Poker Pro tournament will walk away with a package worth €60,000.  This is made up of a cool €30,000 in cash and €30,000 in entries and expenses for live tournaments.  The winning player will be expected to play in the Irish Open 2010, but beyond that the live events attended with be agreed upon in consultation with paddypowerpoker.com.  This could be your opportunity to play in a few GUKPTs, the Masters Classic in Amsterdam and an EPT, with all expenses paid for and living large as a poker professional!

How Do I Enter?

Simply visit www.paddypowerpokerpro.com, set up an account and climb the C*A*S*H ranks (earning bigger and bigger bonuses as you progress). When you hold the rank of General on October 1^st, you will be in with a great chance of snagging the €60,000 top prize; however, if you don’t make it to General there will €40K of packages up for grabs at all other levels so make sure you’re in it to win it!

All play for real-money stakes will be counted when determining your VIP level, so you can shoot for the top while sitting on a cash table, grinding half a dozen Single Table Tournaments or outlasting the masses in one of the large guaranteed prizepool tournaments.

Players’ VIP level is calculated at the start of each month using the previous three months’ points tally, so paddypowerpoker.com will be looking at the months of July, August and September when the day of reckoning arrives.  Remember that every player at paddypowerpoker.com is part of the C*A*S*H army and it doesn’t take a huge increase in play to move up VIP levels; check out www.paddypowerpoker.com/freechips/cash.php for full details.

Find out more

Visit the official Paddy Power Poker Pro website.