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RPT Moscow: Team PokerStars Pro in hunt

Friday, May 15th, 2009

PokerStars is involved in many quality live tours around the world. The European Poker Tour continues to break new ground, while the LAPT and APPT have both established themselves nicely in recent years. This year the ANZPT tour kicked off, and in January the first ever PokerStars-sponsored Russian Poker Tour event was held in St Petersburg.

The RPT was an instant success, and it looks like the second and final event of the first season, in the capital Moscow with a $7,000 buy-in, will be even better. Some 206 players sat down for Day 1 yesterday, enough for the organisers to tag an extra day on to the event to ensure a steady and fair structure. PokerStars qualifiers were joined by a formidable selection of Team PokerStars Pro, include local favourites Alex Kravchenko and Ivan Demidov, and Katja Thater and Chad Brown.

Katja Thater

Only Vanessa Rousso, still on a high from winning the EPT Monte Carlo €25K High Roller event, failed to make it through to today's Day 2. The two Russians (Demidov is big in chips), Brown and Thater fared better and will be back at the felt today. Overnight chip leader was Sergey "gipsy" Rybachenko, who managed to turn his 15,000 starting stack into a healthy 76,000. Of the 206 starters, 122 made it through the day.

How's your Russian? If it's better than ours - and that wouldn't be difficult - then you can catch up on the latest news from our colleague Pavel Sychev over on the Russian PokerStars Blog. If you can't read Russian, you can still take a look and marvel at the weird letters - and enjoy the pictures, of course.

Posted in Moscow, Pokerstars, Russian Poker Tour, Season 1, Team PokerStars Pro, rptseason1moscow, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

World Champion Peter Eastgate’s guide to winning the WSOP

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

With our satellites for this summer's World Series of Poker in full swing (see here for details), those already bagging one of PokerStars' brilliant main event packages might be looking for a little advice on how to play the "Big One".

Handy, then, that on Team PokerStars Pro we have current WSOP champ Peter Eastgate, so we asked him to write down his thoughts on going deep in Vegas. As he scooped more than $9.1 million doing just that, then it may be best to read what he has to say...

by Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate

A question I have been asked repeatedly is: "What is the best way, from a strategy perspective, to play the WSOP Main Event?" I think the WSOP Main Event is unique: the number of players is more than in any other big buy-in tournament and the quality of the players is also very varied.

A lot of recreational players play it, either through qualification online or because it is the tournament to play if you are going to take a shot at fame and fortune. This makes for a special tournament and, unlike a PokerStars EPT or a WPT event, it is very hard to come up with a pre-tournament strategy.

My personal strategy when winning the event last year was that I had no pre-tournament strategy! At a big event like the WSOP Main Event, there are so many unknown variables, such as table draw, quality of the cards dealt and, most importantly, the immediate emotional state of the other players at the table. You have to pay close attention to what is going on at the table - and how the other players are reacting to playing in such a big event.

It is very important to be in tune with your opponent's emotional state and base your decisions on how you feel he or she is feeling in any given situation.

Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate

The key to playing in a long and hard tournament like this is to find the balance between accumulation of chips, and maintaining your chips stack. Obviously, the best way to maintain a healthy chip stack is through accumulation, but it is important to keep in mind what kind of risks you are willing to take in order to accumulate chips. In last year's tournament I pride myself with the fact that I was only all-in (with the chance of losing my entire chip stack) two times. The reason this was possible was that the structure of the tournament is nice and slow.

I had an above average chip stack most of the tournament and I did not play many hands where I had a lot of chips invested in the hand pre-flop. I played a kind of small-ball strategy that has become very popular among some of the better professional poker players, which in essence is a strategy that tries to control the pot size. This strategy was not pre-determined, but was the best feasible approach considering my table draws.

I have spoken to several very good young professional tournament players, who told me that they had tough table draws, in that the overall level of aggression on their table was very high, thus creating a much higher volatility. I was very lucky that my tables were fairly soft, which allowed me to slowly chip up and control the pot size, since very few of my opponents played back at me.

It is also important to understand that no two people are the same. When playing a long and grueling tournament like the WSOP Main Event it is very important to know yourself and your habits. Some people like running 10K before they play; some people eat fruit or smoke a pack of cigarettes. You have to do whatever makes you the most alert and physically fit to withstand the pressure of the tournament.

To sum up, I do not think there is a correct pre-tournament strategy that will guarantee success. Take every situation and evaluate throughout the tournament what strategy fits best to the situation you are faced with. That way you will have the best possible chance of making it deep. Always think a couple of steps ahead when you play a hand. "What will happen on the river if I call the turn?" And: "What amount will my opponent likely bet?" But always remember that there will be more tournaments in the future and that putting too much pressure on yourself will make you more tense.

You need be relaxed to make the right decisions. Stay cool when the money and pressure increases.

Good luck with winning your PokerStars WSOP package - and then in the Main Event!

Posted in Hold'em, Peter Eastgate, Pokerstars, Strategy, Team PokerStars Pro, petereastgate, teampokerstarspro, worldseriessatellites | Comments Off

The Team PokerStars Pro Chip Orchestra

Thursday, May 7th, 2009

You probably know a lot about Team PokerStars Pro. You know about the members' wins, bad beats, and records. You probably think you know everything about them. Chances are, though, you do not.

Do you know which member of Team Pro could likely destroy you in a game of racquetball?

Do you know which Team Pro helped produce an...(ahem)...erotic film...and then wrote a book about it?

Do you know how many Team Pros spent time hustling in pool halls before turning to poker?

That's all some halfway decent trivia. We may have a contest one day. For now, though, an answer without a question.

As it turns out, Team PokerStars Pro is made up of a bunch of fairly unique musicians.

You doubt me?

Well, just take a look at the video below from PokerStars.tv.

Watch Team Pro Chip Orchestra on PokerStars.tv

Posted in Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

EPT Monte Carlo: Team PokerStars Pro musical masterpiece

Thursday, April 30th, 2009

Posted in European Poker Tour, Monte Carlo, Pokerstars, Season 5, eptseason5montecarlo, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

ElkY scores WPT Player of the Year honors

Sunday, April 26th, 2009

And here we thought the news was going to be about ElkY crossing the $5 million in career earnings mark. Silly us for once again failing to realize that Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier will always find a way to amaze.

According to the fine reporting from the World Poker Tour bloggers, ElkY not only managed to take third place in the $25,000 WPT Championship, but also secured WPT Player of the Year honors.

ElkY needed a fourth or better finish last night to grab the title. He managed one better, placing third for more than $775,000. He might just have had a chance to win if not for a bad beat in his ultimate hand. The three-way all-in had ElkY holding ace-jack up against ace-eight and ace-seven. A seven hit the flop and ElkY went out in third.

Sure, it was a tough beat, but there is some significant financial comfort. The win, as we mentioned earlier in the week, puts ElkY above the $5 million career live winnings mark. In fact, he now can claim $5,724,291 on the all-time live tournament rankings. This week's achievement makes him one of the winningest players on the circuit. He has now won more live tournament cash in five years than Doyle Brunson, Humberto Brenes, and Howard Lederer have won in their careers.

Congratulations to ElkY for yet another fine performance. We'd like to think he'll give us a rest now, but we know the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo kicks off in a couple of days. ElkY is bound to make some sort of news.

That's just what he does.

Posted in ElkY, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

Team PokerStars Pro signs Johnny Lodden

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009

After years of seeing Johnny Lodden at PokerStars events, what happened today almost seems like a formality. Lodden has become friend to PokerStars, to the PokerStars players, and even to the PokerStars bloggers. Now, the wrecking ball from Norway is officially a member of Team PokerStars Pro.

Hailing from the land of Jorpeland, Norway, Lodden grew up on cards. He played with his family, he played with his friends. In his early years, he honed his competitive spirit on the game Uno. By the time he was 15, Lodden was playing poker with his high school friends and taking their money whenever he could.

Now, Lodden is one of Scandinavia's best known poker players and the first Norwegian to earn a spot in the elite Team PokerStars Pro stable.

By age 20, Lodden was playing the highest available stakes online and crushing the live poker scene. In 2006, Lodden earned his first cash on the European Poker Tour. Before long, it seemed hardly right to call a tournament an EPT event unless Lodden was there.

Lodden has eight cashes on the European Poker Tour. In 2008, he just missed making the final table of the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Now a member of Team PokerStars Pro, Lodden has re-set his sights on winning a EPT title.

You will find Lodden at just about every EPT event and always on PokerStars. He plays under the screen name name 'johnnylodden'.

Welcome to the Team, Johnny. It's been a long time coming.

Posted in Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, johnnylodden, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

Negreanu, ElkY, Rousso fight for NBC heads up title

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

By Sunday's end, a member of Team PokerStars Pro could very well be the NBC Heads Up Poker Champion.

Daniel Negreanu, ElkY, and Vanessa Rousso have all made it to today's quarter finals. While all three have a shot at the title, only one of them can make it to the finals.

The first match will put Negreanu up against Rousso in the finals of the Clubs bracket. Rousso has already beat Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, and Paul Wasicka and likely has had the toughest road to the quarter finals of anyone in the field. Negreanu will be her final challenge in the original bracket. Whoever wins will go on to play the winner of the Spades bracket.

And that is where it gets interesting.

The Spades bracket final will see Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier fighting against poker brat Phil Hellmuth. As you're aware, ElkY is no slouch heads up. He finished runner up in the last WCOOP high roller heads-up event and has tons of heads up experience otherwise. Hellmuth seems on a roll this year, however, and doesn't look to be an easy mark.

On the other side of the bracket, David Williams will play Sammy Farha and David Oppenheim will take on Huck Seed.

Whoever wins will have to win their next three matches. It all happens today in Las Vegas where a winner will be crowned this evening.

Good luck to Negreanu, ElkY, and Rousso.

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, nbcheadsupchampionship, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

Team PokerStars Pro still alive in NBC Heads Up Championship

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

If you had a chalk bracket going into day 1 of the NBC Heads Up Poker Championship, find a bird cage to line, because it's pretty much worthless today. Well, not entirely. Several matches went the way the experts predicted, but the last year's champion and runner-up (and favorites to go deep this year) both went out in during round 1. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Andy Bloch will spending the rest of the weekend doing something else.

Several members of Team PokerStars made it through to the second round and now have their chance to take the national heads-up title.

Vanessa Rousso defeated poker legend Doyle Brunson in the first round and will now have another huge hill to climb. She now goes up against Phil Ivey.

After beating Chris Moneymaker in round 1, Daniel Negreanu will now have to face another member of Team PokerStars Pro. Round 2 in the clubs bracket will pit Negreanu against Dario Minieri. If that's not a TV table, I don't know what is.

In the spades bracket, ElkY and Barry Greenstein will have a chance to move onto the third round. Both men beat PokerStars qualifiers in the first round. Now ElkY with face Ilari Sahamies. Greenstein will go up against the formidable Tom Dwan.

Good luck to the remaining members of Team Pokerstars Pro in Round 2.

The full list of match-ups is below.

Hearts bracket

Eli Elezra v. Erick Lindgren
David Williams v. Scott Fischman
John Phan v. Jerry Yang
Sam Farha v. Peter Eastgate

Diamonds bracket

Kenny Tran v. Jen Harman
Phil Laak v. David Oppenheim
Gus Hansen v. Huck Seed
Glen Chorny v. Brad Garrett

Clubs bracket

Don Cheadle v. Paul Wasicka
Phil Ivey v. Vanessa Rousso
Scotty Nguyen v. Ted Forrest
Daniel Negreanu v. Dario Minieri

Spades bracket

Gabe Kaplan v. John Juanda
Ilari Sahamies v. Bertrand Grospellier
Jeffrey Ishbia v. Phil Hellmuth
Tom Dwan v. Barry Greenstein

Photo credit: Stephanie Moore -- NBC Sports

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, nbcheadsupchampionship, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

NBC Heads Up Championship begins today

Friday, March 6th, 2009

In less than six hours, the 2009 NBC Heads Up Poker Championship begins and now we know who will face each other in the first round.

As we mentioned yesterday, a host of Team PokerStars Pros, one Friend of PokerStars and a PokerStars NBC Heads Up Qualifier are in Las Vegas for the $20,000 buy-in 64-player heads-up event.

Last night, the players went to the draw party at Pure and learned who they will play today. The first round only sees one match-up that pits a Team PokerStars Pro versus another. In the Clubs bracket, Daniel Negreanu will play Chris Moneymaker. The winner of that match will go on to face the winner of the match between Dario Minieri and Mike Matusow. Elsewhere in the Clubs bracket, Vanessa Rousso will sit down across the small felt from the godfather of poker, Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson,

The Clubs bracket will also see a repeat of a match-up from 2008. Last year Friend of PokerStars Orel Hershiser defeated Ted Forrest in round one before going on to make it to the quarter finals and a $75,000 win. Finally in the Clubs bracket, Hevad Khan will have a shot against Prince of Poker Scotty Nguyen. Khan was a late add to the field of 64 after Ivan Demidov could not make it Vegas.

PokerStars qualifier Blandino Gines already has his work cut out for him. He drew Barry Greenstein in the first round of the Spades bracket. The Spades bracket will also see 2005 World Series Champion Joe Hachem go up against John Juanda and Gavin Griffin play Tom Dwan. Finally, we know ElkY is playing a man named Fred Collins. Collins qualified on PokerStars but we are not yet 100% sure he showed up in Vegas. More to come on this as the event progresses.

The Diamonds division rounds out the field and puts 2004 World Series champion Greg Raymer up against Jennifer Harman and Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown against 2008 EPT Grand Final champion Glen Chorny.

The full brackets are below. Good luck to everybody today.

Clubs Bracket

Don Cheadle vs. David Pham
Paul Wasicka vs. Nicholas Joy
Jennifer Tilly vs. Phil Ivey
Doyle Brunson vs. Vanessa Rousso
Hevad Khan vs. Scotty Nguyen
Ted Forrest vs. Orel Hershiser
Daniel Negreanu vs. Chris Moneymaker
Mike Matusow vs. Dario Minieri

Hearts Bracket

Johnny Chan vs. Eli Elezra
Erick Lindgren vs. Howard Lederer
JC Tran vs. David Williams
Jamie Gold vs. Scott Fischman
Erik Seidel vs. John Phan
Jerry Yang vs. Clonie Gowen
Allen Cunningham vs. Sam Farha
Andy Bloch vs. Peter Eastgate

Spades Bracket

Gabe Kaplan vs. Chris Ferguson
John Juanda vs. Joe Hachem
Ilari Sahamies vs. Gavin Smith
Fred Collins vs. Bertrand Grospellier
Jeffrey Ishbia vs. Leon Yanovski
Mike Sexton vs. Phil Hellmuth
Gavin Griffin vs. Tom Dwan
Barry Greenstein vs. Blandino Gines

Diamonds Bracket

Kenny Tran vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Greg Raymer vs. Jennifer Harman
Kenny Yeh vs. Phil Laak
Vanessa Selbst vs. Layne Flack
David Benyamine vs. Gus Hansen
Huck Seed vs. Jonathan Little
Chad Brown vs. Glen Chorny
Annie Duke vs. Brad Garrett

Posted in NBC Heads Up Championship, Pokerstars, Team PokerStars Pro, blandinogines, nbcheadsupchampionship, teampokerstarspro | Comments Off

PokerStars qualifier in Vegas for NBC Heads Up Championship

Thursday, March 5th, 2009

At 19 years old, Blandino Gines had just come to America. He picked grapes for a living in California. He moved to Alaska and canned salmon. He taught himself to weld and moved to Seattle for another job.

Now, he is unemployed, a victim of layoffs and the tough economy. By the end of this weekend, Gines will have faced off against the best poker players in the world for a chance at half a million bucks in the NBC Heads Up Championship.

Blines qualified for his seat through a series of freerolls on PokerStars. When it was over, he was happy to have won the $1,000 travel money. He wasn't exactly clear on the implications of his success.

"I didn't think it was real when they first called me," Gines said. "I thought I just won $1,000. I didn't know that they were going to send me to Vegas to play in NBC Heads-Up. This is unbelievable. I am still in shock."

Originally from the Philippines, the father of three now spends a lot of time playing poker.

"I fell in love with the game," he said. "It's challenging. Later I learned some skills, then I started to play online and won some tournaments. I now have my chance to play in this tournament. I'm so excited."

In early February, Gines entered PokerStars' National Heads-Up Poker Championship promotion and survived 590,000 players through three rounds to win his seat. Gines first started playing poker two and a half years ago after watching poker on TV. He immediately created an account on PokerStars, and has been playing online ever since.

"I can't believe I might have the chance to play against Daniel Negreanu and Greg Raymer," Gines said.

He has that chance. The $20,000 buy-in will host Team PokerStars Pros Barry Greenstein, Gavin Griffin, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Hachem, Dario Minieri, Chris Moneymaker, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer, and Vanessa Rousso. Friend of PokerStars Orel Hershiser will also be among the runners.

Tonight, the Team Pros, Hershiser, and Gines will attend the draw party at the Pure nightclub and learn who they will face in the first round on Friday.

Keep it here for all the news on how they do.