June 2007 Archives

Over the past several years, PokerStars has sent players far and wide to play in some of the world's richest poker events. From Las Vegas to the Bahamas to Monte Carlo, PokerStars players have won millions upon millions of dollars on all of the world's biggest poker tournament series. Now, PokerStars is getting ready to offer satellites to a brand new poker circuit, The Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT).


Sponsored by PokerStars, the APPT already has stops scheduled in the Philippines, Korea, and Australia, with more dates to be confirmed. The APPT has set these events up in some of the world’s greatest casinos and plans to televise the tournaments around the world.

Manila, Philippines
August 24 - 26, 2007
Buy-in: $2,500

Seoul, Korea
September 28 - 30, 2007
Buy-in: $2,500

Sydney, Australia
December
Buy-in: $5,000

PokerStars players must surely enjoy their chance to see the world, as well as the chance of winning millions in a poker tournament. I suspect the APPT will encourage still more globe-trotting PokerStars' players to pack their bags, and win big!

Satellites for the Philippines APPT event begin on PokerStars on July 1.

I admit to being of the 'Beam me up, Scotty!" generation of Star Trek viewers. "It's life, Jim, but not as we know it, not as we know it, not as we know it," was my last Star Trek experience. That was thanks to my seven year old playing her pop song compilation in the car.

I hope Wil Wheaton won't mind that I'm humming catchy Star Trek tunes as I type? I don't think he will, he's a family man, as well as a poker player, a writer, and an actor. He's most widely known for his role as Wesley Crusher in Star Trek: Next Generation, but his career is far more interesting than just the Klingons and phasers bit.


He started out as a child actor in 'Stand by Me' and his acting biography list at the Internet Move Database gives any mouse wheel a good workout. As a writer he is less well known, but he's about to have his third book published, and writes for many magazines as well as his popular blog, WIL WHEATON dot NET (WWDN), also known as wilwheaton.net.

I admire his writing's 'nothing to hide' honesty, Wil admits he's a geek and he's proud of it! With Star Trek, blogs, an interest in Dungeons and Dragons, and Video Games, perhaps Wil is smart to claim that 'Geek' title for himself? On that evidence he's unlikely to ever gain membership of the cool crowd. However I get the feeling that he's much happier in his geek skin than many cooler folks who worry about the right tan or designer gear to cover theirs. Wil might even be so geeky he could Captain the Geek Team. But geeks don't do teams, do they?

As you'd expect Wil discovered poker by studying books, reading the 2+2 forums, and learning about the game as an intellectually-challenging pursuit. However he is savvy enough to admit that poker needs real life practise too, and plenty of his recent poker experience was gained as part of Team PokerStars.



This month saw Wil Wheaton announce that he will no longer be Team PokerStars member, but I should add that there's no bitterness form either side in this decision, on his blog he speaks fondly of his two years as part of PokerStars team:

'I am going to miss seeing my friends from Team PokerStars at different tournaments throughout the year. I am going to miss being part of a company that made me feel like part of a family, even though we rarely saw each other in real life. I'm going to miss representing a company that I always felt was honorable and took care of its customers. I am going to miss playing with players who felt, like me, that it wasn't worth risking much more at the virtual tables than we would on an evening out to dinner and a movie, so we played poker for entertainment. I am going to miss playing with players who frequently told me how happy they were to play with a Team PokerStars player for more affordable stakes. I'm going to miss playing with the occasional Trekkie who thought it was cool to play with me. I will miss being the unofficial ambassador to the low rollers.'



Wil held regular Tuesday night games on the site for the readers of his blog. The last WWdN tourney was amusingly entitled, 'So Long, and Thanks for all the Chips.' Wil made the final table of this last regular game, but he wasn't able to say 'Thanks' for the whole load of tourney chips, he went out in 8th place. Wil was a gracious host, as always, happy to chat about poker, life and, of course, Star Trek. He was also happy to chat to me, passing on some tips to our PokerStars.net players.

Jo: Do you still play 'fun money' games or freerolls?

Wil: Not as much as I once did. When I was learning, I played them all the time, though. Play money games are very different from real money games, because there just isn't that much on the line. If I make a stupid call or chase both ways in O/8 and lose in a play money game, I can just reload my play chips from the vast warehouse of play chips PokerStars.net keeps just for that very purpose; if I do the same thing in a real money game, I have to reload from my own personal -- and much smaller -- stash of poker money.

Jo: What skills do you think fun money players need to learn before making the transition to real money games?

Wil: One of the most important concepts to keep in mind as a player moves from play money to real money is to play within what my friend John Vorhaus calls "The Gulp Limit." That means you're playing for stakes below the point where you think, "Man, I'm risking XXX dollars in this tourney or game . . . *gulp!*" When you're within your gulp-limit, you play better poker, and for me, my gulp-limit is 3-6 limit cash games, $30 SNGs, and $200 buy-in NL cash games. Unlike everyone else on the team, I'm not a full time pro player, so I treat poker like entertainment and budget my gulp limit accordingly.

Jo: Is there any advice you’d share with a new player?

Wil: I'd just repeat the advice Greg Raymer gave to me: don't worry about results, but think carefully about decisions. If you make a good decision (Whether it's to make a great call, laydown, or daring bluff) and you're confident that it was the right thing to do, you can detach yourself from the result and focus on playing the best you can. Of course, once everything is done and the money's been counted, you should always review your results, so you're constantly evolving and learning as a player. Every top pro I've ever talked to has said that there's so much to learn in poker, pretty much everyone is a student of the game in one way or another.

Jo: PokerStars.net is a ‘fun money’ site - with the emphasis on poker for fun and not profit. Is poker still fun in those games that you play?

Wil: Absolutely. By playing at limits where I'm comfortable for stakes that I can afford, poker remains a fun and exciting test of my skill. I get a great thrill when I hold my own against a better player, and when I have such a solid read on a weaker player, I don't even need to look at my own cards. As I said before: everyone, no matter how many hands of poker they've played, is a student of the game. There's no better play to test your skills than at PokerStars.net, because the next game is as close as your computer.

Jo: What's the most fun you've ever had in a poker game!

Wil: The most fun I've ever had was playing with Greg, Joe, Chris, Lee Jones and Isabelle in a play money Sit-N-Go at the 2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Even though there was no money on the line, you would have thought we were at the final table! If I remember correctly, I bad beat Isabelle out of the tourney, and was eventually eliminated by Chris . .. so I walked across the room and played Chinese Poker with Greg and Joe. Like I said, I'm not a major pro, I'm just a guy who loves poker, so getting to test myself against these world class competitors was the most thrilling -- and the most fun -- I've ever had at a poker table.

Jo Thanks Wil, I hope you have plenty more poker fun in the future.

Wil Thanks. You bet.

It's not every day that you see a host of film stars sat around a PokerStars table. This was a very special event. George Clooney, Andy Garcia, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt were amongst the stars visiting Cannes for the premier of Ocean's 13, they all found time to sign a PokerStars' poker baize and DVD copies of their movie. These are to be the special prizes in PokerStars third Ocean's 13 Charity Tournament.


Producer Jerry Weintraub with stars of Ocean's 13 Scott Caan, Don Cheadle, Ellen Barkin, Elliott Gould, George Clooney, Andy Garcia, Matt Damon and Brad Pitt.
Team PokerStars' 2005 World Champion Joe Hachem was on hand to offer poker tips to the stars. Don Cheadle and Matt Damon turned up early to chat about the game with Joe. The cast and crew of the movie are apparently all keen poker players, they even had a poker room built on the movie lot to entertain themselves when they weren't shooting. But this gathering wasn't just about the poker...

Producer Jerry Weintraub, together with George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Don Cheadle, have together launched the charity Not On Our Watch to help raise awareness of the suffering in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, Africa.

Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives due to the ongoing instability in the Darfur region, and millions more have been displaced and are reliant on international aid for their survival.

It's a situation that requires help fast. And that's exactly what PokerStars and its players have provided. First, PokerStars donated $1 million to the charity. Then it ran two charity tournaments to raise further aid for the region.

PokerStars players' efforts have been fantastic so far. And, for their charitable efforts, eight of the players, with guests, have attended the 'Ocean's 13' premieres in both Cannes and Los Angeles.


Andy Garcia, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, and George Clooney sign the baize.
The prize for the third 'Ocean's 13 Charity Tournament' is this unique poker baize, signed by the cast of the film, and framed for display. Details of the tournament are yet to be finalised, but I hope you'll take part, that baize would create quite a stir at your home game!

Team PokerStars players have been storming this years World Series final tables, but the only player to seal the deal so far is the Team PokerStars member from Germany, Katja Thater.

Katja survived a 13 hour final table to finish first in the $1,500 Razz tournament at the Rio Casino in the early hours of Wednesday morning. A beloved game of the Vegas pros, you can be sure there was no dead wood among the 341 runners in the Razz event, and among those who cashed in were legendary rocks such as Men 'The Master', Mickey Appleman and David Sklansky.

It's been a successful few months for Thater, who finished fifth in the WSOP women's tournament only a week ago for a prize of $49,151, and fifth in the EPT Warsaw event last March for $85,024.

The WSOP title represents a hugely significant victory for Katja. She is the first woman from outside the United States to win a bracelet; the 11th woman in the 34 year history of the World Series to win an 'open' WSOP event, and only the fourth German WSOP bracelet winner after Matthias Rohnacher (1997), Eddie Scharf (2001&2003) and Michael Keiner (2007).

Katja Thater started playing serious poker just eight years ago when she sat in for her sweetheart Jan Von Halle in a high stakes game. Since then, Katja has become a player with a talent all her own.




Brad "Otis" Willis is in Vegas to report for PokerStars, and was there to see Katja's win. Here's how he saw it unfold:

'Once heads-up with a 4-1 chip lead, I noticed something amusing. Both Katja and Jan are very stoic Germans. No matter whether they have just busted out of an event or tripled up, the most emotion you'll see out of them is a shrug that says, "Well, how about that?"

However, with two players remaining, Jan's eyes lit up. He pressed on the rail hard enough that I feared he might crash down on the table. And when Katja got Larry St. jean all-in, Jan started his scramble toward the floor. By the time the final cards hit the table, Jan was pushing his way to Katja.

The look on his face was better than if he had just won a bracelet himself.

And then there was Katja. She stepped back from the table, took a deep breath, and then turned to a group of us assembled beside the table.

"Well, that's nice," she said.

I watched Jan dance around a little more, and then couldn't help asking, "Nice? You just won a World Series bracelet and all you've got for us is 'nice?'"

She shrugged. "Yah, nice."


Katja takes a deep breath after her win

There's a lot that happens when you win a bracelet here. There are a couple of ceremonies, a photo shoot, and a series of interviews and appearances. Through it all, Katja remained as stoic as she had been at the table all day long. When ESPN pressed her to talk about her role as a woman in poker, she politely rebuffed them. "It doesn't matter of you are black or white, young or old, man or woman. In poker, it's all the same."

I remembered she had been the same way in the Ladies Event. While other women broke down in tears when they survived an all-in, Katja never betrayed any emotion. Maybe, I thought, it was the nature of Razz. She spent three days working to make the worst possible hand and succeeded. She was, in a way, the winningest loser.


Katja receives her bracelet from WSOP Commissioner Jeffery Pollack


Katja gives an interview to ESPN

When it was all said and done, though, I saw Katja take a moment to herself. She had just defeated more than 300 other players and scored her first World Series victory for a cash of $132,653.

Although I don't have a picture, and though I wouldn't stake my bankroll on it, I swear...

I saw her wipe one tear from her eye.'


Katja reluctantly shows off her new bracelet

Congratulations to Katja Thater for becoming the first member of Team PokerStars to win a bracelet in the 2007 World Series.

Some people feel that poker is a game of chance, that successful players are merely lucky players. Some people suggest that simply being in the right place, at the right time, with the right cards in your hand, will make poker riches inevitable. I disagree.

You know that saying about cream rising to the top? It comes about because in any bottle of whole milk there's always a thick creamy top layer. I used to fight with my brothers every morning over whose turn it was to pour the top milk on our breakfast cornflakes. The scientific explanation for the phenomena of a creamy top to a bottle of milk is that the fat particles in the cream are lighter than the regular milk molecules, thus the light cream floats above the skim milk.

You may be wondering what this has to do with Team PokerStars and WSOP success? I'd suggest that it is not the lighter molecules of our Team PokerStars players that is causing them to rise to the top spots in tournaments. No, it isn't that. It has to be some classy play that's seeing them reach final tables and win big.

Anyone who thinks poker talent is a meaningless concept should study the results for WSOP 2007 so far. Many players you'd recognise from your favourite TV Poker shows are fighting through big fields to reach final tables.

Team PokerStars players have had exceptional results:

Event #1 World Championship Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) - Steve Paul-Ambrose 4th for $146,259

Event #7 Pot-Limit Omaha w/Re-buys - Humberto Brenes 8th for $79,710

Event #13 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em - Humberto Brenes 3rd for $197,348

Event #14 Seven-Card Stud - Barry Greenstein 4th: $33,698, Greg Raymer 6th for $19,680

Event #17 World Championship Ladies Event No-Limit Hold'em - Katja Thater 4th for $70,216

Event #19 No-Limit Hold'em - Humberto Brenes 7th for $55,918, ElkY 9th for $29,124

Event #20 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Eight-or-Better - Greg Raymer 4th for $41,460

Event #21 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout - Daniel Negreanu 3rd for $101,351

That means two final tables for Greg Raymer so far, with Brenes going one better. Humberto Brenes has played six events at this year's World Series and reached final tables in three of them! I just totted up the total and that's ten final table appearances for Team PokerStars in just this first fortnight of WSOP 2007.

I have talked a lot about the cream of the poker world, but of course there are also many regular PokerStars players who will play in this prestigious poker event. Last night saw PokerStars host its biggest WSOP satellite yet, a staggering 220 PokerStars players won Main Event seats. Brad 'Otis' Willis will surely be following the progress of any PokerStars player with a story to tell on PokerStars Poker blog.

So what else can I say about Team PokerStars, or indeed cream? Well... cream is sweet, it's rich and it tastes just great on hot apple pie! Team PokerStars players must find it sweet to reach WSOP final tables, it makes them rich, and if there was a hot apple pie Final Table they'd probably want a piece of that too.

Watch out for more from Team PokerStars in the coming weeks of WSOP, and don't forget the excitement of the Main Event begins on July 6th. Here's a few pictures of our stars courtesy of ImageMasters Photography.


Isabelle Mercier


Daniel Negreanu


Bill Chen


Katja Thater


Vanessa Rousso


Greg Raymer


Victor Ramdin


Humberto Brenes

By Brad "Otis" Willis

For most people, getting to walk the red carpet at a Hollywood premiere is something that they'll only see on TV. For four PokerStars players, it became a reality at the American premiere of "Ocean's Thirteen."

James Bryce, Larry Fisher, Fred Halling, and Po Han were the winners among the hundreds of players who played in PokerStars Ocean's Thirteen Darfur Charity tournaments. PokerStars matched the tournaments' buy-ins and added those to its $1 million donation to Not On Our Watch, a charity formed by the cast members and producer of the film to aid the suffering in Darfur. Just a couple of weeks before, four other players had won tournaments to attend the film's premiere in Cannes.



As the top four players in their Ocean's Thirteen charity tournament, Bryce, Fisher, Halling, Han, and their guests were treated to a night on the town in Hollywood with Isabelle Mercier and Vanessa Rousso. The night began with cocktails hors d'ouveres at the Sofitel hotel. Soon, they found themselves in a stretch Hummer H3 limo which carted them off to Hollywood Boulevard. They arrived to find the street closed for the premiere and a block-long red carpet leading to Grauman's Chinese Theater. Thousands of fans peered down from risers across the street while paparazzi snapped photos.





Once outside under the lights, the PokerStars winners saw many of the film's stars, got to walk the red carpet, and watch the premiere of the film. Later, the group headed off to party where they saw Matt Damon, Bernie Mac, George Clooney, Ellen Barkin, Don Cheadle, Shaobo Qin, Eddie Jemison, and Casey Affleck.



It was a night the group will not soon forget. Winner Larry Fisher said, "I think any event that benefits charity is a good thing, and then to have such wonderful prizes for the winners tops it off. It's also great that more than one person can win such an event, as it probably wouldn't have been as much fun without all the others that went."

Congratulations to the winners of the event and thanks to all the people who supported the charity tournaments to aid Darfur.

I'm not very good at languages, but I've found a new way to try to learn. Conveniently I can practise 'sprechender Deutscher' while I throw half my chips away on a wrap-around straight with a back-door bad flush draw chance, at our 100/200 Pot limit Omaha tables. I now know that the German for Omaha is 'Omaha'. I picked that up pretty easily. Perhaps I’m not so bad at languages after all?

Learning poker German is as easy as visiting the 'Options' menu and selecting 'Language'. at present German and Spanish language clients are available, with more poker language lessons planned soon.


Ok, I do realise that these aren’t fully intended as language instruction, there are probably a fair few German or Spanish players out there who would like to see PokerStars lobby and menus in their own language.

Zum Tische
Warten
Spieler

No idea what those are. I’m just going to yell, 'Alle innen!' at the screen. I think that’s German for 'all-in'. I don’t think I need to learn the word for 'fold'. Not with my playing style...

So, well done to PokerStars, for offering this feature, and helping players from every corner of the globe make the most of the site. There are also PokerStars blogs aimed at players in many parts of the world. So far in the PokerStars Blogosphere we have:

PokerStars German blog
PokerStars Swedish blog
PokerStars Brazilian blog

I understand more blogs are coming soon, with Japanese players next to have a dedicated PokerStars blogger at their service.


Now I find myself with just one small problem. It says 'Mittel' lobby and something is 'Beendet'? And I can’t find the right table to lose my chips... Most important lesson if you do ever change the language. 'Optionen' (German for options) 'Sprache' (languages)... then 'English' and I can understand it all again.

'Phew!' And I think 'Phew' means the same in every language!

By Brad "Otis" Willis

This morning, PokerStars announced the arrival of poker legend Daniel Negreanu as the latest addition to Team PokerStars.

Negreanu is widely accepted as one of poker’s true legends. His ability to read players, spot the best action and mentor fresh talent – in addition to his ‘nice guy’ table image – have made him a household name, both in poker circles and beyond.


Barry Greenstein welcomes Daniel to Team PokerStars

The Toronto, Canada, native left college at age 21 to move to Las Vegas and pursue his dream of becoming a pro – a dream that many PokerStars players will share. His breakthrough moment came at the 1997 World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, Connecticut, where he took down two first place finishes.

Since then he has added three World Series of Poker bracelets to his trophy haul and, until 2004, he was the youngest WSOP bracelet winner of all time, earning him the moniker ‘Kid Poker’. Negreanu then went on to secure two World Poker Tour titles and more than 36 victories and a further 11 final table appearances in tournaments across the globe.


Humberto Brenes welcomes Daniel to Team PokerStars

He was named the World Series of Poker “Player of the Year” in 2004 and "Favorite Poker Player" by CardPlayer Magazine in February 2006. As of January 2007, his total live tournament winnings exceed $9,660,000. He is the all-time leading money winner on the WPT circuit.

Negreanu has written over 100 articles for CardPlayer Magazine and contributed to Doyle Brunson's Super System II. He has tutored on the web as part of Poker School Online and also personally given lessons to celebrities like Tobey Maguire.


Daniel checks out his new duds

In addition, Negreanu assembled a team of "Superstar Contributors" to write a book called "Daniel Negreanu's Power Hold'em Strategy." He regularly plays against these contributors in televised tournaments and high stakes games including Late Night Poker, Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker, Poker Superstars Invitational Tournament and Ultimate Poker Challenge (as a commentator and stand-in host).

Whilst many of us are happy with simple poker pleasures, like our Aces holding up in a 320 play money Sit & Go, other poker players feel more ambition, they feel the need to test themselves in tougher poker challenges. It can't get much tougher than the month and a half of high stakes tourney poker action that is the World Series of Poker. 55 events are displayed on the schedule for the Rio Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas in June and July, with the 'World Championship No-Limit Texas Hold'em (Event 55) $10,000' the unremarkable way to describe an event that will certainly make millionaires, create stars, and change lives. None of that stuff ever happens in 320 play money Sit & Gos. At least not when I play.

PokerStars has more to do with this glamorous highlight of the poker year than most sites. PokerStars sends more players to play there, PokerStars created or fostered the talents of three Championship winning players, PokerStars has devised an impressive array of ways for an 'Average Joe' player to find himself winning a $10,000 seat, and sharing a table with stars of the poker world. PokerStars promotions are still ongoing if you're in the mood to seek out Vegas glory. It's possible to win a seat based purely on Frequent Playing Points, or Tournament Leader Board skills.

If you simply want to read about the Main Event, and perhaps dream about next year whilst you practise with play money, you can read updates from Vegas on our WSOP blog. Brad "Otis" Willis and team will be reporting on your favourite Team PokerStars players, as well as any PokerStars Average Joes playing a better than average poker game.

The World Series has kicked off now, and some may see the preliminary events as warmups for the big game on July 6th, but there are plenty of glorious bracelets and big money prizes to stir hearts and swell bank balances. Some stories that have caught my eye from the early days of action... PokerStars player Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis winning Event #1 and becoming the youngest person to ever win a World Series bracelet... Team PokerStars Steve Paul-Ambrose finishing 4th in the same event for $146,249... Barry Greenstein playing in two tournaments at the same time... The manic action of three hours of unlimited $5000 rebuys in an Omaha tournament making for an impressive $2.89 million prizepool...

For me it's back to those 320 play money Sit & Gos. I feel grateful that play money refills are free.


Greg Raymer


Vanessa Rousso


Barry Greenstein


Humberto Brenes

Tournament qualifiers hit Vienna's Lifeball in style

By Brad "Otis" Willis

Life itself is a celebration for some people.

For three decades, the world has struggled to cope with the worldwide AIDS epidemic. At one time, even a mention of the disease would result in little more than quiet whispers. Today, most people have recognized that the fight against AIDS is not one to be faced with individual shame, but rather in concert with the world.

There have been many efforts to raise money for AIDS research, but none are as lavish and colorful as the Lifeball in Vienna, Austria.

This year, PokerStars sponsored the gala event by donating $100,000 and hosting a series of charity tournaments for its players. The winners of some of those tournaments got free tickets to the biggest AIDS charity ball in the world.

Complete with a extraordinary fashion show, concert, and a celebrity poker tournament, the 2007 Lifeball was more than a sight to behold. It was a visceral experience for the PokerStars winners.

"We had never seen a spectacle such as this before--fantastic colorful costumes, kind and fun people. It was astounding!" said charity tournament qualifier Andrea Wirth.


The multi-colored crowd at the 2007 Lifeball


Poker game at 2007 Lifeball

Justin Green, a 31-year-old one-time accountant, also won his trip in one of the charity tournaments. While carousing around the Lifeball, he met a number of celebrities, including Jenna Jameson, Lance Bass, and Marcel Luske.


Justin Green in a surreal celebrity moment

Celebrity aside, Green was able to look past it all to recognize the importance of the event.

Green said, "At first, I felt that PokerStars involvement with the LifeBall was somewhat of an odd-couple mixture, but the fact that poker has exploded in popularity around the world allows PokerStars to take advantage of that popularity by donating to a very noble cause in the fight for a cure for a disease that can affect virtually anyone, anywhere."




Concert at Lifeball 2007

Supernova Tom Richter, a 23-year-old poker pro took his wife Sophie with him. He said, "The event was amazing, and we have never seen anything like it. We enjoyed the show and partied till 4 am. The PokerStars lounge had a great atmosphere and was super stylish.

"I think that the Life Ball with its tenure of 15 years has found acceptance with all areas of the community and internationally. This was recognizable in the strong presence of international people during the event. Taking this into consideration, PokerStars has found a strong charity partner to work with."


Tom Richter in Vienna

Tournament winner Dieter Schroder, a 36-year-old network planner for Versatel, agreed. He said, "Since the subject of AIDS has been pushed back in the recent past it is great that PokerStars have committed themselves to this project."