The second, Day 1b, Day One at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Copenhagen saw 215 players show up for the start of gambling but the chip leader ultimately came from Monday’s smaller field of only 84 players, with Stephen O’Dwyer still topping the winner’s table.

Mads Wissing took the lead on Day 1b holding 127,575 chips but was massively shy of the 190,975 that O’Dwyer had accumulated the day before. Second place on the leader board also went to a Day 1a player, Lauri Varonen who bagged 161,150 chips. This meant Wissing was only the third highest chip holder overall.

On the day, behind Mads was Sebastien Rust with 119,100 and in third place came Alexander Manson collecting a respectable 113,025 chips. Costin Fucea and Juha Helppi finished off the top five for Tuesday with 107,000 and 105,420 chips respectively.

In total, for the third year running at EPT competitions, there were 299 registered players at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Copenhagen, all chasing the first prize of €338,223 (£284209). Casualties along the way at Day 1b included internet sensation Viktor Blom and Jasper Hougaard who were not amongst the 179 player to make it through to Day 2.

The Day 1b chip leaders were:

1. Mads Wissing – 127,575

2. Sebastian Rust – 119,100

3. Alexander Manson – 113,025

4. Costin Fucea – 107,000

5. Juha Helppi – 105,425

6. Marcel Bjerkmann – 100,925

7. Kalle Niemi – 96,800

8. Henrik Jeppsson – 96,700

9. Kevin Iacofano – 96,150

10. Michael Finderup – 94,475

]]> http://www.pokerblog.com/news/o%e2%80%99dwyer-still-holds-the-lead-at-ept-copenhagen.html/feed 0 http://www.pokerblog.com/news/nestola-wins-lapt.html http://www.pokerblog.com/news/nestola-wins-lapt.html#comments Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:03:07 +0000 John http://server1.wirewool.com/pokerblogcom/?p=7627 ]]>

Just as the carnival atmosphere of Mardi Gras was about to kick off in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Germany’s Daniele Nestola was bringing his South American adventure to a close with a win at the latest leg of the Latin American Poker Tour. He managed to beat 376 poker players from all around the world who paid the R$4,000 buy-in to join the festivities.

The four day event included a strong field and featured the Canadian pro Daniel Negreanu who went out in sixth place and more than paying for his trip south. This was a personal milestone for WSOP bracelet winner, Negreanu, who has also played on final tables in the European and Asian poker tours.

The final heads up came between Nestola and Venezuelan star, Gasperino Nicolas, with the German coming out best to take the winners R$289,300 (£106,737) first prize. Nicolas, as runner up received R$250,000 (£92,344) and third placed Carlos Ibarra from Chile, was the recipient of a cheque worth R$148,840 (£54,963).

Nestola dominated proceedings from the start of the final table, going into the match as chip leader and seeing off a number of fellow players before finishing off Nicolas. When they were down to the final pair, they decided to chop the prize money and instead play for just £14,500.

The face-off didn’t last long and with an open-ended board leaving Nicolas with a pair of nines and Nestola with a possible straight, it was only with the turn of the 3c that convinced the German to go all in with 3,4,5,6,7 straight. The final card could not help the Venezuelan and Nestola took the plaudits.

Final Table Results & Payouts:

Daniele Nestola (Germany)                       R$289,300 (£106,737)

Gasperino Nicolas (Venezuela)                R$250,000 (£92,344,)

Carlos Ibarra (Chile)                                   R$148,840 (£54,963)

Felipe Morbiducci (Chile)                           R$89,570 (£33,046)

Jonathan Markovits (Ecuador)                  R$64,540 (£23,806)

Daniel Negreanu (Canada)                       R$48,730 (£17,982)

Vitor Torres (Brazil)                                     R$35,560 (£13,127)

Juan Gonzalez (Argentina)                        R$26,340 (£9,723)

Joshua Ewing (USA)                                   R$22,390 (£8,263)

Ioannis Beris (Greece)                               R$22,390 (£8,263)

Related Articles:

LAPT Final Table In Sao Paulo

Few players would disagree that the most stressful and intense part of a poker tournament is the heads-up battle that decides the champion. It’s the moment the entire event has been building towards, plus it dictates how much of the prize money you get to walk away with.

Because of this, it can be extremely intimidating for novice and even advanced poker players to start entering in heads-up tournaments that places you against a single opponent. It’s one of the best ways to improve your heads-up abilities, but it can also lead to a quick succession of costly losses.

Standard heads-up tournaments begin and end with just one opposing player that you need to defeat. At the cheap buy-in levels you’ll come up against opponents that will shove all-in with any decent hand and just try to put an end to the game. You should be able to beat these types of players with a regular consistency with little to no problem, but the amount of money you’ll win as a result really won’t be worth your time. On the flip side of that coin, however, the more expensive heads-up tournaments are full of veteran poker sharks with tons of experience in this area, making them extremely difficult to defeat, which also puts your bankroll at risk.

The other thing to consider is whether or not your own personal skills are up to the challenge. Playing heads-up is vastly different than going up against multiple opponents, which is why so many pros stress that you develop a completely different set of techniques to revert to for when you finally make it to the heads-up round. You won’t be able to sit on your heels at all and wait for premium hands. Instead you’ll need to be able to take down pots with K-5 offsuit without ever making it to the showdown. Having to maintain that level of intensity and focus is probably the main reason why so many players choke when going heads-up.

Overall, you really should only be considering making a move into the realm of heads-up events if you’re looking for a special challenge. Financially, this is only a profitable venture for those that treat it the way a professional poker player would, with total dedication. But if you just want an occasional change of pace to switch up the tediousness of playing the same format again and again, then just enjoy a few low to mid-priced heads-up tournaments.

The PokerStars UKIPT kicked off with an Irish trip to the Radisson Blu Hotel in Galway and concluded on Monday with a victory for Emmett Mullin as he overcame a large 698 field of players who turned up to pay the €700 buy-in for a shot at the title.

Mullin, a proud Irishman, was lucky to notice that in the official updates the PokerStars team had been reporting his nationality as British, not something for him to be left unmentioned. With the confusion rectified Mullin then went on to win the tournament and picked up €100,000 in prize money, along with the title.

Emmett had been in the running from the start and was in second place on the chip count at the end of the very first day. The heads up saw him taking on Ronan Gilligan, an online qualifier whose second place netted him €73,650 for his efforts.

The final table featured nine players, instead of the usual eight, and they finished as follows:

1. Emmett Mullin, Ireland                                   €100,000

2. Ronan Gilligan, Ireland                                   €73,650

3. Joe Roberts, UK                                               €51,900

4. Craig Burke, Ireland                                        €30,750

5. Aleksandras Rusinovas, Lithuania              €24,150

6. John Willoughby, Ireland                               €19,400

7. Nick Abu Risk, Canada                                  €14,700

8. Richard Haile, UK                                           €10,900

9. Joris Ruijs, Netherlands                                €7,800

Prior to his win in Galway, Mullin had only pocketed a total of €3,985 from live tournaments. Speaking to PokerStars after the final he said: “It’s been a bit of a drain but there’s a buzz here at the minute. We’ll have a few drinks tonight.”

From those in the starting field, the top 81 finishers all received a payout and the gathering included some top poker names such as Jude Ainsworth, Liv Boeree and Barny Boatman. Congratulations to Emmett Mullin and we will see everyone in Nottingham on the 12^th April for the next leg of the UKIPT.

On Monday the European Poker Tour Copenhagen Main Event commenced at the wonderful Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel, which houses the Casino Copenhagen. This year saw fewer players buy-in for the Main Event with just 83 players exchanging €5,000 for 30,000 tournament chips.

Day 1 was split into seven 60-minute levels and it was during this play that O’Dwyer managed to turn his stack into 190,975 chips, more than six times greater than what he started. His chips seemed to appear out of nowhere as he continued to play steadily and quietly and when asked how he got to have such a lead he told the PokerNews Live Reporting Team that he just got lucky.

O’Dwyer was runner up at the EPT London last year but won’t be sitting on his laurels as the Finnish player, Lauri Varonen, is close behind with his 165,150 chips and this player, although he hasn’t played that long, still has some great results to his name including an outright win at the €2,000 buy-in event in Finland, where he won €82,688.

There are some big players left in this game and with two former EPT champions chasing him down anything could happen. Roberto Romanello has 115,475 chips and you cannot write off the Scot, David Vamplew who has 31,825 to his name. The PokerStars Team Pros have two players going into Day 2 in the form of Arnaud Mattern and Pierre Neuville who are on 19,900 and 15,000 chips respectively.

Day 1b of the tournament will be kicking off very soon with plenty more action for the Team PokerStars Pros who are yet to play. Also starting Day 1b is former EPT Copenhagen champ Anton Wigg, plus many other great players. Good luck guys!

I was fortunate enough to have grown up in a poker-oriented family setting that enabled me to establish a good strategic foundation in formats such as Texas Hold’em long before I turned the legal age to actually set foot in a casino. I understand that not many young players have this advantage, which is why they need to make a conscious decision as to the best approach in tackling their poker career. Just because you might have the skill doesn’t mean you have the experience needed to successfully pursue specific poker avenues. Let’s see if I can help you with that choice.

Online Poker

Almost without exception, I always suggest to younger players that they get their start playing online. If you aren’t of legal age yet, you can still check out and increase your general knowledge of the game in the “play money” rooms that require no real cash deposit. If you can legally join the live money games, online poker offers you the chance to enter in micro-level rooms that serve as a much better training ground than play money areas, all without ever having to risk more than a few dollars per session.

Live Poker

In the United States, where I’m based, you can’t gamble in a casino unless you’re 21 or if you’re 18 and visit an Indian Casino on tribal land (which are very popular in California). A casino setting can be an extremely intimidating place to be, which is why I don’t highly recommend you get your start in poker here. You’ll end up having to invest a lot more money to sit at these tables than you would have to online, making the learning curve very expensive by comparison. If you absolutely want some live experience though, I would suggest that you find a cheap tournament with no rebuys or add-ons. Now you can enjoy some face-to-face competitive poker while putting a hard limit on your actual financial investment.

Over the weekend the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), a $2,300 buy-in event has been raging in San Paulo, Brazil. The final table was sorted out just before teatime on Sunday with Daniele Nestola holding the lion’s share of the chip count.

Nestola headed the table of the PokerStars event with 1.8 million tokens to his name, with Carlos Ibarra on just over 1.2 million and third place being filled by Gasperino Nicolas with less than 100,000 behind on 1.190 million chips. Vitor Torres is the short stack with the uphill struggle sitting with only 273,000 in front of him.

Last eight decided 

Just missing out on the final table was Joshua Ewing in ninth place; running out of chips he chanced his arm on a pair of fours. Nicolas with pocket kings fared much better and Ewing left the table with R$22,390 and brought the curtain down on Day 3’s proceedings.

Big name makes the final table

The biggest ace face on the table is that of PokerStars’ Daniel Negreanu, who has a useable 702,000 chips to his name and currently holds fifth place in his first appearance at a LAPT event. The final table seating plan looks like this:

Seat 1. Felipe Morbiducci                          347,000

Seat 2. Daniel Negreanu                           702,000

Seat 3. Jonathan Markovis                        991,000

Seat 4. Carlos Ibarra                                  1,297,000

Seat 5. Daniele Nestola                            1,892,000

Seat 6. Juan Gonzalez                               548,000

Seat 7. Gasperino Nicolas                       1,190,000

Seat 8. Vitor Torres                                     273,000

Play will get underway Monday afternoon and everyone still has their eyes on the R$324,600 first prize. Good luck to all those players around the table, and you can guarantee the winner will be celebrating with a big Latin American party.

In total there were 311 players who survived the rigours of play on Day 1a and Day 1b at the PokerStars UKIPT Galway Main Event. They took to their seats on Day 2 with the hope that they would make it through the bubble and get to the finals. Only 59 players made it through with Alan Gilmore top of the table with his 467,000 chips.

Gilmore who hails from Northern Ireland is not known very well in the poker world although he has won two big live cashes with 23rd place in the 2009 Irish Open Main Event and 15th in the 2010 PaddyPowerPoker Irish Winter Festival, making just €14,600 in total. If he goes all the way in this tournament he could smash that total in one fell swoop.

Everyone at the tables was trying not to get the booby prize and be the bubble boy. Unfortunately, for Paul McGovern he was unable to avoid it as Gary Johnson made sure that he did not take that particular crown. With McGovern out as bubble boy the rest of the table were assured of at least €950.

As always in these tournaments some of the most notable players have a bad day and leave the table early; this was the case with the former UKIPT champion Gareth Walker and Hendon Mobster Barney Boatman, another who could not quite make it to the final tables.

Although Gilmore is chip leader with 467,000, Aleksandras Rusinovas is not that far behind with 459,000. Then next we have Kevin Monroe with 443,500 and Joris Ruijs with 427,500. With the top four players being very close in the chip stakes anyone of them could take the lead at the end of the next day’s play.

No matter how long you’ve been playing poker, it is always a difficult decision to make when you consider transitioning to the high stakes tables. For SNG tournaments this is no different, especially since you can get knocked out of many events in quick order and find yourself down a lot of money. Because of this, you need to make sure that you are truly prepared both financially and mentally to step up to the plate and start taking on the high limit tables.

Financial preparation

It should be pretty easy to decide whether or not you have the bankroll to sustain a high stakes SNG career. Either you have the money or you don’t. The formula that you most likely used when you first started out to determine what level of buy-in you were able to handle can still be applied on a larger level. The entry fees associated with an SNG should represent a very low percentage of your overall bankroll in order to ensure that a huge downward swing doesn’t cripple your finances.

As long as the new challenge isn’t likely to overwhelm you mentally because of the increased stakes, you should be able to move up without too much issue.

Mental/skill preparation

Just because you can afford to hang out with the big fish doesn’t mean you should. The best high stakes SNG players are complete experts at that particular poker format, and they’ll mercilessly punish you one game after another and have no problem busting you out of a tournament. You really should only be thinking about moving up to a more expensive buy-in structure if you’re currently dominating the level you are at now.

If you want, enter a few slightly more expensive SNGs and just see how you do. It won’t take more than three to four tournaments to get a feel for how well you can hang with the players at this level. If you’re still in your comfort zone and find that your strategies and techniques are working, then you’ll know that you can have confidence with the decision you’re about to make.

Players from around the country have been waiting anxiously for regulators in Nevada to draft and adopt the rules and policies that will define the upcoming online poker industry that is set to debut in the state within 2012. After many weeks of revisions, the wait is finally over.

On Tuesday, the Nevada Gaming Control Board released the Minimum Internal Control Standards (MICS), which along with the Technical Standards that were revealed two weeks ago will form the basic framework needed for internet gambling within state lines.

Mark Lipparelli, the Chairman of the Gaming Control Board, says that the MICS will become official in late March, giving any companies involved an opportunity to speak up and voice their opinions with the outlined procedures. Until then, Lipparelli says, the standards as they exist right now give players a good idea of what type of online poker system they get to look forward to.

According to the MICS, both Nevada residents and tourists alike will be allowed to play in any approved internet card room. Registration will require players to provide their real name, screen name, current residential address, date of birth, a social security number (for US residents) and an email address. After all the information is entered, players will be allowed to deposit up to $5,000 into their account while they undergo a 30-day verification process. The restrictions will then be removed for approved players, while those that fail the verification process will have their winnings forfeited to the casino and their initial deposit refunded.

Once funds are placed into your online account, players will not be allowed to transfer their money to other players. They will, however, be able to transfer funds between their online poker account and an account with the bricks and mortar casino that is operating the internet card room they are registered with.

With the MICS and Technical Standards in place, the next step is likely to be the licensing and approval process for operators that have submitted applications to run an online poker site. This currently totals more than a dozen. Stay tuned to PokerBlog.com for more details as they emerge.