Ivey did not manage in a single tournament cash all last year, largely due to his admittedly cut down schedule for 2011. On the top of that of course he boycotted the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas last summer in support of angry Full Tilt customers, who have still not been allowed access to funds in their accounts with the poker room.

Jeff Fielder is the overall leader heading into Day 2 after building a stack of 437,500 chips on Saturday. Fielder ascended to the top of the leader board when he won a massive pot late in the day against Mark “P0ker H0″ Kroon, who at the time was second in chips. Some of the notables that registered only on Day 1b and failed to advance to Day 2 were Jamie Gold, Steve Billirakis, Frank Kassela, Eli Elezra, Gavin Smith and Bryan Devonshire. The 134 players will return Sunday at 4 p.m. local time, and they will play down to either a final table or through 12 hours of play, whichever comes first.

Of the six nominations for the Player of the year award two Brits, Jake Cody and Sam Trickett. They are up against Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Eugene Katchalov, Andrey Pateychuk and World Series of Poker Main Event champion Pius Heinz. Cody and Trickett are also nominated for the Best Tournament Performance category, and the rookie of the year award see Sam Holden nominated. Victoria Coren and Liv Boeree are up for the Leading Lady award. Come the 25th January and we will find out who has been successful.

He started the day having no cashes in major live events, in fact we do not believe this may have been his first major lie event so his Return on Investment is now immense! At times throughout the tournament he made some quite questionable plays but he always did so with a big smile on his face and with a little celebratory dance, his earphones seemingly glued to the insides of his ears all day every day. Along with €175,000 in cash, he takes with him a replica of the Champions Cup, a solid silver card protector and a seat to the $25,500 WPT World Championship to be held in Las Vegas during 2012.

So of the 575 players who took to the felt at the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino in Macau it was Lew who finally triumphed at the end of the gruelling tourney. Lew, known as an online super-grinder playing under the name “nanonoko”, can now add a major live title to his impressive resume as the 2011 APPT Macau Main Event becomes his first big triumph on the live felt.

Phil who is an eight-time bracelet winner has been off the poker radar since April 15’s indictments against operators of the major offshore poker companies. In May he decided to sit out the entire 2011 World Series of Poker in response to the specific allegations against Full Tilt Poker. Ivey also took out a lawsuit against the online poker site in which he cited disappointment and embarrassment that players were not paid their account balances. Ivey was also seeking more than $150 million for “injunctive relief, declaratory relief and damages.

The lawsuit was later withdrawn by him following rumours which began circulating in June that European investors were seeking to purchase the site. Full Tilt Poker owes about $150 million to U.S. players and about the same to its foreign base, after allegedly becoming insolvent in the operation of a Ponzi scheme.

Team 888poker has confirmed it’ll be taking part in the inaugural International Federation of Poker Nations Cup. Tonight, Shane Warne, Padraig Parkinson and Sam Holden will take part in the unique contest that takes place at the London Eye. The format of the competition is Duplicate Poker, where players are given identical sets of cards at different tables and the winner is the player that plays his cards best. It apparently removes the element of luck meaning it won’t be long before it’s latched onto by the “poker as skill” stable.

The main event was dominated by American poker professional Elio Fox, who overcame a big chip deficit to defeat fellow online player Chris “Moorman1″ Moorman to claim the $1.928 million first prize. Fox who is known as smokyrokbyflock on FullTilt and PokerStars sites, took up the game full-time after graduating from Bard College and found that he was making big profits. The rise of online poker is evident by the final results table of the of the 3000 Euro shootout, which was an all internet affair. Just to show how much the new generation has taken over, the oldest player on that table was 32. We wonder which site will produce the next great poker champion.

Here are just a few of the biggest celebrities who have made a name for themselves in the world of poker, whether on the professional circuit or in the exclusive invitation-only arena. 

Spider-Man star actor Tobey Maguire is rumoured to have won more than $10 million in secret Hollywood invitation-only events.  Such a huge sum may be exaggerated, but he is known on the circuit as a fearless player who likes to win and knows how to do it. 

However, he is not alone.  Fellow Hollywood actor Ben Affleck has already in a short poker career managed what many professionals would kill for.  Much to his credit, and gaining the respect of many pro players, he has a $10,000 buy-in major no-limit title in the bag.  That would be accolade enough, but when the accompanying $356,000 purse is taken into account, the win becomes truly significant. 

With American Pie actress Shannon Elizabeth also hitting the tables, it is not just an all-boys affair.  The beauty managed to rack up a $125,000 win in 2007 but has so far yet to improve on that big win.

Not only actors favour the felt.  Olympic swimming sensation Michael Phelps is a keen player and has vowed to improve his skills once he has stopped competing.

The UKIPT is going from strength to strength and now regularly attracts its share of top class poker player from both here and in Europe, so great credit has to go the Netherlands player although it has to be admitted that the Dutchman had a couple of lucky hands along the way but that’s all part and parcel of the game of poker, without a bit of luck you would get nowhere and most good players make their own luck anyway.