Archive for the 'Poker Players' Category
It’s a lovely story and what makes the World Series of Poker Main Event so special is its egalitarianism. The tournament does not discriminate based on sex, race, or physical ability; anyone with $10,000 to spare, alternatively the skill and good fortune to win a satellite tournament for a lower price, all can play in its seminal event and test his or her luck against the game’s biggest stars. It was not about a group of 7,319 men and women who put up the five-figure sum doing everything possible to get the largest possible piece of the tournament’s $68.8 million prize pool. It was about the love shared between a father and son.
Gary Kostiuk, a 49-year-old optometrist from Grande Prairie, Alberta, finished 85th to win $79,806. Kostiuk, who won a $350 satellite in a home game with a group of 44 friends to get into the Main Event, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis two years ago and now gets around in a wheelchair. His son Ryan is quoted as saying “this might be his last year to be able to make it out here. This is special.” Six years ago, Ryan convinced his father to take up online poker. Two months later, Ryan had a $7,000 score in an online tournament, and both father and son were hooked. Gary’s run finally ended when his pocket 10s fell to an opponent’s pocket king. All you really needed to see was his son lean down to give him a giant bear hug in his wheelchair before rolling him out the door.
You may be surprised but poker players can read their opponents’ hands, not their hand of cards, but their hand, that is fingers, palms etc. According to an FBI agent, the hands can be a useful tool of information to the opponent. Poker players habitually don’t realize that their hands are revealing exactly what they’re thinking or intending by the actions of their hands. At a table, players may be sitting with their hands together or rubbing their hands, or maybe they have their hands off the table. But if they get in a strong position, apparently they tend to “release” and separate their hands.
A video has been produced by World Series of Poker Academy, licensed poker school of the WSOP. The instructional video is part of an online poker school being launched this week by the World Series of Poker Academy on its website, enrolment comes with a fee.
Steering the challenge James Dempsey along with others saw the British invade the 2010 WSOP. Having won five bracelets thus far, the United Kingdom is tied with Canada with the most bracelet wins of any other country outside the US during the 2010 World Series of Poker. The winners so far are; Praz Bansi, James Dempsey, Richard Ashby, Mike Ellis, and Steve Jelinek.
Bansi was the first Brit to win with the 2010 WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold’em worth $515k. To date, Bansi has won two WSOP bracelets, has eight cashes, and more than $1.4 million in WSOP earnings. James Dempsey followed suit winning the 2010 WSOP $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em worth $197K. Richard Ashby joined the British spotlight with his 2010 WSOP win in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud worth a $140K win. , Ashby has nabbed one WSOP bracelet, 11 cashes, and more than $604K in WSOP earnings. Mike Ellis has had a modestly successful stint so far in the World Series of Poker and stole a win in the 2010 WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold ’em event earning him the coveted gold bracelet and $581K.
However dark horse of the tourney, Steve Jelinek took the gold bracelet and pocketed a quarter million dollars as well. Jelinek has won one WSOP bracelets, with four cashes, and close to $300K in WSOP earnings since 2005. There is more to come!
You may think that winning at the poker table is about bluffing, a good hand, and lady luck, but no, according to top player Phil Ivey it isn’t about his winning hands, no sir, Phil treated himself to a little massage to help his poker game. Well it could be better than drugs, legal and illegal, that some poker players have admitted to using. A good massage can help relax the muscles and bring down your stress level.
Many people like a massage but few would have them sitting at a poker table would they? But Phil had a masseuse stop by to give him a chair massage while he was at the tables and as you can imagine, this gave rise to some people making unnecessary and indecent suggestions to the young and attractive masseuse! Could it be that it’ll start of a new trend it getting poker massages so players can make expressions no one can figure out?
Because in Las Vegas, gamblers must be twenty-one years of age to enter a casino, one of the best young professional poker players in the world was prevented from playing in the World Series of Poker the past several years. However, now Annette Obrestad has reached maturity, and has reached the magical age of twenty one years of age, she is now ready to descend on Las Vegas and make a splash at the tables. Obrestad will not be catching any of the other top players off guard, because she has played in many pro tournaments located in jurisdictions that allow eighteen year-old gamblers.
Heading into the WSOP, which begins this week, Obrestad has been honing her skills online. On Sunday, Obrestad won the PokerStars Sunday 500, and in the process, took home $87,000 that will be used for some of her buy-ins at the WSOP. Will she beat Phil Ivey who made the longest run through the Main Event of any pro player, landing at the final table. Ivey fell short of winning the top prize, however, and will be back again this year to try and rewrite history.