If you’re looking to qualify for a big, live event this year, take a look at the EPT tournaments playing all over Europe. What could be better than a big poker tournament combined with a European vacation?
The best place to qualify for Season 6 EPT tournaments right now is Pokerstars. Currently there are satellites running for EPT Copenhagen, an event that will run from Feb. 16th – 21st.
Over the next few months, satellites for EPT Berlin, EPT Snowfest (Saalbach-Hinterglemm), EPT San Remo, and EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final will be available, starting for as little as $2.20 or 50 Frequent Player Points.
Prize packages for all of these events include your tournament entry, hotel accommodations, and travel expenses. Millions of dollars are on the line at each event, giving you a shot at the best vacation ever.
World Series of Poker satellite tournaments aren’t running yet, and they haven’t even been announced yet. For US and non-European players, EPT tournaments provide a chance to see a beautiful part of the world, on someone elses dime. For European players, this is a chance to play in a big tournament close to home.
Stay tuned for more information on WSOP satellite tournaments. None of the rooms seem to be running them yet, but they will soon. In the mean time, go after one of these EPT tournaments and your shot at millions in prize money.
If you’d like to read more about Pokerstars, check out our Pokerstars review page. Or, follow this link for more information about the 2010 Pokerstars marketing code that gets new players a $600 bonus. Pokerstars is the largest poker site in the world, with 250,000 + simultaneous players during peak hours. With the new $600 bonus available to new players, this is a great time to register your new account.
Written By: HowToPlayOnlinePoker.net
Following in the steps of other famous poker players like Jean Robert Bellade who appeared on CBS’s Survivor, and Annie Duke who came in second on NBC’s The Apprentice, Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho are representing the poker world on this season of CBS’s The Amazing Race.
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The dynamic duo represents the only all-female team on this year’s hit reality show. Both Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho are well known for being the last woman standing in the WSOP Texas Hold’em Main Event. Michelle was the last woman standing in 2008 and Ho in 2007. According to Michelle, there’s more to life than poker though.
Poker is something we do, but we don’t want our lives to be driven by it. When we first heard about it, it didn’t take us long to say ‘Heck yes, we want to do this.’ Poker is always going to be around but The Amazing Race doesn’t come around quite so often. Obviously there are a lot of crummy reality shows, but getting to star in a multiple-Emmy winning show is an amazing opportunity.
When asked about their reasons for going on the show they mentioned promoting poker in a positive way and proving something as women in poker.
Ho said,
We really wanted to go out there and represent poker in the best way possible. Sometimes poker is shown in a negative light because of the gambling aspect and we wanted to change that.
We’re pretty unique in the poker world because it’s a male-dominated game and we wanted to prove that we are some kickass girls who are nice, but also really competitive.
Michelle added,
We wanted to get away from the whole pretty girls playing poker thing and prove that we are gamers.
Bluff gone wrong
Ho and Michelle started out their journey by running a bluff on the other contestants. In her interview on the show, Michelle talked about not wanting to let other teams know that they are “rich and successful poker players”. Okay so they didn’t want to tell people they play poker for money so instead, they told other teams that they help run a shelter for kids.
It didn’t take long for a poker fan to recognize the two at an airport. At that point, the bluff was all over for Ho and Michelle. Their fellow teams didn’t appreciate the lie too much. Their attitudes elicited comments about their attitudes in general. One contestant said, “I don’t think they’re very nice”, so much for promoting poker in a positive light.
Running bad
In this season’s first episode, Tiffany and Maria were nearly eliminated in one leg of the race. In the season opener, contestants flew to Tokyo, Japan, ending up on a Japanese game show. On the game show, the host spun a huge wheel that had various sushi dishes and something called “wasabi bombs”. For those who don’t know, wasabi is an extremely spicy condiment (even in small amounts), used on sushi.
The wasabi bombs were huge wraps filled with wasabi that one player from each team had to eat in under two minutes if they landed on one. If the player finished it in time, the team has to move on to the next leg of the race. After several teams completed the challenge, Maria Ho got her shot at a monstrous wasabi bomb. She started strong but fell a couple of seconds short of swallowing the last of the spicy wrap. She turned to Tiffany Michelle and said with tears in her eyes, “I don’t think I can eat another one”. However, she came through for the poker duo when she was given another chance to eat the wasabi bomb.
Next, Tiffany and Michelle had to lead 20 audience members through busy downtown Tokyo to the next checkpoint. While rushing to keep up they lost two members of the group. After trying unsuccessfully to find their groupies in the congested downtown area, Michelle and Ho decided to go on to the checkpoint. They were obviously resigned to the fact that they would probably be going home. Luckily, for them though, that particular leg of the race was not an elimination round, so they continued.
To continue, they had to complete something called a speed bump, a challenge that had to be completed by their team only. For the challenge Tiffany and Maria had to make a guard some type of soup to his liking. After blazing through that challenge, they moved on to play catch-up against the others.
At that point, the poker girls kicked it up a notch and raced through the next challenge overtaking a couple of other teams. At the end of the day, Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho survived and one of the other teams went home.
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Great news for Colorado and neighboring poker players! No longer do you have to drive up to Blackhawk with a pocket full of cash in order to qualify for the tournament (called the Mile High Poker Open). With the latest tournament set run from Friday, October 2nd through Sunday the 4th, players can now win a seat by playing in satellite tournaments at Pokerstars.com!
As a guy who’s dumped a good chunk of money into satellite tournaments for the HPT tournaments in Blackhawk I can tell you why you should be excited about this.
First off, if you’ve played in any of the live, casino satellites at the Golden Gates Casino, you know how fast the blinds structures are. They go up so fast that luck overpowers skill, making it difficult to qualify for (unless you have an unlimited amount of funds).
At Pokerstars however, players can qualify for the HPT tournament in Blackhawk, Co. for as little as $4.40 playing in satellite tournaments with decent blind structures. There are a few types of satellites available, here’s more information.
Every day at 7:05 pm ET (5:05 pm Mountain Time), there is a $4.40 rebuy satellite tournament where one player for every $215 in the prize pool wins a seat into the $215 qualifier. In the $215 qualifier, players can win their seat for the Mile High Poker Open at the Golden Gates Casino in Blackhawk. These have a standard blind schedule, with blinds going up every 10 minutes. Players start with 1500 chips, offering a realistic chance for good players to win a seat into the $215 qualifier.
Every day at 5:05 pm ET (3:05 pm Mountain) and 9:05 pm ET (7:05 pm Mountain) there are $8.80 rebuy turbo tournaments that are held. Those who qualify through these satellite tournament also win seats into the $215 qualifier. Being turbo’s, players start with 1000 chips and the blinds go up every 5 minutes.
The $215 qualifier has a great blind structure, with 3000 starting chips and 12 minute blind levels. Every qualifier to the Mile High Poker Open at the Golden Gates Casino will win a $1500+150 seat, plus $350 spending money (hotel & travel expenses). Very cool.
If you’d like to play in the Blackhawk, Co. Heartland Poker Tour satellite tournaments at Pokerstars, follow these simple steps:
1/ Write down Pokerstars bonus code Stars600 and marketing code PSP2175. When you register your new account, you will see a field asking if you have a Pokerstars marketing code. Enter PSP2175 into that field. When you make your first deposit, you will be asked for your bone code. Enter Stars600 into that field. When you use these codes, you will automatically be able to get a Pokerstars bonus equal to the amount you deposit, up to $600. So, if you deposit $100, you can get a $100 bonus. If you deposit $600 or more, you can get a $600 bonus.
3/ Register your new account. After you download Pokerstars, you will be walked through the registration process. This takes about 5 minutes.
4/ Make your first deposit. All of the Pokerstars deposit options are safe & secure. Most allow you to play immediately after your deposit.
5/ Click on the ‘Events’ tab in the Pokerstars lobby. Then click on the ‘Special’ tab. Finally, click on the ‘All’ tab. You will see all of the Heartland Poker Tour Colorado satellite tournaments listed right there.
That’s it! Have fun, and I hope to see you at the Golden Gates Casino in Blackhawk, Co!
* Update – Jeff Lisandro Wins Again! This is his third bracelet in the 2009 WSOP!
For info on how it went down, scroll down this page.
Australian poker pro Jeffrey Lisandro is on the verge of WSOP history. Not since Phil Ivey won three bracelets in 2002 has any other player achieved this feat.
Down to just 5 players left in Event #44, the $2500 Razz tournament, Lisandro holds 1.4 million chips. His four opponents combined have less than 1 million!
Already tied for the lead in the 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Award, Lisandro is on the verge of adding another 100 points to the 255 points he went into the day with. Tied with Ville Wahlbeck at the beginning of the day, a win here will put Lisandro clearly into the lead all by himself.
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Lisandro won Event #17, the $1500 Seven Card Stud tournament. 12 days later he won Event #37, the $10k Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8 or Better tournament. He’s also cashed in 3 other events, and made almost $620,000 coming into Event #44. Already guaranteed no less than $38,000, Jeff stands to make $188,000 with a win.
Not to take anything away from what Ivey accomplished in 2002, what Jeff Lisandro is doing this year is even more remarkable. With dramatically larger fields, the odds of winning three bracelets in any one year are unbelievably bad. With just one bracelet to his name before the 2009 WSOP, Lisandro can move way up the list for total bracelet wins. Plus, if he can win this event, he’s a near lock to win the WSOP Player of the Year Award. Although a few other players will still have a shot at him, anything less than a win or multiple high cashes will keep Lisandro in the lead.
We’ll update this post as the action continues. Whether Lisandro wins or not, we’ll let you know right here.
*Update – Eric Rodawig eliminated in 5th place. Jeff Lisandro made a low of T-9-7-6-5 to knock him out. Rodawig takes home $38,471.
The remaining players are:
1/ Jeff Lisandro – 1,400,000
2/ Michael Craig – 360,000
3/ Ryan Fisler – 340,000
4/ Warwick Mirzikinian – 250,000
* Update – Warwick Mirzikinian eliminated in 4th place. Wanna take a guess at who knocked him out? Of course, it was Lisandro! Jeff made a 7-6-5-4-2 against Warwick’s T-8-4-3-A to remove another opponent. Lisandro is now over 2 million chips, and Warwick will take home a check for $52,773.
* Update – Wow, they’re dropping like flies now. Before we finished writing the last update, Ryan Fisler was knocked out in 3rd place. For a change, it wasn’t Lisandro wiping out another player. Michael Craig took out Fisler with a 6-5-4-3-2 against Fisler’s king low. For his third place finish, Ryan Fisler will take home $72,261.
This poker tournament is all but over though. Jeff Lisandro has in the neighborhood of 2.2 million to Craig’s 210,000.
* Update- Jeff Lisandro wins his third bracelet in the 2009 World Series of Poker! On the final hand, Jeff Lisandro made a T-9-8-7-4 against Craig’s K-J-8-6-A to take it down. Michael Craig will get a nice check for $116,405, and Lisandro will add another $188,370 to the $620,000 he has already made at the 2009 WSOP. Tack on another 100 points to Jeff Lisandro’s 255 Player of the Year points total, and he is now in the lead all by himself.
This is an amazing accomplishment by Jeff Lisandro. Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oye Oye Oye!
Written By: TheFullTiltReferralCode.com
With 42 events in the books and only 15 events remaining, the player of year race is starting to heat up. This year’s race has turned into a bit of a 3 horse race, with Jeff Lisandro and Ville Wahlbeck tied atop the leaderboard with 255 points and poker legend and Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey breathing down their necks with 242 points. That being said you also cannot count out John Brock Parker or James Van Alstyne who are both still within striking distance with 220 points apiece.
Jeffrey Lisandro is really making a name for himself this World Series with two bracelet wins and 5 cashes already racked up. Jeff was able to take down the $1500 seven card stud event as well as the $10K World Championships of seven card stud 8 or better. In total Jeff has already won $619,131 from the 2009 World Series of Poker and is in my opinion the leading contender for the Player of the Year award.
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The other 255 point man is Ville Wahlbeck, who has one less bracelet and one less cash than Lisandro, but came very close to having three bracelets, with second and third place finishes. Wahlbeck broke through in the $10K World Championship mixed event, winning the first bracelet of his career. Wahlbeck may be behind Lisandro in bracelets and cashes, but he is pretty far ahead in earnings. Wahlbeck has won $849,785 so far in the 2009 World Series of Poker.
Then of course we cannot forget about the legendary Phil Ivey, who is commonly referred to as the best poker player in the game today. Ivey has won 2 bracelets thus far and has 5 cashes, similar to Lisandro. Ivey quickly won the $2.5K 2-7 triple draw event, then went on to also win the $2.5K Omaha/seven card stud eight or better event. Even with all these wins and cashes Ivey has only earned $356,994 in the World Series because he has been playing the smaller field events.
Also within striking distance are John Brock Parker and James Van Alstyne with 220 points apiece. Parker has 2 bracelets and 5 cashes, while Van Alstyne has 1 bracelet and 3 cashes, but each of these cashes has been a final table appearance. Another big score from either of these players could quickly put them into the top overall position on the leader board.
The race is still wide open and it’s going to be interesting to see who will come out on top in the end.
