Poker News: For poker players looking for a way to improve their game and perhaps get a taste of that poker pro lifestyle, there is now a weekend they can live the poker dream with world champion player Joseph Hachem. Play online poker
The 2005 World Series of Poker Main Event Winner is offering up "A Weekend with Joe Hachem" in Las Vegas in December that will include personal poker lessons, tournament play and even some nightclubbing. Read poker blogs
"I'm very excited to offer poker players an immersive weekend of poker where I can give individual attention to each player's game," Hachem said. Play route 66 poker
The exclusive weekend will take place Dec. 7-9 and is limited to only 18 players in order to ensure a personalized experience and one-on-one poker training. Play $500 match poker bonus
"The fact that the weekend is limited to 18 players will guarantee that I can work with each and every player and improve their game dramatically," Hachem said. Play full tilt poker
Hachem has the skills to back up his teaching as well. The 2005 WSOP win was just the beginning of his rocketing into stardom in the poker world.
Since then he's amassed several more large cashes around the world and came as close as a second-place finish to winning another WSOP bracelet. Play women poker T.J. Cloutier
Poker News: Every now and then we lose one of the truly "good" guys long before their time is due.
Chris Fontaine, of Chicopee, qualified as one of those guys. Fontaine, who was the owner of Fontaine Heat, was making the annual trek to bike week in Laconia, N.H., on June 9, 2006. A Harley-Davidson enthusiast, Fontaine was riding with his longtime buddy Dean Stoddard, of Easthampton, when, through happenstance, they met up with a group of riders from Connecticut going the same way. Play online poker
While traveling through Stoddard, N.H., one of the bikes went wide on a curve, forcing a sport-utility vehicle to lose control while trying to avoid the bike. A horrific crash ensued, with a total of seven motorcycles struck. Read poker blogs
Three of the bikers, including Fontaine, died almost instantly, and two others were badly injured. He was 39 and left two children, Alex and Shawn, his longtime girlfriend, Brenda Naginewicz, and many more friends and acquaintances. Play route 66 poker
I had the pleasure of meeting Chris and using him as a heating contractor in my home. It was his honesty and the quality of his work that had led me to him. He was highly thought of by all who dealt with him. Play $500 match poker bonus
On Aug. 12, the friends of Chris Fontaine will be celebrating his memory by having the second annual Chris Fontaine Poker Run. The run is out of Jester's Pub, 733 Chicopee St. in Chicopee. Registration is from 9 to 11 a.m. with a cost of $20 per rider and $10 per passenger. Walk-ups are welcomed for $10. Play full tilt poker T.J. Cloutier
Poker News: With the end of the WSO Poker tournament Main Event earlier this morning, there will be no more live poker tournaments in Vegas for a while. Yesterday we ordered the WSOP Main Event final table on Pay Per View. Play online poker
We propped just about everything imaginable as we didn't move from the couch for 16 hours. The final table was interesting, to say the least, to watch. I actually don't think this guy that won played as bad as everyone was flaming him for. I can't even remember his name. Read poker blogs
I lost a little bit on the props but had a running prop with Adam Geyer and long time friend JP "itsthemaster" Painter which made me turn the day into a winner, as my horses did better. Most annoying player at the FT award goes to the guy "Rain" Khan. It makes me cringe seeing the way some of these guys embarras (sp?) themselves in front of the world on TV. Play full tilt poker
Other than that, we've been lounging around like complete degenerates. I did have a monster Sunday in the online tournaments last Sunday. I probably play the sunday online poker tournaments once every two months, and this day I just absolutely murdered and cashed in something like 6 of 9 poker tournaments with two major final tables including a win, and a net of mid-five figures for myself. This helps in recovering about 25 percent of my overall poker losses in 2007, which is nice. Online MTTs are probably the only games on the internet that are beatable right now. Play route 66 poker T.J.Cloutier
Poker News: The 2007 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event No-Limit Texas Hold 'em final table kicked off today and as of this update the battle still wages and will continue to do so well into the night. It is 12:40 am Tuesday Night. Play online poker
Thus far, Phillip Hilm busted out early in 9th place followed by Lee Watkinson in 8th place and Lee Childs in 7th. As more top name poker professionals started flocking around the rail, more players in the Main Event joined them. Read poker blogs
Hevad 'Rain' Khan was the next to go as he finished in 6th place. Jon Kalmar busted in 5th place. Play route 66 poker
The player with the Jamie Goldish chip stack of this year's Main Event has been Jerry Yang. He had been catching some good cards and eliminated most of the other players and women poker players. Yang has been sliding down hill lately though and at this time (12:40 am) the other guys are catching up. It is still anyone's game! Play $500 match poker bonus T.J.Cloutier
Poker news: Sometime Tuesday evening, the 36 players and women poker players left standing in the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event after Sunday’s action (today is a day off) will be whittled down to the nine who will make up the final table for the world’s most important poker tournament.
And a quick glance at the list of survivors from the almost 6,000 who started the Main Event 10 days ago has most observers asking what has become an annual question: “Who are these guys?” Play online poker
The worldwide Texas Hold’Em explosion has turned the World Series of Poker into a free-for-all among thousands of amateurs and hundreds of pros that, because of the sheer numbers, has left almost all of the game’s best-known players at the rail when the stretch run of the Main Event has begun each year since Robert Varkonyi came out of nowhere to claim the 2002 title. But this year might have been the amateurs’ finest hour so far. Read poker blogs
Of the 621 players who cashed in the Main Event (621st paid $20,000, or twice the entry fee), virtually all were unknowns. Only two past winners — Huck Seed (1996) and Scotty Nguyen (1998) finished in the top 100, with Seed, who beat Ada’s own Dr. Bruce VanHorn to claim his title 11 years ago, bowing out in 73rd place and Nguyen still alive in 28th place and easily the biggest name in the final 36. Two other past Main Event winners — Varkonyi (who finished 177th) and 1986 winner (and Bethany, OK resident) Berry Joh Play route 66 poker T.J.Cloutier
Poker News: At Las Vegas, top prize at the 2007 World Series of Poker will be about $8.23 million based on the 6,358 players and women poker players who have entered the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em main event over the poker tournament’s four starting days, organizers said Monday. play online poker
The total is short of last year’s record 8,773 participants and $12 million top prize. But it comes nine months after President Bush signed a law cracking down on online poker gambling, which is blamed for shrinking the number of entrants who would have qualified in online poker tournaments.
Unofficially, 1,789 poker players began play at noon local time Monday for the fourth starting day of the poker tournament. Nine players will sit down at the final table on July 17 to determine a winner. Play route 66 poker T.J.Cloutier
Poker News: Two new golden bracelets were handed out on Day 34 of the 2007 World Series of Poker. Michael Graves held on to his chip lead and took home Event 52, $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em w/re-buys, and Ram Vaswani won Event 53, $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout.When the heads-up match for the title in 2007 WSOP Event 52 began, Michael Graves had a commanding lead with 4.2 million in chips against Theo Tran's 2.5 million. Play online poker
The far more experienced Tran started a comeback, closed the gap some, and came very close to doubling up in a key pot near the end. The poker players moved all-in on a 8-3-5 flop, and Tran had Graves slightly out-kicked with 6-5 against 5-4. The board, however, finished out Q-T and it was a split pot. Read poker blogs
A few minutes later it was all over. Once again it was all-in on the flop, but this time Michael Graves, who had hit a pair of fives, was in the lead. Theo Tran had a gut-shot straight draw and two overcards, but no help came on the turn or river, and Tran had to settle for second place and $387,193. Michael Graves received a $742,121 prize check for the victory. Play route 66 poker
In Event 53, Ram Vaswani defeated Andy Ward heads-up to win the gold bracelet and $217,438 in prize money. Otherwise, the last poker tournament before the Main Event got underway, and the size of the starting field will be a great contrast to the big one on Friday. Only 78 poker players entered Event 54 - $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/re-buys, the lowest number of entrants in the 2007 WSOP. Play $500 match poker bonus T.J.Cloutier
By T.J Cloutier Poker News: In the $5K no-limit hold'em event, I finished 23rd and cashed for $20,034. (The $34 is about what it costs for a real lunch at the casino, and every dime you can get ahead of the game counts, I figure.). It was a funny (funny-strange, not funny-ha-ha) days in which I hardly held any hands but the hands that I played either won the pot outright, or somebody paid them off at the end. I mean it was uncanny, the hands that were played against me. Play online poker
For example, after starting with $10K in poker chips, I had won a couple of little pots and had built up to about $16K in chips. We started with 640 players and woman poker players and were down to about 450 when I moved tables. Sitting exactly to my left was Chris Bjorin from Sweden, a great poker player - but on this day, he hadn't brought his A-game to the table with him. It was passed around to me and I raised the pot with two queens in the hole. Chris called from the button, and the big blind called. Read poker blogs
The flop came something like J-6-4 with two spades. I bet on the flop, Chris called, and the big blind folded. When another 4 came on the turn, I just moved all in on Chris. He hesitated for a minute and then called. When we turned over our hands, he showed a Q-J against my two queens. Play route 66 poker
For a poker player the caliber of Chris, this was a horrible play. He was in really bad shape, dead to a jack with one card to come. Obviously, he couldn't catch a queen and win it with queens and jacks, because a queen would give me queens full. He didn't catch it, and left quietly. With that pot, my chip stack rose to over $30K. Download poker wallpapers
A little while later, with the blinds at $150-$300, I looked down at two aces in the big blind. It was passed all the way around to the little blind. "Oh, boy," I'm thinking, "I'm just gonna win the antes with aces." You know, you wait so long to get them and then you just win the antes and you're disappointed. Instead, the small blind called and I raised him $1,000, about a standard raise. He didn't hesitate in calling me. Play full tilt poker
The board came K-Q-4. He checked to me and I made a decent bet at the pot. Guess what? He check-raised to $9K! "Okay," I said, "Let's go for all of it!" and moved in. "I call!" he said real quickly, and turned up a K-6. He had nothing! Top pair with a bad kicker up against two aces! So my aces held up and up went my stack again. This is what I mean about this poker tournament - the money was just given to me.
