At the end of the Inaugural Party Poker World Open it was none other than 50-year-old Beverly Pace who took home first place.
It was no walk in the park for Pace who had to overcome Jen Mason in heads-up play. Mason is one of Europe's best female poker players and has been on a bit of a hot streak lately.
Beverly, who is from Bromley, Kent, UK, and is married to comedian/poker player Norman Pace, was understandably brimming with excitement.
"I'm very happy," said Beverly. "This is my first big win and I intend to give myself a bankroll to play more poker tournaments for bigger stakes in the near future. Was sixth in the Ladies European Championship in April and went to the WSOP and Aussie Millions this year but I haven't really cashed significantly."
Beverly pointed to a number of key moments that helped secure the win. One was a re-raise against Mason; another was an all-in push against Jackie Vanswani (wife of Ram Vanswani) with pocket eights. Many felt that Mason was going to dominate the heads-up victory but Beverly surprised everyone by coming away with the W.
"I was pleased to beat Jen Mason," Beverly said. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for her and she has taught me a lot on the circuit. Perhaps she hasn't done herself any favors as I have picked up a lot about how she plays!" Play route 66 poker.
Beverly has been married to husband Norman for 30 years and the couple is well known and popular on the UK circuit. She has been a part-time poker player for four and a half years and spends a lot of spare time chairing the Meningitis Research Foundation charity.
"Norman says I'm a better player than him but I think we are probably about the same standard," she said.
Women's poker tournaments have recently come under criticism from pros like Annie Duke, who advocate the abolishment of such events from the WSOP. Beverly, however, is obviously a fan of the gender-based tournament.
"Women's tournaments are good for getting more ladies into the game," She said. "The standard is no different than a mixed-sex game but they do encourage some to come forward who wouldn't do it otherwise." Online poker.
The highly rated Maria Demetriou finished third while Canadian Bronwyn Campbell place fourth. Jackie Vaswani finished fifth and television presenter Kara Scott placed sixth.
Unfortunately the U.S. trio of Liz Lieu, Jennifer Tilly and Shannon Elizabeth had a disappointing tournament. Tilly did the best of the three, finishing third in her heat, which was won by Mason, while Elizabeth and Lieu both busted early in their heats. Play $500 match poker bonus.
The show will be televised in the UK later this year with commentary provided by Elizabeth and Jesse May.
Last night was an unusual night for online poker. The most obvious difference this week was the absence of the UltimateBet $200,000 guarantee. (Read on to find out why it wasn't held.) Along with that, both the PokerStars Sunday Million and the Full Tilt $500,000 guarantee had significantly reduced attendances.
PokerStars' two new powerhouse poker tournaments, the Sunday Hundred Grand and the High Stakes Showdown, also had lower turnouts this weekend. The Sunday Hundred Grand had "just " 19,203 entrants last night, marking the first time the tournament has ever not reached its maximum number of allowed entrants (which was upped to 20,000 last weekend). The High Stakes Showdown had just eight entrants this weekend, which marked the first time that the tournament has not had 16 entrants. Current Online Player of the Year leader board first-place holder Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi won the tournament (under the screen name zangbezan24), which makes the second time that he's taken down the event since its inception just four weeks ago. Download poker wallpapers.
The PokerStars Sunday Million tournament had 6,567 entrants on Sunday, which generated a prize pool of $1,313,400. This was down quite a bit from the last time the $200 buy-in version of the tournament was held (two weeks ago, on July 22) when 6,959 entrants bought in. Play route 66 poker.
Prominent online poker pro Derek “Dsnyder9521” Snyder made the final table of the event. He entered the final table in second place with $10.9 million compared to soad_live’s first-place stack of $12.1 million. Guesty001 was the short stack at the final table, but he managed to avoid the chopping block for the first elimination hand. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
Many of the best women drivers from all across North America will be racing at Rockingham Park on Friday to help fund the fight against breast cancer.
The Mildred Williams Driving Series for women in harness racing will make a stop at the Salem oval and each of the eight lady drivers competing will donate her earnings from that race to the Susan G. Komen For The Cure Fund,. Download poker wallpapers.
Furthermore, the track will accept donations throughout the afternoon from anyone wishing to help find a cure for the deadly disease which affects women of all ages and from all walks of life.
Kelly Case, who is one of Rockingham's top trainers with a powerhouse stable and an accomplished driver, currently ranks fourth in the international series and will compete in Friday's event. Online poker.
She will handle the reigns on Wit Disturber, a three-year-old horse whom she also trains and has campaigned at Rockingham this season.
The other ladies scheduled to compete are Diane Hellen, Dawn Anderson, Bonnie Rush, Diane Long, Stacey Lord, and Valerie Grondin. Another driver will be named before Friday to round out the field of eight. Women poker.
The Susan G. Komen For the Cure Fund is an organization which has been dedicated to curing breast cancer at every stage, from the causes to the cures, to the pain and anxiety of every moment in between, for the past 25 years.
Its mission is to serve people and save lives. It supports every advance in breast cancer research while empowering women and ensuring quality care for all. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Donation bins will be set up in Rockingham's Clubhouse and Grandstand for those who wish to contribute, and all donations are fully tax deductible.
Post time on Friday is 1:05 p.m. The Mildred Williams Driving Series will be carded as the seventh of 10 races on the afternoon.
On Saturday, Rockingham will host a special Texas Hold 'Em poker tournament with a $10,000 first prize.
Players may either buy their way in to the main tournament, which begins at 2 p.m., for $150 or win their way in through any of the $40 satellite tournaments starting at 11 am. Participants must be 18 or older.
Rockingham hosts Texas Hold 'Em poker every Tuesday through Sunday, and offers live harness racing on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.
Full card thoroughbred, harness, and greyhound simulcasting from all of the top tracks is available seven days per week from noon until midnight and charitable Bingo can be played six nights per week in the Clubhouse. Stay tuned to our poker blog for latest updates.
Weekend's action hectic on the world's biggest online poker site
Initial reports on the weekend's play at online poker tournament activity at Poker Stars.com indicate a full and action-packed weekend attended by over 20 000 entrants to popular events such as the Sunday Hundred Grand, the Sunday Warm-up, the Sunday Million and the High-Stakes Showdown.
Poker Stars still accepts American poker players & women poker players in tourneys that build significant prize-pools and therefore big winner payouts.
Illustrative of these high end prizes is the biggest of the regular Sunday poker tournaments - the Sunday Million. This weekend, despite a four-way chop that left an extra $30 000 for the first place finisher, the main prize easily topped $150 000.
Canadian player Zutzman pocketed $152 537.87 for the win, with Finnish runner-up Pehtoori taking home $134 484 and the third and fourth finishers also breaking the $100 000 payout level. Download poker wallpapers.
Not all poker sites were scared out of the U.S. market when the online poker / gambling ban was passed in 2006. Poker fans still have a few options, including two poker sites from the Merge Network - Carbon Poker and Poker Nordica.
The Merge Gaming Network was created in February 2007, making it one of the newest poker networks online today. However, that doesn't mean it won't be familiar to some players.
The network was created by merging the old Poker.com site and other poker sites onto one network. Now it is able to offer a larger player base for players on its two main sites, Carbon Poker and Poker Nordica. The network will also add more skins in the future, increasing the players & women poker players even more from all over the world.
Currently the poker sites draw an average of 8,000 real-money tournament players during peak hours and 800 in cash games. The aspects that are drawing in players are the good software, great game diversity, multi-table support and good promotions.
At Carbon Poker, players will find super satellites to some of the world's largest live poker tournaments including the World Series of Poker, World Poker Tour events and the Aussie Millions. It also has plenty of freerolls and other games players will enjoy. Play route 66 poker.
Poker Nordica also has perks for players with its monthly $50,000 freeroll. There is also a $20,000 guaranteed tournament on Sundays that has proven to be very popular for players and still provide very good value.
Of course, there are even more perks for players who sign up through PokerListings.com.
Poker Nordica offers new PokerListings.com players a $400 sign-up bonus at 200% match for first-time depositors. First-time depositors at the site are also given a tournament ticket to a $500 freeroll exclusively for first-time depositors.
Carbon Poker also has a good deal for PokerListings.com players. They will get a $600 sign-up bonus at 200% match. First-time depositors are also entered into 15 days of new-depositor freerolls.
An added perk to signing up with Carbon Poker before Aug. 15 is entry into a $10,000 freeroll. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
Check out the Poker Room Reviews Section for more information about these poker sites and the deals offered as well as those from other poker sites.
Inaugural PartyPoker Women's World Open Features Strongest Line-Up Assembled In Europe Shannon Elizabeth, Jennifer Tilly And Liz Lieu Lead The Charge From The US
PartyPoker has once again underlined their ongoing commitment to producing quality televised poker events by announcing the inaugural PartyPoker Women's World Open in London in August. The 36 runner field features the strongest line-up ever assembled for a women's poker tournament in Europe.
Leading the field is American trio Jennifer Tilly, Liz Lieu and Shannon Elizabeth. Tilly is an Academy Award nominated actress and WSOP bracelet holder, Lieu is one of the world's most feared cash game players and a star of the successful PartyPoker Premier League Poker series, while Elizabeth, best known for her role as a beauty in the film American Pie, recently made the final four of the NBC Heads-Up Championship in the US.
Elizabeth said: "I'm so excited to be coming to London to commentate and play in the inaugural PartyPoker Women's World Open. So many great women will be playing from the United States including Liz Lieu and Jennifer Tilly, so hopefully one of us can bring home the championship!" Play online poker.
The poker tournament is PartyPoker's first ever all-female event and takes place between the 7th and 10th of August in London and will be produced by Matchroom Sport. A similar format to the annual PartyPoker World Open will be followed, as 36 players from across the globe battle it out for a share of a $108,000 prize-fund. The buy-in for the tournament is set at $3,000, with the eventual winner taking home a cool $50,000. Amongst the European challengers will be Xuyen "Bad Girl" Pham, former PartyPoker World Open winner Pippa Flanders, European Ladies champion Jackie Meecham, Katharine Hartree, Jackie Vaswani and Deborah Rogers. Play route 66 poker.
The show will be televised in the UK later in the year on Five. Commentary will be provided by Jesse May and Shannon Elizabeth. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Gamblers Anonymous in Scotland is stepping into the virtual world to extend its reach even further in the nation. It is planning to purchase VOIP phones that will allow members in remote areas to phone in for sessions via the Internet.Women poker.
"There are people in places like Portree, Arran and parts of southern Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway who can't travel the long distances to their nearest meeting in Inverness or Carlisle," a Gamblers Anonymous spokesman said in the Sunday Herald.
The organization's solution is to roll out Skype, which will allow people to make free phone calls over the Internet to take part in counseling sessions. Download poker wallpapers.
The project is in its initial stages with Gamblers Anonymous preparing to buy 50 VOIP handsets to distribute to gamblers looking for help. They haven't yet decided if the organization will foot the bill for the handsets, or if the members wanting to use them will be charged for them.
The system should be easy to use though.
"The VOIP phone is just like a traditional handset, with software that is easily downloaded," the spokesman said in the Sunday Herald. "People will simply have to log on to Skype to join in GA meetings with other Skype users." Play $500 match poker bonus.
The phone sessions will include as many as 12 members at a time and work like any other GA meeting.
Scotland's GA also wants to boost its online poker presence in other ways. It would like to upgrade its Web site, www.gascotland.org, to include message boards for members to swap advice and support.
At the end of the Inaugural Party Poker World Open it was none other than 50-year-old Beverly Pace who took home first place.
