Speedyfold Poker Blog

Pokerstars Pro Eugene Katchalov continued a fine year with a 3rd place in the EPT Barcelona. 2011 started with a bang for Katchalov, with him winning the PCA Super-Highroller for $1.5 million, and finishing 2nd in the regular PCA highroller (winning $131K). He then went on to win a WSOP bracelet in the summer along with a 4th place finish in another WSOP event. Any maybe he’s not done yet, with still a few months remaining in 2011.

1 Martin Schleich 850,000 Euros
2 Dragan Kostic 532,000 Euros
3 Eugene Katchalov 315,000 Euros
4 Raul Mestre 244,000 Euros
5 Tomeu Gomila 185,000 Euros
6 Saar Wilf 145,000 Euros
7 Juan Manuel Perez 105,000 Euros
8 Isabel Baltazar 73,000 Euros

There you go. I managed to write the whole thing without saying catch-a-lot. Oh wait, doh

I made a case a while back (with lots of evidence) of why RaiseOnce on Pokerstars was very probably Phil Ivey. See this RaiseOnce Ivey post. But now I am essentially going to confirm it.

RaiseOnce was registered in the 10K WCOOP 8-Game (and sat out) and not registered for the running $5K WCOOP Main Event. The WSOPE Main Event in London was still running at the time (with Ivey still in it). Then when the WSOPE ME concluded for the evening about 20 mins later RaiseOnce sits into the WCOOP 8-Game and registers for the $5K WCOOP Main Event AND Ivey joins a table of $300/$600 PLO on Full Tilt within the same few minutes. The writing is on the wall. It is confirmed in every way shape and form apart from actually coming out of Ivey’s lips.

As a later after-note to this post: At 19.43 ET - he disconnected at both Stars and FTP at precisely the same time. Final confirmation really.

Peter Eastgate has announced his retirement from poker. The 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event champion has decided it is time to call it a day and move on to new things.

Eastgate’s short but successful career comprised of many high WSOP and EPT cashes including the following notable scores:

Mar 2010 - $20K NBC National Heads-Up Championship - 5th $ 75,000

Feb 2010 - Deep Stack Extravaganza, Las Vegas - 7th $ 85,000

Feb 2010 - DKK 35,000 Main Event EPT Copenhagen - 22nd DKK 80,000

Jan 2010 - €5K Main Event EPT Deauville - 8th € 70,000

Oct 2009 - £5K Main Event EPT London - 2nd £ 530,000

Jul 2009 - $10K WSOP Main Event - 78th $ 68,979

Jan 2009 - $4,800 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure 1st $ 343,000

Jul 2008 - $10K WSOP, Las Vegas - 1st $ 9,152,416

Eastgate, from Denmark, but living in London is speculated to return to his homeland following his retirement.

In a statement about his retirement Eastgate said:

“When I started playing poker for a living, it was never my goal to spend the rest of my life as a professional poker player. My goal was to become financially independent. I achieved that by winning the WSOP main event in 2008. The period following has taken me on a worldwide tour, where I have seen some amazing places and met many new people; it has been a great experience.”

“In the 20 months following my WSOP win, I feel that I have lost my motivation for playing high-level poker along the way. I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life. What this will be, I do not yet know. I have decided to take a break from live tournament poker, and try to focus on Peter Eastgate, the person.”

Kimberly Lansing is a journalist and WPT presenter. She was introduced to the game by her boyfriend Jim Davenport. Since that time she has become a bit of a regular online. She can also be seen playing some live WPT events, sponsored by the WPT themselves.

Ancillia Tilia has been seen a bit on the poker scene recently, including at the Twente Classics poker event in Holland. She is a model particularly well known for the fetish scene, so dont be surpirsed to see her in leathers or even rubber!

Nanonoko is a absolute legend from the mid-stakes games on PokerStars. He recently broke through the $1 million profit barrier. This is a totally sick acheivement considering most of his hands were played at $2/$4, $3/$6 and $5/$10 (all NLHE Shorthanded). He plays long sessions with often as many as 24 tables running at a time. It takes tremendously focus to deliver that volume, but Nanonoko has done it.

He acheived $1,019,091 profit from 2,318,079 hands (at a win rate 3.65 BB per 100). Just 2.3 million hands in a year and a bit, about 5.5K hands a day… an average internet grinder eh

yes my friends, you did indeed hear it here first, at the hands of super fast speed typer speedyfold.

Two players from the WSOP 2009 Main Event table (November Niners) have also made it to the final table of the WSOP Europe Main Event (WSOPE ME Niners). Sick Sick Sick. When you run good you run good! wow.

The November Nine men in question are James Akenhead (of Hitsquad fame) and Antoine Saout (a baguette munching, garlic chewing man from a medium sized town somewhere in northern Europe)

When I called up my pal at a local bookermakers and enquired on some odds of this sort of thing, he said he havent got a clue. After further prompting he/we agreed on 850,000-1. Wow again. Epic? For sure

over and out, Speedyfold (fastest blogger in town)

There was an interesting thing in the news today. In the UK Annette_15 was being used by Betfair to advertise their site. However there was a complaint. Not only is Annette quite young looking, but it was suggested that her actual screenname “Annette_15″ suggested she is younger than she actually is (she is currently 20 btw).

Whilst reviewing this complaint it was declared that there was in fact a law banning persons below 25 from being used for gambling advertising. Betfair seemed unaware of this law. They have therefore subsequently stated that they wont use Annette_15 again in the UK in any advertising compaigns.

It seems a little harsh considering that Annette won the WSOPE main event in the UK, making her a prime advertising asset. I guess I can see both sides of the argument, and hopefully it wont mean that Annette’s Betfair sponsorship is not renewed.

Liv Boeree is becoming an established face on the poker scene, as a player and promoter, and reporter. She started off in a poker experiment in the UK, taking people who’d never played the game before and matching them up against one another and a guest player. They got some coaching from Phil Hellmuth along the way. Academically orientated Liv managed to win the show, and his since developed a love for the game and got heavily involved in the poker scene. She is currently one of Absolute Poker’s sponsored players, and can be seen at most major tournaments around the globe.

It is a difficult task to negociate 6494 poker players, but if anyone can then Phil Ivey surly can. He is still going strong with just 19 players left. The final table is almost in touching distance. Lets hope Phil can make it. He’s already picked up 2 bracelets this series, so it’s proving to be an excellent WSOP year for Phil, who is one of a very few people ever to get 3 bracelets in one series (in 2002).

Another biggish name is also still alive in the tourney, that being Jeff Shulman. So, a slightly smaller cheer for Jeff too