XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> pokerstars « Online Casino Reviews

Posts Tagged ‘pokerstars’

Hundred million dollars tournament

Friday, January 13th, 2012

Rumors about a a hundred million dollar tournament to be hosted in Macau have surfaced during the later part of last year. As the first prize was purportedly a cool $25 million, this event got a lot of attention in gambling circles.

The tournament details have since been widely circulated over the internet. This event was supposedly sponsored by five Chinese companies and given the rise of Chinese wealth and their appetite for gambling, people initially thought that this was a true story.

American businessman William Murray represented one of these five purported companies. Apparently, it all began when Murray gave the information to Gaming Today Magazine which then published an article about it. According to Murray, the goal of the event was to attract no less than 500 participants for the event which would take place in the spring of 2013. Each player would register with a buy in of $200,000 and when the news came out, the registration period was just two weeks away.

The huge amounts involved and the vagueness of the reports have caused many from the poker scene to speculate that the tournament is most likely a publicity stunt or an hoax. Notable poker players have even been commenting in several forums that the tournament may likely be sham.

Several of these pros pointed out that in Macau where the tournament is to be held, no one seems to know anything about it – not the casino operators, the room managers, the junket regulars, not even the players. The lack of advertisements in other media aside from the internet is also a real concern for the credibility of this story.

Asia Pacific Poker Tour founder, Tom Hall, one of the best credible sources for high-stakes poker events in Asia, believes that the event is a fake. He has said that aside from there being no clear information on the tournament, an event such as this would need to be first approved by the Macau regulating agency. To this date, no approval, nor any tournament schedule has yet been reported.

Another question was where would the organizers find the 500 players needed to fork out $200k each to play in this event. At the recent PCA Super High Roller tournament organized by Pokerstars, only 32 entrants were present in this $100k entry fee event.

For now, the 100-million poker tournament remains to be an entertaining topic in the poker scene but the event is likely to be a hoax.

Isildur1 starts strong at pokerstars

Friday, December 10th, 2010

If you follow online poker, then you probably heard the name Isildur1.

Isildur1 is an online poker sensation who appeared at Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes tables one year ago. A sensation as he came from nowhere to participate in the highest games on the Internet, not afraid to rub elbows with the best poker pros such as Tom “durrrr’ Dwan, Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey.

He won and lost tons of money, millions sometimes in one session, and became the attraction for hundreds of rail birds always looking for a game where the average pot is more than the yearly salary of the American worker. If proof needed to tell he is a big shot player, he was involved in the largest pot in online poker at over $1.3 million dollars against Patrik Antonius.

The Isildur1’s myth is even captivating due to the mystery of this player’s identity. Rumored to be Swedish player Viktor Blom, however when Bluff Europe asked if it was him, Viktor responded that he is “not the man they are looking for.” Speculations abound about the true identity of the enigmatic player, but one thing is certain is that it will be known in the not too distant future as he just joined Pokerstars.

This is the coup for number one online poker room Pokerstars as they stole one of Full Tilt’s most followed player, and all the buzz and publicity that goes with him. The other poker players attracting as much attention can be counted with your fingers, Tom Dwan probably being the most observed player currently.

And Isildur1 did not disappoint for his beginning at pokerstars. In a marathon session of 14 hours of uninterrupted online poker, he won about $287k. Not bad for a first day at work. He played $20/$50 NLHE against renowned players Brian “$tinger 88” Hastings, Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin and Scott “urnotindangr” Palmer among others, and would not back down from anyone’s challenge.

Keep tuned, as Isildur1 will be heard again soon.

Real Time Analytics