The Nightly Turbo: World Poker Tour Foxwoods, the Mizrachi Story, and More
If you're looking for the top poker news stories of the day, you've come to the right place. Tonight, we're going to give you an update of Day 1 of the World Poker Tour Foxwoods World Poker Finals, a look at Michael Mizrachi's story as told by the SunSentinel, and more.
In Case You Missed It
The Russian Poker Tour Grand Final is being sponsored by 888poker. The online poker site will be the exclusive online satellite provider for the Main Event. Find out the satellite schedule and more in Russian Poker Tour to be Sponsored by 888poker.
Day 1b of the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Vienna ended Wednesday with 161 of the 353 who took their seats to begin the day. Find out who made their way to Day 2 in our EPT recap.
The final table of the $10,000 Regional Championship of the World Series of Poker Circuit Hammond was set Wednesday. Among the final nine are Dave "Doc" Sands and Bernard Lee. Who else made it? Check out the WSOP-C recap for more.
The PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour is headed to Cebu soon. Lynn Gilmartin gives you the scoop on what to expect if you're making the trip in her latest Around the World With article.
We like lists here in this office, so its no surprise that we've come up with another one for you. In the newest edition of the PokerNews Top 10, we take a look at the poker players we'd like to see on the big screen.
Into the Woods
The World Poker Tour is in Mashantucket, Connecticut, at the Foxwoods Resort Casino for the Foxwoods World Poker Finals. The schedule for Day 1 is to play five levels without a dinner break and then hit the sheets bar. With registration open through the first level of play on Day 2, we can't give you an accurate player count, but what we can tell you is that at the time of writing this, the WPT.com ticker showed 231. Speaking of late registration, there are quite a few players who will be taking advantage of it such as Bernard Lee and Shannon Shorr, who are both at the final table of the World Series of Poker Circuit $10,000 Regional Championship.
Enough about the folks who aren't there, we know you're wondering who ventured to the largest poker room on the East Coast for the event. Olivier Busquet, 2010 November Niner John Dolan, Brock Parker, Dan O'Brien, Howard Lederer, Tom Marchese, Jonathan Little, David Williams, Jason Mercier, Gavin Smith, Vanessa Selbst and Jason Somerville are among the notable names who have taken their seats at the felt.
For those of you trying to follow your favorite player on Twitter, you might notice the lack of tweets, but that's because the players have been told that they can't text or tweet from the table. The WPT Live Update Team has put on their detective hats and found out that the rule is not specific to Foxwoods, but a rule from the gaming commission that has been in place for a while now.
At the time of writing, Jason Somerville is holding the chip lead with 84,000 and according to the "players remaining" ticker, 225 are left. Both of these things are subject to change as we all know, because this is poker, after all.
What's not changing however is where you can get your updates - WPT.com.
The Four Brothers
With the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table inching closer and closer, the members of the November Nine have more opportunities to get their stories out there. One of those players is Michael Mizrachi. The story that ran on the SunSentinel, South Florida's source for breaking news, is about the entire Mizrachi family.
As we all know, the four Mizrachi brothers made history at the 2010 WSOP and Michael has gone on to make the November Nine and will soon play for the coveted gold bracelet. By their side and cheering them on the entire time has been their mother, Susan Laufer Mizrachi.
"It's been a roller-coaster ride," Susan said. "But that's poker."
The article goes on to talk about how the brothers got started in poker and even goes into the financial problems Michael had at the beginning of the year.
"Poker is a profession, but it's not like being an architect," Susan said. "But they're successful and you can't argue with success. Whatever makes my kids happy, makes me happy."
Want to check out the entire article? Head on over to Sun-Sentinel.com.
Player-of-the-Year Race Down Under
The PokerStars Australia New Zealand Poker Tour is in Darwin, North Territory, Australia, for the final stop on Season 2 of the tour. One hundred players came out over three Day 1 start days, creating a $200,000 prize pool. Just 72 players returned for Day 2 and only 32 made their way to Day 3. It's not the number of players heading into each day that is the big story of this event, however, it is the race for the ANZPT Player of the Year.
First and second place on the POY leaderboard were held by John Maklouf and Andrew Scarf; however, they were eliminated in simultaneous hands and this allowed Tony Hachem and Aaron Benton to move into the lead. However, for Hachem to take POY honors, he has to finish eighth or better. For Benton to receive those honors, Hachem must finish outside of the money and Benton must finish 11th or better. If none of these things occur, John Maklouf will be the Season 2 ANZPT POY. He has to sweat it out on Day 3, however, as Hachem and Benton both made it through with 66,100 and 30,200 respectively.
Want to follow the action? The PokerStars Blog has you covered.
PokerTek Goes French
PokerTek, Inc., the company responsible for the manufacture of the PokerPro electronic poker tables, has announced that it has received company and product approval from the French Minister of the Interior. This means that PokerPro is the only electronic poker table approved in France and will be used in many of the 200 gaming properties throughout the country.
"Gaining approval in France is an important achievement for PokerTek and allows us to further expand our European presence," PokerTek's President James Crawford said. "The large number of electronic casinos in France is ideal for PokerPro, and we look forward to introducing our product there."
Check out the press release for more.
Calling the Clock: Liv Boeree
Gloria Balding caught up with PokerStars pro Liv Boeree while at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Vienna and decided to call the clock on her. Want to know what makes her happy in the morning or what she thinks of Mozart balls? You'll have to watch the video - obv.
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