Gambling Today

PokerStars Macau has wrapped up another Macau Cup and the results are in.

If you’re not aware, PokerStars Macau opened a few months back as the first-ever live poker room in Macau. Since then, it’s been home to the biggest poker play going on in China. It will also serve as host to September’s Asia Pacific Poker Tour event in Macau (more about that event at the end of this post.

In the meantime, here are the results from the second Macau Cup event (all prizes HKD).

Macau Poker Cup Charity Event

1. Kim Lee from Hong Kong – Prize: APPT Macau Entry to Main Event
2. Sae Hon Lee from Korea – Prize: APPT Macau Entry to Main Event

59 participants each paid a $500 entry fee and made a $1,500 donation to Caritas de Macau. In total, $88,500 was raised for the Caritas De Macau

Deep Stack Event

1. L Devadason – Prize: $20,520
2. Manuel Chu – Prize: $14,108
3. Barry Chang – Prize: $7695
4. Philip Prause – Prize: $5130
5. Alex Low – Prize: $3847

Red Dragon Event

1. “Denny” Dengfeng Yu from China – Prize: $119,040
2. Celina Lin from Australia – Prize: $81,840
3. Ivan Tan from Singapore – Prize: $44,640
4. Jean-Philippe Buanton from USA – Prize: $29,760
5. Luke Wei – Prize: $22,320

$500 Challenge

1. Ted Fu – Prize: $6120
2. Gang Wang – Prize: $4208
3. Stephen McDonagh – Prize: $2295
4. Kin Man So – Prize: $1530
5. Dak Bong Daniel Poon – Prize: $1147

If you find yourself in Macau in the next month or so, take some time to visit the room for these events.

Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau
September 1-6, 2008
Entry Fee: HKD 25,000
Guaranteed Prize Pool: HKD 10,000,000
Qualify at PokerStars Macau, or online at PokerStars

Saturday 100K Guarantees
Entry Fee: HKD 2500
Guaranteed Prize Pool: HKD 100,000
Every Saturday at 8:00 PM beginning August 9, 2008 at PokerStars Macau

The PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour is preparing to springboard off the successful opening of the PokerStars Macau live poker room by launching Season 2 of the APPT in the People’s Republic of China.

The APPT announced today that the first stop of its second season will come September 1, 2008 at the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino. The APPT event in Macau will feature two big events. The $3,200 main event will host up to 1,000 players and guarantee a $1.3 million prize pool. Then, the APPT will host its second High Rollers event. The $19,250 event will be open to 300 players and guarantee $1.3 million for the prize pool.

Macau will be the first of five scheduled stops on Season 2 of the APPT. The remaning events are:

Seoul, Korea — September 26-28, 2008
Auckland, New Zealand — October 9-12, 2008
Manila, Philippines — TBC
Sydney, Australia — December 2-7, 2008

As always, PokerStars will run a wide variety of satellites to give its players a chance to win their way into the events.

For full information on the first event in Macau and all the remaining tournaments, visit the APPT website.

A couple of years back, somebody in Las Vegas whispered to me, “Why do you think PokerStars hasn’t opened a live poker room yet? Just imagine…”

I spent the next couple of years imaginging just that. Of course, there are a lot of logistics to deal with and such. Still, just imagine.

Today we learned that it’s no longer just a flight of fancy. This week, Pokerstars is opening PokerStars Macau, Macau’s first live poker room. The Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino room will have seats for 250 players, offer cash games, and boast of a pretty nice weekly tournament schedule.

The new poker room opens this Friday with a charity tournament to raise money for the victims of the recent earthquake in Western China. Players will be fighting for $150,000 HKD in prizes, including entries to the $25,000 HKD buy-in APPT Macau event in Spetember.

The charity event will be the first event of the “Macau Poker Cup” – a series of poker tournaments scheduled during the May 23-25 weekend, including a $1,000 HKD buy-in Deep-Stack event, the $10,000 buy-in Red Dragon event and the first of many satellites to the Asia Pacific Poker Tour.

If you open up your PokerStars tournament lobby, you will also now see a PSM tab. There you will find a few satellites to the above events.

The Asia Pacific Poker Tour’s is still working out the full schedule for its second season. One thing is for sure, though. It will kick-off at the Grand Waldo Casino with the September 1-6 APPT Macau Main Event, a $25,000 HKD buy-in No-Limit Hold’em poker tournament with a guarantee of $10,000,000 HKD.

For more information on the live poker room, visit: PokerStars Macau

For more information on the APPT, visit: Asia Pacific Poker Tour.

By Sean Callander

The Shane Warne Foundation is now $50,000 better off after the charity’s patron and Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem won the first PokerStars.net APPT Tournament of Champions.

Holding an 8:1 chip lead over fellow Team PokerStars Pro Greg Raymer, Hachem had been blessed with a run of cards after the dinner break, which continued when Raymer decided to take a stand on the fifth hand of heads-up play.

Unfortunately, his Qs Js was up against Hachem’s Ac Ks, and the board of 8h 8c 8s Kd 10h ensured the 2005 world champion would collect his first win on home soil.

The face of poker in Australia, Hachem said he was thrilled to end the year on such a high note and would take delight in delivering a cheque for $50,000 to the Shane Warne Foundation.

Joe Hachem winner of the Tournament of Champions

“The Shane Warne Foundation distributes funds raised to established charities that provide essential help and services to seriously ill and underprivileged children. It’s a great cause and the foundation helps a lot of people. From a personal standpoint, it fills a gap that I’ve been looking for to give something back,” he said.

It’s been a great 24 hours for Australian poker, with Grant Levy winning the APPT Grand Final and Hachem triumphing over three other world champions and four APPT title winners in the Tournament of Champions.

The PokerStars.net APPT wraps-up our commitments at Star City in Sydney, Australia and puts a cap on the highly successful inaugural season. See you in 2008!

PokerStars Video Blog
Ali interviews Joe Hachem

By Sean Callander

Just like that – we’re down to the heads-up battle for the first PokerStars.net APPT Tournament of Champions title, and what a line-up.

It’s world champion v world champion as 2004 WSOP champion Greg Raymer and 2005 WSOP champion Joe Hachem prepare to do battle. To be fair, Raymer faces an uphill battle – Hachem holds a 8:1 chip lead as they prepare to play heads-up for the first time.

Levy is free to get some well-earned sleep after he raised under the gun to 15,000 and Hachem called out of the big blind.

The flop comes 3c 9d 4c, Hachem checked, Levy bet 21,000, Hachem added an extra 50,000, Levy said all-in and Hachem called.

“Ship it” is the cry as Hachem lands pocket nines for top set, while Levy shows pocket kings. The turn and river are queens (Scotty Nguyen’s head is in his hands after folding a queen).

Scotty nguyen and Joe hachem

Hachem’s tasty run of cards continued on the next hand when Scotty pushed all-in for 55,000. Hachem showed pocket aces, and Scotty As 8h. The board isn’t friendly (10s 2s 10h 4c 5s), and Scotty bows out, but not before thanking every single person in the room and sharing in a rendition of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” with Joe and Greg for the TV cameras.

Scotty Nguyen

Latest chip count:

• Joe Hachem 830,000
• Greg Raymer 70,000

PokerStars Video Blog
Ali interviews Grant Levy at the break

By Sean Callander

Barely 10 minutes have passed since players returned from the dinner break before Brett Parise became the fifth player eliminated from the PokerStars APPT Tournament of Champions.

Hoping to win $50,000 for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Parise pushed in his entire stack on a board of Ad 8d 2h Qh but received a prompt call from Joe Hachem.

Parise, who won the APPT Manila main event after winning a seat via a freeroll on PokerStars, showed Ah 8s for two-pair, while Hachem trailed with As 9d.

APPT Manila Champion Brett Parise

Needing a queen or a nine, the 9h duly arrived on the river for Hachem, sending Parise, the likeable 22-year-old originally from Indiana, on his way.

Knowing what it takes to fulfil all the obligations after winning a major poker tournament (two in Joe’s case), Hachem led the audience in a round of applause for APPT Grand Final winner Grant Levy, who’s barely had any sleep since taking out the $1 million first prize just 17 hours ago.

Latest chip count:

• Joe Hachem 550,000
• Scotty Nguyen 167,000
• Grant Levy 109,000
• Greg Raymer 74,000

By Sean Callander

The honour of being crowned the first PokerStars.net APPT Tournament of Champions winner will be decided among Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer, APPT Manila winner Brett Parise, APPT Grand Final champion Grant Levy and PokerStars player Scotty Nguyen.

Two of the APPT’s season one winners, Ziv Bachar (Seoul) and Eric Assadourian (Macau High Roller champion), were eliminated just before the dinner break.

Ziv Bachar champion APPt Seoul

Eric Assadourian

Short-stacked, Bachar pushed all-in from late position and Raymer moved over the top, also for his entire stack. The race pitted Bachar’s pocket sevens against Raymer’s Ad Kh. The Israeli stayed in front on the flop of 5c 6s Jd, but Raymer hit a king on the turn to scoop the pot.

Assadourian, the popular pick of the locals to take out this tournament, then followed soon after when he again butted heads with Hachem.

On a flop of Kc 6h 7c, the money eventually made its way into the middle with Hachem showing Jc 6c and Assadourian 8c 9c. The 10c on the turn gave both players a flush, and a straight flush draw, but Hachem had Assadourian outpointed either way.

Players have just returned from dinner (Scotty Nguyen decided to join the TV crew for a spot of camera work). Blinds will be at 3000/6000.

Latest chip count:

• Grant Levy 109,000
• Greg Raymer 73,500
• Scotty Nguyen 167,000
• Brett Parise 187,000
• Joe Hachem 363,500

PokerStars Video Blog
Interview with Eric Assadourian

The price of poker has gone up in the 2007 APPT Tournament of Champions in Sydney, and we’ve reached the final “1-hour” blind level. The blinds are now at 1000/2000, and all future blind levels will reduce to a half hour duration, and the action is sure to heat up! Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem has maintained the chip lead courtesy of his early double-up, and plenty of raising. Greg Raymer and Grant Levy have both also been very active, and Levy has made a nice charge considering he earlier laid down the best hand, and should have tripled up!

APPT Tournament of Champions Chip Counts:

• Joe Hachem 198.5k
• Grant Levy 173k
• Greg Raymer 167.5k
• Eric Assadourian 131k
• Brett Parise 85.5k
• Scotty Nguyen 78k
• Ziv Bacher 66.5k
• Isabelle Mercier OUT (8th)
• Chris Moneymaker OUT (9th)

By Sean Callander

Who said this was going to be a friendly game? The three local players at the table – Sydney’s Eric Assadourian and Grant Levy and Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem from Melbourne – are representing Australia’s two largest cities.

There’s been a simmering rivalry between the cities – separated by 550 miles – for more than a century, dating back to the times when Melbourne was the hub of Australia’s government before the capital was moved to Canberra. You name it, and Melburnians and Sydneysiders will argue about it – even poker.

APPT Macau High Roller Champion Eric Assadourian

Eric and Joe have some history at the poker table, dating back to the 2006 Melbourne Poker Championships when Eric eliminated Joe in third place, before going on to win the event.

Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem

Both Assadourian and Levy have taken chips off Hachem since he doubled up through Chris Moneymaker, but there’s plenty of chips in play and the blinds are just 500/1000 at this stage. C’mon Joe, do it for Melbourne!! 500/1000 at this stage. C’mon Joe, do it for Melbourne!!

By Sean Callander

Is there a poker player who looks more comfortable at a TV table than Scotty Nguyen? Away from the constant scrutiny that comes with being a famous face in a public cardroom, the PokerStars player is holding court in the TV studio and is clearly enjoying the experience of an afternoon’s play with some new friends – all for a good cause.

It could be a group of guys just enjoying an everyday game of poker, except for the small matter of the six WSOP bracelets and three world championships amassed by the seven players remaining.

That’s right, we’re down to seven after Isabelle ‘No Mercy’ Mercier was eliminated just before the first break.

On a flop of Ad 3d 9d, Greg Raymer led out for 10,000 and ‘No Mercy’ reraised all-in. Raymer called and showed 4d 7d for a made flush, while Mercier needed help. It didn’t arrive and Mercier, a great supporter of the APPT having journeyed across the world from her base in Montreal, Canada to Korea and Macau, is out in eighth position.