The Week in Numbers Nov. 27
8 years ago
28 Nov
$600,000
The ‘Bad beat’ jackpot total awarded by Canadian Poker Network this month, with winner Gontran Larose picking up $298,299.50 when his quad queens were beaten by quad kings!
The biggest jackpot paid out by the network since 2011 was won on November 10th on a $0.50/1 table, with the quad king winning hand owner Kelly Dickson picking up a healthy $149,000 for second place. The other 6 players at the table each received $24,858.29.
Kelly “Manimtoban” Dickson preflop raise with KK was called by Gontran’s QQ, and then two more kings appeared on the flop. With the turn and river brninging the remaining queens the bad beat jackpot was set off and all the players were deep in the money.
It happened so fast,” said Kelly to PlayNow Manitoba. “When I called and the hand was done and his cards were mucked and the small pot was pushed to me and then a split second after fireworks went off, I didn’t even realize what had happened,” he recalled, adding, “All of a sudden there was $600,000 in chips on the table and it got split up with almost $150,000 going to me.”
Dickson picked up his ‘runner-up’ cheque from Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries on Friday 13 November, also his birthday which was sure to be a most special one. PlayNow Manitoba shares players with the other Canadian Poker Networks provincially-licensed sites PlayNow B.C and Espacejeux.
The winner, speaking to Espacejeux on collecting his own massive paycheque said, “It’s time to retire!”
The largest bad beat jackpot ever on the Canadian Poker Network came in 2011, with a phenomenal $992,991.04 payout.
125million+
The number of potential recruits to FullTilt after successfully clearing Steam’s Greenlight process.
The major poker site will now have its Playmoney version released on the world-leading games platform by the end of the year, giving it access to over 125million Steam users worldwide, many of whom may never have played on a ‘proper’ poker site before.
Until now, Zynga poker has been the best poker platform available on Steam, but FullTilt’s professional and sleek playing variants will open a new vista to Steam-poker enthusiasts. Obviously FullTilt will be hoping that a percentage of these will progress to the real-money version on their own site.
The Steam Greenlight process which they had to pass involved releasing demos, screenshots and other materials which would allow users to test out the games playability, and then vote on whether or not it should progress to full production.
The fact that Steam users voted to approve FullTilt bodes well for the future of poker on Steam, which despite numerous being available on many different platforms such as Android and iOS will never have the chance to reach the demographic which Steam offers – young, predominantly male, gamers, which equates well with poker’s own target audience.
Some commentators have also mentioned the future of poker eSports events, which Steam is perfectly designed to handle with gamers competing with each other in ‘high-profile productions’. As covered here recently, French poker pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier –who started out as a professional gamer, reaching world-class level - officially joined Team Liquid to become the first professional Hearthstone/poker player.
128
The number of events which will feature in the Prague Poker festival due to start in the Czech capital next month.
The EPT is in town and the festival will also feature WPT, RedBet and GrandLive events during 3 weeks of non-stop action at the tables.
First up is the PartyPoker-sponsored WPT events at the Corinthia Hotel, with the €3300 buy-in Main Event running from December 1-6, with 2 starting day1’s and satellites running. The WPT 8-Max Big PLO event runs from December 3-4 with a €2,000 buy-in while the High Roller event from 4-6 December has a buy-in of €10,000.
The RedBet online crew, who sponsored the Battle of Malta this year, also appear at the Corinthian with several events including a €100 buyin PLO on December 9th, a 6-Max NLHE on December 10 with a buy-in of €175 and their €350 Main Event running from December 9-13.
The GrandLive guys have their Main Event from December 13-16, an €1100 buy-in with qualifiers on RedBet, Bestpoker.com, GoldenPalace, heypoker, paf, Paradise Poker and many more sites. They will also be running several side-events each day, including a €60 2-player team event on December 14th.
The EPT is the biggest event to hit Prague each year, the Czech capital drawing over 1000 players on numerous occasions, the €5,300 Main Event from December 10-16 being just one of the big draws.
The PokerStars sponsored festival at the Hilton Hotel will see 97 events run across 12-days, with the EPT Super High Roller from December 8-10 seeing the biggest buy-in of €48,500, and big-money cash games are also the order of the day here, €40/€80 and higher being common when the big boys are in town.
£49,660
Spaniard David Gomez’s prize for lifting the UKIPT Edinburgh Main Event title at the weekend, beating off a strong international and local challenge in the PokerStars-sponsored tournament.
Gomez was chip leader on both days he played prior to the final table, which saw 8 players battle it out at the Genting Fountainpark Casino. Gary Laing was first fall when he ran into Angelina Rich’s flopped set of queens, sending him to the rail with £8340 in his back pocket.
The next three to leave were also Brits, with Michael McHee, Dode Elliot and Dean Hutchison all falling foul of either Rich, or her boyfriend Alex Lynskey from Australia. Hutchison, the defending champion, saw his queens fail against an ace on the flop – Rich proving that queens win when she has them or and lose when her opponent does! Still a great deep run by last year’s champion.
Lynskey was next to go when he ran into a flopped set of Jacks, his 4th place good for £18,410.
Down to three-handed play and things finished with an almighty bang! Gomez raised on the button, Rich 3-bet and then the UK’s Ben Burnhill shoved from the big blind. Both Gomez and Rich called off their stacks and all turned over premium hands.
Rich: A♦K♦
Gomez: K♣K♠
Burnhil
J♠J♣
The flop came out 7♦ 10♥ 10♣ leaving Gomez still ahead, but the turn 8♦ left his hand vulnerable to any diamond or an ace or jack. With the river bricking a 2♣, however, Gomez could breathe and enjoy his new title and the £49,660 first prize.
US pro Rich took down 31,490 for her 2nd spot finish with Burnhill taking home £22,760 in 3rd.
The next Season 5 UKIPT festival will run at the Royal Dublin Society from February 10-20 next year, alongside the EPT Dublin event which should ensure a huge turnout.
$113,232.22
The Sunday Million sum which ‘buriedatsea’ scooped in a 4-way deal at the final table, almost doubling his official 4th place prize.
‘Buriedatsea’ was sitting 2nd out of 4 when the players decided to chop based on ICM, and the decision paid off as soon afterwards his open-ended straight draw shove on the flop was called by ‘kebali’ holding top pair, top kicker.
With the turn and river bricking, ‘buriedatsea’ went out in 4th, which ought to have been worth $64,280.52, but the timely deal almost doubled that payout. Another ‘Brit’, judging by their avatar of a Union Flag, took down 5th spot, ‘.eswtfol’ taking home $48,081.60 for their evenings work.
The Bigger $162 saw ‘careland’ take down $28,718.07 in a deal and then defeating Kyle “KJulius10” Julius heads-up. Julius has had plenty of success online, having previously taken down the Sunday Million and also winning his first WCOOP title recently in Fixed Limit Hold’em.
$1million
The newly-announced prize-pool for next year’s Hearthstone World Championships, quadrupling the 2015 fund.
Activision Blizzard, Inc. have also revealed that there will be $100,000 prizefunds for each of 9 preliminary events leading up to the World Championships Overall competition, bringing their total commitment to almost $2million in 2016
The preliminary events will be held across the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific zones in “a series of Ranked Play seasons, onsite Hearthstone Major tournaments, and online Hearthstone Cups where players compete to earn points in their bid to secure a coveted spot in one of the Season Championships, each with an additional prize pool of $100,000.”
Starting with the Championship Tour DreamHack Winter 2015, from November 25 to 29 at the Elmia Fair in Jönköping, Sweden, “players are once again eligible to earn points through Ranked Play starting December on their quest to reach the Hearthstone World Championship at the end of the year.”
The Hearthstone World Championship finals themselves will consist of the top players from the preceding qualifying events, the battle.net Hearthstone blog describing it as:
16 exceptional players from around the globe come together to duel for glory, a share of the $1 million prize pool, and the esteemed title of World Champion.”
Last week saw the announcement that Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospelier had become the first joint-sponsored poker and gaming professional, the Team PokerStars pro joining Team Liquid as a professional Hearthstone player.
Team Liquid, based in the Netherlands, was formed in 2001 and began life as a ‘clan’ on the battle.net platform, and is now considered to be one of the leading eSports teams in the world, and will be sure to be in the running for the newly-expanded Hearthstone World title prizes.
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