World Team Poker begins Tomorrow

40 top poker players representing eight different countries will be arriving at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas tomorrow for their chance to be crowned World Team Poker champions.

They will be participating in five table shootouts for the filmed event comprising rounds of limit Hold’em, pot limit Omaha and no limit Hold’em. The last two players from each shootout will compete in a final table showdown. Each team’s buy-in will be set at $50,000.

An assortment of poker stars are set to play including team captains Phil Hellmuth (Team USA), co-captains Johnny Chan and David Chiu

High Stakes Tables Slow as Isildur1 Drops Down

It’s that time of the year again. The WSOP is almost upon us and unless you’ve already claimed your seat online then time is running out to bag your place in “the big dance”.

The WSOP, it seems, often has a knock-on effect of slowing down the action at the nose bleed stakes online. While players are busy preparing their travel, accommodation and playing one of the many online satellite qualifiers the high stakes tables see less action.

In the last week, players have struggled to notch up any significant profits. Only Phil Ivey has posted a chunky positive by adding $580k to his bankroll.

Phil Ivey puts Las Vegas Home up for Sale

2010 has been an interesting year for Phil Ivey so far. Following the break up of his marriage, the high stakes pro’ has notched up the usual impressive tournament results, including a 2nd place at the Aussie Million in January worth $553,776.

Ivey has also taken on a bizarre vegetarian prop bet worth $1 million alongside continuing to be one of the most feared plays on the high stakes tables at Full Tilt Poker.

Now it seems Ivey has his sights set on a new home after putting up his Las Vegas mansion for sale. The asking price? A cool $1.995 million according to the Los Angeles Times.

Patrik Antonius Back in Profit for 2010

2010 has been a rough year for pretty boy poker player, Patrik Antonius. The Finnish high stakes star has struggled up until lately and his profit/loss column was showing a worrying $3.6 million downswing not so long ago.

Things are looking a lot bright for Antonius today, though. After a red hot run of form in April he has turned his loss around into an $86,000 profit for the year so far. It took thr Finn just over 27,000 hands to turn things around. A remarkable achievement even for the high stakes played at over on Full Tilt Poker – Antonius’ online home.

Durrrr Rubishes Townsend Challenge Rumours

The Durrrr Challenge has been running for some time now and, so far, the only challenger to Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan has been Patrik Antonius. Dwan and Antonius have been slowly but surely working their way through the challenge and rumours have been circulating that Brian Townsend will be the next to take on the high stakes poker genius.

Bluff Magazine ran a story which stated; “Dwan says his goal for the match against Townsend – the starting day for which is still being worked out, while parameters such as buy-ins, number of hands, choice of games, etc. are staying the same – is simple: Make the action fast, exciting, and get the buzz going once again about the Durrrr Challenge.”

Cole Heads South and Leaves Cardrunners

Cole South is one of the more recognisable names from the high stakes poker tables over at Full Tilt Poker. South is often involved in huge pots, worth more than the average person’s annual salary, but he’s also a full time student and, until recently a part owner of Cardrunners.

It seems Cole South had a little too much on his plate and rather than halt his studies or give up playing poker he has decided to resign from his position within the poker training site Cardrunners.

South said on his blog; “I have had an amazing experience as a lead instructor with Cardrunners over the past few years, but today I am announcing my departure from the company. At the end of April I will be moving on both as an instructor and as an owner of the business.”

Double Court Victory for Full Tilt

Full Tilt Poker were celebrating a double victory in the courts this week as two seperate cases went their way.

The first saw two players file a lawsuit against Full Tilt following the seizure of their funds and the second involved the Kentucky domain name case which has been running for some time now.

Poker players Lary Kennedy and Greg Omotoy sued Full Tilt last year for false advertising, libel and fraud. The pair claimed that Full Tilt had unlawfully seized over $80,000 from their accounts after accusations that they were illegally using bot software.

Harrah’s Deny Breach of WSOP Contract

Earlier this month we reported that Everest Poker owners, Ultra Internet Media SA, had filed a lawsuit against the Harrah’s over a breach of contract.

UIM claimed that the WSOP breached a logo display agreement when an ESPN affiliate in Europe, RTL9, broadcast the tournament in France and electronically replaced the Everest Poker image with competitor Full Tilt Poker’s logo.

Harrah’s responded this week by saying that UIM entered into the agreement to gain exposure in the United States for its Everest Poker website and that France is not mentioned in the agreement.

Party Gaming & Bwin Merger Rumours Heat Up

A merger between poker giants Party Gaming (owners of Party Poker) and Bwin has been on the rumour mill for a while now, but things have taken an interesting twist today when unnamed officials involved in the deal stated the merger “should be wrapped up this summer.”

Party Gaming, a PLC listed on the London Stock Exchange, have yet to comment on the rumours but the speculation surrounding both of the companies has now reached fever-pitch following stories on the Internet, regarding a merger, floating around since 2009.

Party have been acquiring and merging with various organisations in the last year. They recently acquired the World Poker Tour and bingo operator Foxy Bingo.