Phil Laak Leads after Premier League Opening Heats

The PartyPoker Premier League is underway in Las Vegas, Nevada, and it’s Phil Laak who has been dominating the opening exchanges out in the ‘city of sin’.

Eleven of the world’s best players are at the M Casino in Vegas to fight it out for the Premier League IV title and the $1.5 million in prize money on offer.

Laak has had a great opening two heats. After winning both Heat 1 and Heat 2 he is sitting pretty at the top of the league with a maximum 32 points. David Benyamine leads the chasing pack on 24 points, whilst Tony G is struggling at this early stage with just 2 points.

David Benyamine Joins the Las Vegas Premier League Party

The big names just keep on coming in regards to the next Party Poker Premier League. Perhaps the lure of Las Vegas is attracting some but surely the $1.5 million prize pool is pricking up the ears of all the “big hitters”.

Today, David Benyamine and been revealed as the next player to join the Premier League IV. Benyamine Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, Phil Hellmuth, JC Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Roland de Wolfe, Luke Schwartz and, as we announced last week, Tony G.

Each player (12 in total) is putting up $100,000 to buy in and Party Poker are adding $300,000 to the prize pool.

Nude Poker Players Appear in ESPN Magazine

Jennifer Harman, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Scotty Nguyen have shocked the poker world by appearing in the latest issue of ESPN’s “The Magazine – Body Issue” in the nude! The four pro’s have made their living by concealing as much as they can at the poker tables over the years but all have revealed rather a lot of themselves in the latest publication.

Although there is certainly a lot of flesh on display, the Disney owned magazine was careful to avoid shocking their readers too much! The sight of Phil Hellmuth’s breasts (pictured) are certain to attract a barrage of comments and ridicule on Internet forums though.

Female Poker Players to represent third of all real money players

Female poker is set to grow to represent one third of all real money online poker players by 2011 according to a report today.

Poker Players Research (PPR) found that their study revealed European operators are focusing their efforts on attracting females on the back of success stories such as Vanessa Rousso and Vicky Coren (pictured).

Glenn Flackett, from PPR, commented; “Female growth is very important, and is now one of the main issues for operators.” Flackett comfirmed female players are now the main group of focus for poker operators following his survey of 13,000 players in the US, Canada and Europe.

WSOP 2009 – $40,000 No Limit Hold’em Day 2

Day 2 of the $40,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament ended a few hours ago with several big names still in the running for the first players bracelet of the WSOP 2009.

Andy Black, Greg Raymer, Tony G and Brian Townsend are all still in the running but it’s Justin Bonomo who takes a narrow chip lead into Day 3 with Ted Forrest hot on his heels.

WSOP 2009 – $40,000 ‘40th Annual Event’ Underway

The big dance (the WSOP 2009) started yesterday at The Rio in Las Vegas with the very special $40,000 40th Annual Event.

201 players paid the $40,000 buy in for this event and we weren’t short of a few star names from the world of poker. As 2008 Main Event champion Peter Eastgate took to the mic to announce “Shuffle up and deal”, The Rio was surprisingly sparse of railbirds but jam-packed full of legendary poker players.

Pieter de Korver wins EPT Grand Final

The 5th season of the European Poker Tour has come to a conclusion in Monte Carlo as Dutch poker professional, Pieter de Korver, claimed the Grand Final crown.

Pieter, 26, from Leeuwarden, Holland, a member of Team PokerStars Pro Netherlands outlasted a huge field of 935 players, a record for an EPT Grand Final, to walk away €2.3 million richer for his efforts. €9.35 million found its way into the prize pool for this event making it the biggest poker tournament, in terms of prize money, to be held outside of Las Vegas.

de Korver’s victory was made all the more remarkable due to being the short stake for a large part of the final. At one stage he had only two big blinds! Following a series of showdowns the Dutchman found himself with the chip lead and never looked back from there.

In other news from Monte Carlo; Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso won the inaugural €25,000 Monte Carlo high roller tournament after beating fellow American Randy Dorfman heads-up to take the €720,000 first prize. Tony G claimed third place in that tournament and donated a large chunk of his winnings to charity.

Vanessa Rousso Florida Poker Strategy Tour Underway

The 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker runner up, Vanessa Rousso, has begun her Florida Poker Strategy Tour. The tour which has been described in some circles as “The Art of Poker” features a seven-stop, three-casino, poker instruction camp backed by Big Slick Boot Camp LLC.

On each stop of the tour Vanessa will play in local tournaments and hold “game theory” workshops for all interested players. The first stop took place on March 20th and was met warmly by Floridian poker players. There are still 4 stops to go on the tour with the latest taking place today at the Palm Beach Kennel Club.

The remaining stops are:

Saturday, March 28th – The Palm Beach Kennel Club.
Sunday, April 5th – The Isle Casino in Pompano Beach.
Saturday, April 11th – The Jacksonville Orange Park Kennel Club.
Sunday, April 26th – The Palm Beach Kennel Club.

Rousso has been in red hot form of late and has raised her profile by appearing in Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Edition to one of the hottest female properties in world poker. She currently plays at PokerStars – where new players can get an easy $50 bonus by using bonus code: Stars50 after joining via Poker News Headlines.

Huck Seed wins the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championships

Huck Seed has won the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship after beating PokerStars pro’, and Sports Illustrated babe, Vanessa Rousso in the final.

Seed has been somewhat quiet on the major tournament results front of late. The former WSOP champion of 1996 was in outstanding form yesterday, however, here at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Rousso couldn’t live with Seed as he ran out the 2 – 1 victor in the best of 3 heads-up encounter.

The 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championships were incident packed from the outset. Layne Flack was arrested on DUI charges following the players party and was replaced by David Oppenheim. Oppenheim finished a creditable 5th for $75,000

The full list of cashing players were:

1st – Huck Seed $500,000
2nd – Vanessa Rousso $250,000
3rd – Sam Farha $125,000
3rd – Bertrand Grospellier $125,000
5th – Daniel Negreanu $75,000
5th – Phil Hellmuth Jr $75,000
5th – David Oppenheim $75,000
5th – David Williams $75,000
9th – Bon Phan $25,000
9th – Scotty Nguyen $25,000
9th – Erick Lindgren $25,000
9th – John Juanda $25,000
9th – Kenny ‘The Kid’ Tran $25,000
9th – Paul Wasicka $25,000
9th – Tom ‘Durrr’ Dwan $25,000
9th – Glen Chorny $25,000