Phil Hellmuth Finals at Bay 101

The ‘poker brat’ is on the verge of yet another big cash result and, maybe, another title. Phil Hellmuth is sitting pretty, second in chips, in the Bay 101 Shooting Star event. Hellmuth is a whisker behind chip leader Andy Seth after leading for the majority of the first three days.

Seth has been in hot form during the final stages of play. The chip leader has already sent Lou Diamond and Scotty Nguyen to the rail and is in confident mood as the remaining six players take to their seats today.

Seth told the WPT; “I’m going to keep trying to do what I’ve been doing.

Greek Poker Player Charged with Fraud

Greek poker player and property developer, Achilleas Kallakis, has been charged with conspiracy to defraud, forgery, fraud by false representation, money laundering, and deception. Kallakis was remanded on bail, yesterday, until May 4th.

It’s alleged that Allied Irish Bank (AIB) lent Kallakis over €700 million over five years for blue chip property investments. The Irish Independent newspaper reported that Kallakis could be “one of the most dangerous customers AIB has ever had on its books.”

Meanwhile, AIB today reported its first ever full year loss of €2.6 billion. The bank is thought to have helped fuel the recession in Ireland through property investments during the housing boom.

Jeff Madsen Wins Borgata Winter Poker Open

24 year old poker pro’, Jeff Madsen, has won the main event of the 2010 Borgata Winter Poker Open. Madsen, from Las Vegas, added the Borgata title to his already impressive poker C.V. earlier this month bringing his lifetime tournament earnings to over $3.1 million.

Although the Borgata Open is no longer a WPT event, the $3,300 main event still attracts some of the biggest names in US poker. 766 players stumped up the buy-in to build a total prize pool over close to $2.5 million. It was Madsen who took control of the event at an early stage, though, and he never looked back from there.

Timoshenko joins JC Tran in Premier League Line-up

Yevgeniy Timoshenko is to join JC Tran in the pro line-up to make his PartyPoker Premier League debut. Timoshenko has taken the poker world by storm in recent years by winning the big WPT Championship Main Event at the Bellagio, taking down the 2008 Asian Poker Tour Macau title and the 2009 World Championship of Online Poker Main Event. Timoshenko was born in Kharkov, Ukraine but moved to Washington State when he was 10 years old. In the last couple of years he has established his reputation as a fearsome online and offline player.

Timoshenko said: “It is fantastic to be invited and I’m very happy to be competing in this tournament against the world’s best!”

Isabelle Mercier joins BetClic after leaving PokerStars

Isabelle Mercier surprisingly left online poker giants PokerStars in September of this year and many predicted that would be the end of any high profile events for the French-Canadian superstar. Mercier, though, has other plans and yesterday announced she would be joining the growing gaming outfit BetClic.

Mercier, who will be involved in developing a strategy for BetClick Poker which is part of the Mangas Gaming group, will be a consultant for the poker room.

“I am delighted to be working with BetClic and the Mangas group,” Mercier said.

__FullFlush1__ vs pr1nnyraid – Luke Schwartz’s Offensive Rant

Luke Schwartz has been at it AGAIN. After being banned from the EPT and all the Grosvenor casinos in the UK it seems “__FullFlush1__” is determined to stir up more trouble. This time the target of his abuse was Jason Rosenkrantz, aka “pr1nnyraid”, on Full Tilt Poker.

We’ve obtained a copy of the chat log between Schwartz and Rosenkrantz and it makes for sometimes amusing but mostly offensive reading. If you’re easily offended then stop reading now.

Bob Stupak Dies

Las Vegas impresario Bob Stupak has died, aged 67, following his battle with leukemia. Stupak featured on several poker TV shows and has several poker honours to his name, but he is more famously known for his influence on the Las Vegas skyline following the launch of “Bob Stupak’s Vegas World” in the early 1970s.

Stupak was also known for his crazy prop bets and, in 1989, he was said to have placed a $1 million bet on the Superbowl and won. In the same year he picked up a WSOP bracelet by winning the Deuce to Seven Lowball tournament.

Erik Cajelais wins WSOPE £2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha Event

Five players returned for the final of the £2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha tournament at the WSOPE today. Mats Gavatin, Men “The Master” Nguyen and Richard Gryko headed the chip counts as the play got underway. However, none of those well known names are wearing a shiny new WSOPE bracelet this evening as it was Erik Cajelais that came from behind to take the glory.

Cajelais might not be the most recognisable name in London this month but the man from Quebec isn’t short on high stakes tournament results. Although the result here is his first ever WSOP/WSOPE bracelet, Cajelais has much larger cashes to his name.

Prahlad Friedman Takes Down WPT Legends of Poker

The WPT Legends of Poker tournament has been won by Prahlad Friedman. Friedman took on November Nine finalist Kevin Schaffel in the heads up stages of the event at the Bell Gardens Bicycle Casino in California.

Both players managed to get their chips all-in before the flop in the final hand of the tournament. Friedman’s A-Q held up on a raggy looking board against Schaffel’s K-J. Schaffel collected $471,670 for his efforts and heads towards the WSOP final in great form.