Friday, December 25, 2009

Townsend, isildur1, Hastings, $4 mill, suspension ... hunh?

Merry Christmas?

Let's see if I've got this right: Brian Townsend and Cole South shared hands histories with Brian Hastings, who then took a $4 million win against the mysterious high-stakes super-maniac isildur1 at Full Tilt heads-up. Townsend is subsequently suspended one month by Full Tilt for TOS violation: You can't share hand histories on others.

Say what?

Read about these goings-on first at Poker Road just now, which led me to the following Poker News interview. Opinions on this situation, and what "sharing hand histories" means, compared to discussing individual/tournament action(s)? Ah the world of big-time poker; glad I'm happy in Little Land (for now)...

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/12/p ... n-7714.htm

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With the tools and such out there in the internet world, I wonder how Full Tilt could hope to instigate such a rule, much less enforce it. I too fear bots and IM hookups and collusion. But studying a player's tendencies away from the actual event ... that's something entirely different. In the current CardPlayer magazine Phil Hellmuth brags of training Jeff Shulman by going over the rest of the November Nine's entire available plays and TV tapes, and immitating the enemy. That sounds like just strategy -- but isn't that just what Townsend and South and Hastings allegedly did?

Gotta make things as black-and-white as possible, because the grays will just be uber-optimized. (Bad wordage but ya know what I mean...)

(... Great cover story on isildur1 and the nosebleed FT heads-ups in above-mentioned CP, and a short blurb that Hastings' big score just happened at presstime.)

Saturday, December 19, 2009

PokerStars $1M Challenge Head Hunt on Jan. 4 '10

From Poker Analysis Forum post on 12/19/09 promoting the PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge Head Hunt:

OK, I'll put this here instead of under Tournaments. Don't want it wind up double-enterred like Reindeer Games. I already bought straight in for $11 (40K entrants max); may play satellites to get my money back, but this is one I want to be sure I won't miss!

"Win cash for busting celebrities and Team PokerStars Pro!

"Help celebrate the grand final of the PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge TV show with our exclusive Head Hunt tournament. On January 4, 2010 at 19:00 ET you can play in an exclusive online tournament featuring the stars of the show, including Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. Each guest player will have a cash bounty on their head, which means you’ll win money for busting them. What’s more, you’ll also be playing for a share of a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool.

"In case you didn’t already know, the Million Dollar Challenge has been a phenomenal success. Millions of you tuned in to watch, helping to make it the US’ most popular poker TV show of all time! Millions of you tuned in to watch PokerStars qualifiers get the chance to play against celebrities and Team PokerStars Pro for up to $1,000,000. The Million Dollar Challenge Head Hunt is our way of thanking you for watching, and your chance to play tournament poker against the biggest names in the game for cash.

"Visit the Million Dollar Challenge page to find out more about the show and how you can become a contestant in Season 2.

"How to Enter the Head Hunt $100,000

"The Million Dollar Challenge: The Head Hunt $100,000 Guaranteed tournament takes place at 19:00 ET, January 4, 2010. You can enter in a number of ways:

"Direct buy-in -- $10+1 will get you to the front of the queue for the Head Hunt $100,000.

"Daily $1.10 satellites -- These will take place every day from now until January 3 at 20:00 ET and 23:00 ET.This is a great way to qualify with 1 in 11 players winning a seat.

"Freerolls -- Every day from now until January 3, we’re running freerolls at 19:00 ET and 22:00 ET. The top 18 finishers from every freeroll will win a seat to the Head Hunt $100,000.

"Prizes

"The $100,000 guaranteed prize pool will be awarded according to PokerStars standard payout structure.

"Cash prizes for busting pro and celebrity players will be awarded as follows.
Player Prize
Daniel Negreanu $1,000
The MDC Defenders - Vanessa Rousso, Chris Moneymaker, Barry Greenstein and Joe Cada $750
Any other Team PokerStars Pro $500
MDC Celebrities - John Salley, Tito Ortiz, Jayde Nicole and more $250
MDC contestants - Father Andrew Trapp, Denny Luna, Mike Kosowski and more $100

"Please Note:
* The tournament is only open to players in the US and Canada.
* The line up of celebrities and pro players taking part is subject to change."

That's it. Be there! And g'luck!