Poker News @ ICUFISH

Although the attention may be focused on other bigger-name players, Eric Buchman has positioned himself to steal poker’s biggest prize. Having made two World Series of Poker final tables, a WSOP Circuit final table, several near misses at the WSOP…

It’s Friday. Halloween is tomorrow. We’re ready to tell you the news so we can go play dress-up.

Finishing as the runner-up in the PokerStars Sunday Million on October 25th was PocketFives.com member Daniel Deoxyribo Strelitz (pictured at right), who hails from sunny Irvine, California. He banked a colossal $177,000 for his second place showing, the first six-figure score of his young career. The biology student sat down with PocketFives.com right before class began to walk us through his monumental payday and recap his poker journey.

A total of 8,242 players turned out for the weekly Sunday Million, creating a total prize pool of $1.6 million. In the end, Strelitz fell to PokerStars member grifo173 heads-up in a final table that saw Devin TranquilChaos Porter (pictured at left) finish in fourth place. Strelitz was second in chips entering the final table on the strength of a key hand with 20 players remaining. In it, Strelitz put in a 3bet against Bjorn kleath Kleathersson holding A-K offsuit. Kleathersson promptly shoved with pocket nines and Strelitz called, creating a race situation. A king hit on the flop, propelling the eventual second place finisher into the chip lead.

On the hand, which set the tone for the remainder of the tournament, Strelitz told PocketFives.com, “I was going crazy. I told all of my friends watching that it was the biggest flip of my life so far.” He celebrated his runner-up showing by finishing his homework for class the next day, a task he described as “hard” after experiencing such a rush.

Armed with his first six-figure payday, thoughts of becoming pro have begun to creep in, but Strelitz told PocketFives.com, “I’m still not sure what I’m going to do when I get out. Being a pro has definitely crossed my mind though.”

His friends have encouraged him to pursue a career in poker, while the youngster admitted, “My family definitely wants me to graduate still. They’d support me if I turned pro, but probably would rather I have a career with poker on the side.” He’s currently studying biology, but a change to chemistry may be in the offing. He candidly admitted, “I have no idea what career would work for me in those departments, though.”

Strelitz was turned onto poker after playing $1 sit and gos with fellow PocketFives.com member byoonz, who hails from Torrance, California. Strelitz explained, “We played a small home game once per week and out of all of our friends, we took it the most seriously and played at home online also.” In July, he finished as the runner-up in the PokerStars Daily Eighty Grand for $23,000. In October, he was in the winner’s circle of the site’s $50,000 Guaranteed for another $13,000. All told, he piled up $210,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the Online Poker Rankings in October in a scant 17 qualifying cashes.

The PocketFiver frequents the Morongo Casino (pictured at right), which is two hours away. He also now has the bankroll to visit Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Strelitz admitted, “I remember hoping I’d have the bankroll to buy into the WSOP Main Event and now I definitely will.”

In case you’re wondering, no chop took place in the Sunday Million on October 25th. There was discussion, but in the end, Strelitz and his opponent could not come to an agreement. On finishing second, he remarked, “I was bummed because I knew I could beat him, but I got no cards when we were heads-up. However, that feeling was gone quickly because I looked and second place was bigger than any other tournament's first place payout that day.”

Finally, Strelitz wanted to recognize byoonz by saying, “He has been my buddy since middle school and is the reason I’m still playing poker. Sorry I couldn’t see observer chat on the final table bubble, but it was probably a good thing so I could concentrate more.”

Here were the results from the Sunday Million on October 25th:

1. grifo173 – $242,480
2. deoxyribo – $177,203 (Deoxyribo)
3. Pokerpiggen – $123,630
4. tobias fuke – $82,420 (TranquilChaos)
5. subby1 – $65,936
6. moseley8 – $49,452
7. nickj7777 – $32,968
8. JBlaze20 – $18,132 (JoeBlazenyc)
9. AKSchwan – $12,775

In honor of breast cancer awareness month, PokerNews.com is proud to partner with Bad Beat on Cancer and the Prevent Cancer Foundation for the Bad Beat on Cancer Challenge. This charity tournament is being held in Nicole Rowe’s honor. All of the…

This week, Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker introduced synchronized breaks, which have become the industry norm across rival sites like Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. Similar to their competitors, the two CEREUS Network rooms will hold synchronized breaks at 55 minutes past the hour, giving players five minutes to grab a snack, use the restroom, or make a phone call. The news has created a buzz here on PocketFives.com, as several members of the online poker community have weighed in.

Synchronized breaks will not be held in tournaments that are open for late registration, tournaments in the first blind level, turbo and ultra turbo events in the first two blind levels, and multi-table sit and gos. There will also be a three-minute break at the end of the rebuy period to allow for add-ons to occur. PocketFives.com member Susie SusieQue Moneck, who broke the news to the online poker community, commented, “Great to see this made it to the site!”

Ultimate Bet sponsored pro Billy Patrolman35 Kopp (pictured at left), who is fresh off a 12th place showing in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, told PocketFives.com, "I am thrilled that Ultimate Bet has implemented synchronized breaks to better the player experience. As a high volume multi-table tournament player, this feature is and has been crucial since its onset in the online poker world. Being able to have a break every hour while playing on multiple poker sites is amazing and finally a reality.”

The online poker site also changed its raise logic. Now, the button to raise is labeled “Raise To” and makes increasing the price of poker a fairly simple task. Ultimate Bet’s software update log explains the significance of the new “Raise To” button: “Players can now raise to a desired amount without having to add their initial bet, which is already on the table. Raising is as easy as entering the amount you wish to raise to and clicking the ‘Raise To’ button. This is in line with industry standards.”

PocketFives.com member Matt Plattsburgh Vengrin (pictured at right), a sponsored pro of Ultimate Bet’s sister site, Absolute Poker, added, “We had a meeting in Aruba and one of the topics that came up was synchronized breaks. They listened to their pros and to the people on the forums and have given people what they want. I am very glad, personally, that they added them; now my life is complete.” Both Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker accept players from the United States.

Also expected in the near future is a revamped tournament schedule for high-dollar grinders. Ultimate Bet pro Annie Duke (pictured at left) told PocketFives.com, “Look for really amazing changes to the tournament structure. The $320 buy-in tournament on Saturday is going to be moved up as part of it. People who play high-limit tournaments on Saturdays like to start early and we had some of our big players tell us that, so we decided to adjust the schedule accordingly.” This week’s $320 buy-in tournament is scheduled to begin at 5:30pm ET on Saturday and comes with a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool. It follows a deep stack structure.

Some PocketFives.com members have also been clamoring for RSA security tokens to alleviate account hijacking and other issues. PocketFives.com poster APJohn responded to members’ suggestions by saying, “RSA security tokens are on the agenda. That is being dealt with by the security department. I will see if I can get an update on the status.” As of the time of writing, no further information was available.

Ultimate Bet’s last major overhaul came on September 1st and included Mac and Instant Play versions. Visit Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker for more information on synchronized breaks and changes to raise logic.