The PartyPoker Women’s World Open IV has just confirmed a few players, the Ladbrokes Poker Team has just signed its newest member, and more, all in tonight’s Nightly Turbo.
A total of 27 MiniFTOPS tournaments will play out and offer at least $6 million in combined guaranteed prize money. The crowning glory of the schedule is the $55 No Limit Hold’em Main Event, which takes place on March 21st and will offer up at least an $800,000 purse. Poker players thirsting for a multi-day event can sink their teeth into a $256 No Limit Hold’em Ante from the Start Six-Max Two-Day tournament that begins on March 20th and comes with a $600,000 guarantee.
Get our your calendar, open up iCal, or grab a pencil and paper. Here’s a look at the full MiniFTOPS XV schedule:
Event #1: Wednesday, March 10th at 21:00 ET
$20 + $2 No Limit Hold'em
$350,000 Guaranteed
Event #2: Thursday, March 11th at 13:00 ET
$24 + $2 Pot Limit Omaha High/Low Knockout
$75,000 Guaranteed
Event #3: Thursday, March 11th at 21:00 ET
$50 + $5 No Limit Hold'em 3x Shootout
$35,000 Guaranteed
Event #4: Friday, March 12th at 13:00 ET
$20 + $2 No Limit Hold'em Cubed
$300,000 Guaranteed
Event #5: Friday, March 12th at 21:00 ET
$20 + $2 Limit Hold'em Six-Max
$75,000 Guaranteed
Event #6: Saturday, March 13th at 13:00 ET
$50 + $5 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
$150,000 Guaranteed
Event #7: Saturday, March 13th at 15:00 ET
$10 + $1 No Limit Hold'em with Rebuys
$350,000 Guaranteed
Event #8: Sunday, March 14th at 13:00 ET
$12 + $1 No Limit Hold'em Knockout
$250,000 Guaranteed
Event #9: Sunday, March 14th at 15:00 ET
$50 + $5 No Limit Hold'em Heads-Up
$200,000 Guaranteed
Event #10: Sunday, March 14th at 17:00 ET
$30 + $3 No Limit Hold'em
$600,000 Guaranteed
Event #11: Monday, March 15th at 13:00 ET
$20 + $2 Omaha High/Low
$60,000 Guaranteed
Event #12: Monday, March 15th at 21:00 ET
$100 + $9 No Limit Hold'em
$400,000 Guaranteed
Event #13: Tuesday, March 16th at 13:00 ET
$30 + $3 No Limit Hold'em 4x Shootout Six-Max
$150,000 Guaranteed
Event #14: Tuesday, March 16th at 21:00 ET
$50 + $5 HORSE
$100,000 Guaranteed
Event #15: Tuesday, March 16th at 21:00 ET
$20 + $2 No Limit Hold'em Turbo
$200,000 Guaranteed
Event #16: Wednesday, March 17th at 13:00 ET
$20 + $2 Seven-Game
$50,000 Guaranteed
Event #17: Wednesday, March 17th at 21:00 ET
$30 + $3 No Limit Hold'em Six-Max with Rebuys
$350,000 Guaranteed
Event #18: Thursday, March 18th at 13:00 ET
$20 + $2 No Limit Hold'em Cashout
$60,000 Guaranteed
Event #19: Thursday, March 18th at 21:00 ET
$20 + $2 Stud
$40,000 Guaranteed
Event #20: Friday, March 19th at 13:00 ET
$20 + $2 No Limit Hold'em Six-Max
$200,000 Guaranteed
Event #21: Friday, March 19th at 21:00 ET
$30 + $3 Razz
$50,000 Guaranteed
Event #22: Saturday, March 20th at 13:00 ET
$250 + $16 No Limit Hold'em Ante from the Start Six-Max Two-Day Event
$600,000 Guaranteed
Event #23: Saturday, March 20th at 15:00 ET
$10 + $1 Pot Limit Omaha with Rebuys
$150,000 Guaranteed
Event #24: Saturday, March 20th at 21:00 ET
$50 + $3 No Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Six-Max
$75,000 Guaranteed
Event #25: Sunday, March 21st at 13:00 ET
$24 + $2 No Limit Hold'em Knockout Six-Max
$300,000 Guaranteed
Event #26: Sunday, March 21st at 15:00 ET
$20 + $2 Pot Limit Omaha Heads-Up
$40,000 Guaranteed
MiniFTOPS XV Main Event: Sunday, March 21st at 17:00 ET
$50 + $5 No Limit Hold'em
$800,000 Guaranteed
Visit Full Tilt Poker for more details and to sign up. We’ll see you on the felts!
Full Tilt Poker hosted some huge action this weekend, largely driven by the presence of everyone’s favorite online poker punching bag “Isildur1.” There were epic heads-up matches, swingy six-max games, and as many as eight tables of $300/$600…
Wallace was elated to survive to Day 2 with a healthy stack and told PocketFives.com, “I have learned that the big-name pros are also human, so it's not scary anymore. Playing online with these guys is helpful too. Mike Matusow might not know that he's played a hand against me, but I have 20,000 hands against him. I've played with him so much that I know quite a bit about how he plays.” Wallace added that he’s tangled with Matusow extensively heads-up online and, despite his success, is looking forward to Wednesday’s redraw.
Christina lindeyloo22 Lindley collected a $5,000 Shooting Star bounty on Monday by knocking out Tom durrrr Dwan (pictured at left). A short-stacked Dwan, who was in the midst of a last-longer bet with Matusow, committed his stack with Q-J against Lindley’s wired pair of nines. The flop came K-10-3, giving Dwan an open-ended straight draw in addition to two overcards. However, the turn and river blanked out, sending Dwan to the exits. Lindley finished the day with 23,400 chips, the 46th largest stack in the room.
Isaac mr. menlo Baron shoved all-in with 6-5 of diamonds and, after a two-minute deliberation, the Day 1A chip leader, Tea, called with pocket kings. Coverage found on the WPT’s official website painted a picture of the slowroll: “Most of the players at the table exchanged sideways glances at the perceived slowroll, but Baron seemed to take it in stride.” The board bricked for Baron and he was sent packing.
Former WPT Player of the Year Jonathan FieryJustice Little (pictured at right) sent a player to the rails with pocket aces against pocket tens. He ended the day in 36th place with a chip stack of 38,700. Also surviving were 2008 WSOP Main Event November Nine member Scott r_a_y Montgomery and Tyson POTTER Marks, who finished 372nd in last year’s feature tournament at the Rio in Las Vegas. At Bay 101, Montgomery and Marks hold the sixth and tenth largest stacks, respectively.
Here are the top ten chip stacks after Day 1A of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament:
1. Vanna Tea – 143,900
2. Greg “FBT” Mueller – 132,800
3. Oddie Dardon – 105,500
4. Yevgeniy Jovial Gent Timoshenko – 97,600
5. Joseph pokerjoe9 Elpayaa – 87,300
6. Scott r_a_y Montgomery – 84,800
7. Chris Fox Wallace – 84,100
8. Bruce Kramer – 81,200
9. Daniel LaFrance – 79,400
10. Tyson POTTER Marks – 74,000
The blinds were 300-600 with an ante of 75 when play paused on Monday. Other members of the online poker community who advanced included:
36. Jonathan FieryJustice Little – 38,700
40. Dan Wretchy Martin – 33,100
46. Christina lindeyloo22 Lindley – 23,400
Players in the field for Day 1B include Corwin mig.com Mackey, Eric EFro Froehlich, Justin Boosted J Smith, and UB.com pro Adam Roothlus Levy. Stay tuned to PocketFives.com for the latest WPT coverage of online poker players.
PocketFives.com Member: Are there any plans to add Hold'em games with antes? If so, will they be available at all limits?
PokerStars: Yes, Hold'em cash games with antes are coming and they're being tested now. I'm not sure how widespread they will be yet. We will likely only open a few stakes at first, but we’ll roll out more according to demand.
PocketFives.com Member: Will you ever have an option to change your screen name?
PokerStars: I avoid saying “never,” but the answer to this one is very close to “never.”
PocketFives.com Member: Can we have visual time banks?
PokerStars: This is in development, but I don't have a timetable for deployment.
PocketFives.com Member: Are there any plans to synchronize breaks in sit and gos?
PokerStars No, we do not plan to do this for sit and gos with fewer than 45 players.
PocketFives.com Member: Are there any new games coming?
PokerStars: We have discussed multiple new games that could make their way to PokerStars in the future. We don't have any active development of a new game at this time, but your suggestions are welcome.
PocketFives.com Member: When will we have cash games in GBP or CAD?
PokerStars: It's unlikely that these will be added this year.
PocketFives.com Member: Will there ever be a Step 3 buy-in level for regular MTTs?
PokerStars: Again, I try to avoid saying “never,” but the answer to this question is close to that. The main purpose of the Steps is to progress to Step 6 and into large events both live and online. We offer some other options for leaving the system, but I don't think that we'll offer this on a regular basis for Step 3 in the future. We have offered one-off $82 tournaments that allow Step 3 ticket usage in the past and will undoubtedly do so again.
PocketFives.com Member: Why don't you publish the names of players who have been banned or suspended?
PokerStars: Our primary goal is to protect the integrity of our games, not to satisfy the quest for vengeance. Such players have not committed a crime (usually); they have been deemed by us to no longer be welcome on our site. It would be inappropriate for us to create a public blacklist, possibly violating the right to privacy, in order to satisfy the natural human desire to want to know when someone else has been punished. We understand that you might want to avoid colluders elsewhere, but that’s a major source of problems too, as someone else may be using the same User ID and have done nothing wrong.
PocketFives.com Member: Please change the time banks.
PokerStars: We have considered various changes to the time bank (which PokerStars introduced to online poker), but so far, no alternative offered has been clearly superior to what we have now that we've found ourselves compelled to change it. The most important aspect of the current system is that it becomes the player’s responsibility to manage the time bank; most of the proposals floated actually limit the flexibility of the system. There is ongoing discussion of this issue at PokerStars and people on the team support different ideas, but I can’t promise any changes.
PocketFives.com Member: Please add some good guarantees in the $10 to $30 range from 9:00pm CST to later.
PokerStars: We have the following guaranteed prize pool tournaments in the range requested:
21:00 CST: $11+R NL Hold'em [$50,000 guaranteed]
21:20 CST: $22 NLHE [big antes, 500 cap, $2,000 guaranteed]
22:00 CST: $33 NL Hold'em [$15,000 guaranteed]
22:15 CST: $11 NL Hold'em [6-max, $7,000 guaranteed]
22:40 CST: $27.50 NL Hold'em [turbo, $15,000 guaranteed]
The above represents a small selection of the guaranteed prize pool schedule, which is by far the largest in the world in terms of total guarantees and number of tournaments. We have over 1,400 guaranteed cash tournaments per week and more than $16 million in total guaranteed prize pools. On Sunday alone, there are about 220 guaranteed tournaments, guaranteeing over $5.6 million. Having said that, we evaluate the guaranteed schedule often and such a review is likely in the near future. If there's room and demand for guarantees to go up and/or new guarantees to be created, we're happy to make changes.
PocketFives.com Member: Why doesn't PokerStars hire a position like Urgency Support Representatives who can deal with final table chops, scamming situations, cheating, etc.?
PokerStars: Our e-mail system has triggers in it that identify certain urgent e-mails and bands them in yellow so that they can be dealt with first. Also, we have divisions in Support specifically trained to deal with certain situations and e-mails such as the ones you describe are routed to them for special handling as quickly as possible. That said, the flow of urgent e-mails is not consistent. The people who are designated to do chops, for example, can’t simply sit there doing nothing waiting for chop requests. They do other things, but try to grab deal request e-mails as quickly as possible.
One thing we won’t do is treat collusion or scamming allegations as “urgent” requests. An allegation of cheating in poker is very serious and is the worst thing you can accuse a player of doing. We won’t make such an allegation without complete research leading to verifiable proof. No matter how obvious something may seem in the moment, it’s a situation that demands due process. It’s wrong to make snap judgments about something so important, so we consider all collusion accusations carefully and submit them to peer review.
PocketFives.com Member: Can you add satellites to the $55 and $109 Pot Limit Omaha High/Low tournaments?
PokerStars: We certainly can; I’ve added it to my list of things to do.
PokerStars: SCOOP is unique in that there are an incredible number of tournaments compressed into a small timeframe, each of which is a Championship event. In considering whether or not to have Second Chance tournaments, we balanced what they would add to the series versus what they would take away from other events and decided not to hold them.
PocketFives.com Member: Change the payout structures, please.
PokerStars: In 2009, we made many of the changes that players requested, including increasing the amounts paid at final tables by a significant margin and reducing the size of the tiers in each possible pay table so that it became unlikely that a tournament that intended to pay 15% of the field actually paid 18%, etc.
Regarding the ever-present debate about how much of the field should be paid, that has also changed in the last year, as we now have a significant number of guaranteed tournaments paying out to between 10% and 12% of the field every night, especially at higher stakes. We have thousands of tournaments per week and an enormous variety across the spectrum, ranging from tournaments where only the final table is paid to tournaments where approximately 20% of the field is paid. Overall, the average seems to be about 14%, which I believe to be a good thing. We continue to work on improving everything about our tournaments, including the pay structures, but the general philosophy on the percentage of the field that should be paid is not likely to change.
PocketFives.com Member: Will you be at Monte Carlo?
PokerStars I don't think so. If I will be, I haven't heard about it yet.
Visit the original thread in Poker Discussion to see a full list of questions posed. Also, be sure to check out similar question and answer articles we’ve featured in recent weeks:
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Cake Poker Feedback
Head to PokerStars today.
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