PokerTableRatings

PTR brings you the biggest stories in the poker world this week. Keep up to date with PTR News.

• The WPT World Championship crowned Bodog Poker Pro David Williams the winner of the $25k buy in main event on Saturday Night.  Williams bested a star studded field and an epic final table, that included UltimateBet Pro, and reigning CardPlayer Player of the Year, Eric Baldwin finishing runner up.  The television final table which consists of 6 players, also included the likes of Shawn Buchanan, David Benyamine, Billy Baxter, and John O’Shea.  Phil Hellmuth Jr. finished in 7th, bubbling the television final table, and keeping his WPT resume still without a championship, and Scotty Nguyen finished in 8th place.  Williams earned $1,530,537 for his first place finish, and Baldwin seemed content with the runner up finish sending this message via twitter, “Like I told Mike Sexton, 2nd place is bittersweet, but I’ll wipe my tears with seven figures,” in reference to the $1,034,715 cash for the effort.
• The 2010 World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions has about a month to go in voting, but the WSOP staff released its current top 20 vote getters.  In line to join the automatic berths of Joe Cada, Barry Shulman, Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, and Mike Sexton, are 20 players that will be voted in by the fans, and 2 “wild card entries” that are to be named later by the WSOP.  So far, the top 20 vote getters include: Doyle, Brunson, Johnny Chan, T.J. Cloutier, Allen Cunningham, Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Farha, Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Joe Hachem, Jennifer Harman, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Howard Lederer, Daniel Negreanu, Scotty Nguyen, Greg Raymer, Huck Seed, and Erik Seidel.  To cast your vote for the players that you feel most deserving to compete for a chance at their share of a $1 million prize pool in one of the 3 ESPN televised events from the 2010 WSOP, visit http://www.wsop.com/TOC/
• In the first ever arrest for violation of the UIGEA, Daniel Tzvetkoff was taken into custody by Las Vegas authorities.  He awaits trial on 4 charges related to UIGEA infractions, money laundering, and bank fraud in excess of $500 million, and stands to serve up to 75 years in prison if convicted.  This week, a Las Vegas federal judge released Tzvetkoff on bail, and placed him on house arrest, despite the vehement objections of the prosecution who claim that he was a flight risk.  It is rumored that Tzvetkoff has more than $100 million in cash hidden somewhere, and given the fact that he is a foreign national, the prosecution had a legitimate concern.  However, Tzvetkoff’s father put up his $1.2 million home in Australia as a guarantee that his son would show up in federal court in New York’s Southern District.
• 2009 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Cada has pulled the plug on a documentary project that chronicled his life from the time that he made the final table in July, until just after he won it all in November.   Previews of the video were uploaded to YouTube, and almost instantly, the TwoPlusTwo community was frantically commenting in typical style.  The thread containing the discussion on the Cada series was as expected, another mixed bag of emotions, with about 50/50 on the love/hate side of the fence.  Within the thread, Cada himself is quoted saying “Don’t really know what to think of it because some of the scenes are pretty embarrassing that I wish didn’t make the trailer.”  From all the rumors, it appears as though Cada regrets the decision to have made the film, and will no longer be doing the show.
• Have you received your invite for the $1 million poker invitational celebrating The Ivey Room?  It looks like the rumors have finally come true, and that The Ivey Room will soon be opening as soon as May 22nd at the Aria Resort and Casino at CityCenter in Las Vegas.  The invite-only tourney is said to have placed a $100,000 bounty on Phil Ivey, and the winner is set to duel against Ivey heads up for $250,000.
• The top online poker sites are continuing to shore up their list of poker pros for the upcoming World Series of Poker.  PokerStars led the way signing 4 new members to their Team PokerStars Pro Canada Team, by inking Greg DeBora, Patrick Pezzin, Macello Del Grosso, and Anh Van Nguyen to join their Canadian counterparts Daniel Negreanu and Darus Suharto.  Full Tilt Poker added two new names to their Red Pro Status signing Australian pro’s Jonathan ‘xMONSTERxDONGx” Karamalikis and Van ‘Sirens’ Marcus to join their cast of Australian pros, which include Mark Vos, Paul Khoury, and Billy ‘The Croc’ Argyros.  And finally, Team PartyPoker signed the 2010 Aussie Millions winner Tyron Krost to a deal, inking the $2 million AUD prize winner to their stable.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 26th, 2010 at 11:39 pm and is filed under Featured Articles, PTR News, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.