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

• The World Series of Poker is underway in Las Vegas and the Rio All suites Hotel and Casino is buzzing with poker players and media alike. The first three events are already underway, and Event #1, the Casino Employees Event, has crowned the first bracelet of 2010, with dealer Hoia Pham claiming the jewelry and the $71k 1st place prize. Pham bested the 712 player field in just 2 days of play, when he called with his opponent’s preflop shove with middle pair, and Pham showed pocket aces for the win. Also underway is Event #2, the Players Championship $50k buy in event, and Event #3, the first $1,000 buy in No Limit Hold’em event.
• Beginning on June 5th, GSN will be moving its poker programming from Sunday to Saturday, running ‘High Stakes Poker’ from 6pm EST to 3am. In addition to the Saturday HSP, GSN will also launch the Aussie Millions, Presented by FullTiltPoker.net, which will make its debut on June 5th at 9 EST. Then on August 15th, the Doubles Poker Championship by Full Tilt will take over the Saturday 9pm spot. Finally, the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge will be aired on GSN will premiere on June 5th at 11pm, and run through July 3rd, with the Million Dollar Challenge re-airing July 10th through August 7th.
• It has been reported that Lacey Jones and Absolute Poker have gone in opposite directions, and that Jones will not be wearing AP gear during the 2010 World Series of Poker. While the reasons behind the parting were not announced, many speculate that it has to do with the recent announcement of Jones playing the role of hostess for the Full Tilt Sponsored Doubles Poker Championship. As of yet, no announcement has been made concerning signing Jones, so as of now, she remains a free agent.
• The European Poker Tour Awards had one trophy to hand out, and had an 8-way tie for the award of Mixed Games player of the year. To settle who the award should go to, a single table deepstack Sit and Go was held online to determine the winner. The eight finalists were Joe Hachem, Scott Clements, Alex Kravchenko, Ben Kang, Mike Gorordinsky, Matthias Kuerschner, Illari Tahkikallio, and Katja Thater, and it was Thater who emerged as the champion of the event. Getting the best of Tahkokallio heads up, Thater earned a trip to the first stop of the EPT Season 7 in Tallin, Estonia, where she will be awarded with her trophy.
• Finally, the Poker Hall of Fame has announced a change to their criteria for induction in 2010, and it appears that they’ve made it much easier to get in. Last year, Mike Sexton was the only player who received the necessary 75% of votes needed to be eligible for induction, marking the first time that the Poker Hall of Fame had only 1 inductee. To amend this, the committee has elected to lower the bar to 50% of the vote to garner induction status, and they will select the top 2 vote getters. The other criteria remains the same, as does the process for the public nomination for the ballot, but the Hall of Fame committee also reserves the right to vote a name off the ballot for not meeting the criteria in case the public nominates a player based on favoritism, as was the case with Tom Dwan last year.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 31st, 2010 at 3:20 pm and is filed under Featured Articles. 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.