WSOP Final Sunday 27th September!

Voodoo Claim the Inaugural International Challenge Cup

At the opening weekend of the Voodoo Card Club, Team Voodoo were crowned champions against a strong field of teams. It was closely fought into the final two tables with team from The International Club in London looking strong but failing to secure the critical points awarding to the top money positions. On winning the coveted cup Team Voodoo Captain Eamonn remarked on the English Team "if they had turned up sober they might have had a chance.. we can't wait to get over there to whup their ass again". Watch this space for news of the next challenge...

Bluff Poker Academy heads to Ireland

After successful stops in Manchester and Birmingham the third leg of Bluff Europe's Poker Academy events heads over the water to Ireland. The Sporting Emporium in Dublin plays host to the event, which takes place on Saturday 16th May starting at 1pm. Alex Rousso will again be in the host's seat with the professional advice coming from Irish poker legend Donnacha O' Dea. The format will remain the same with three hours of lectures covering theory, bankroll management, variance, strategic thinking and much more.

A double chance freeze-out poker tournament follows which will give attendees a chance to put what they've learned into practise. Tickets for the event are $150 which includes the buy in for the tournament. The final leg of the Bluff Poker Academy syllabus takes place in London on 23rd May with Phil Laak taking over the professional hot seat.

For details of how to book see http://www.bluffeurope.com/pokeracademy/#TheoryPoker

WPT Borgata Poker Open - Young Guns Dominate Day 1!

While most of us are turning our eyes to the World Series of Poker Europe, the World Poker Tour have managed to squeeze in another event right before the London bracelets go up for grabs. The WPT Borgata Open is carrying a $5m guaranteed prize pool, which attracted a field of 516. Once players had settled down and the cards were in the air, the payouts were announced, with the winner picking up $1,425,000. A total of 54 players would make the money, although some of the players were setting up a charge for first from the opening hand.

The tournament has been one of the favourites with the players owing to the slow blind structure and 30,000 starting stack. This year the players were in for a bonus though after the tournament director announced this event would see players kicking off with 40,000 - a whopping 800 big blinds. One of the players who has been running well on the WPT in recent years made another confident start as Brandon Cantu took his 40,000 and turned it into 182,000 by the close of play. He was joined by two of the best young tournament players on the circuit as Joe Sebok finished on 155,000, while Jonathon Little did a little better to finish the day on 165,000. The three have a little work to do to catch the chip leader though, Onofrio Reina bagging 256,000.

PokerStars.net LAPT: Jose Miguel Espinar Wins!

Jose Miguel Espinar has won the PokerStars.net Latin America Poker Tour Punte del Este championships, adding the LAPT win to a prior cash at the Caribbean Adventure. In a career which has lasted less than a year, the win for $241,735 is sure to do his live game reputation no harm whatsoever. Espinar began the final table around average on chips, with the final-table chip counts as follows:

  » Alexandre Gomes - 763,000
  » Gylbert Drolet - 691,000
  » Jose Miguel Espinar - 675,000
  » Lisandro Gallo - 465,000
  » Alex Brenes - 457,000
  » Paulo Cesar Ribeiro - 281,000
  » Juan Jose Perez - 167,000
  » Sidney Chreem - 93,000
 

The eliminations of Paulo Cesar Ribeiro, Juan Jose Perez and Sidney Chreem came swiftly, leaving the final table six-handed in quick order. Alex Brenes, brother of Humberto, managed to build his chip stack up the right way, and with the elimination of Alexandre Gomes in fourth, it left Brenes, Lisandro Gallo and Espinar to battle it out. Three-handed play was a tense affair, with two hours going by before it eventually fell to Brenes to eliminate Gallo, whose timing couldn't have been worse. Faced with a short stack, he moved in with Q9o, only to walk into Brenes' pocket aces.

With a slight chip lead going into heads up play, there was much manoeuvring between Espinar and Brenes, but the title was effectively decided when Brenes found himself on the receiving end of a bad match-up, crippled when his A-9 was dominated by A-T. After he'd lost the bulk of his stack against A-T, he put the rest of his chips at risk with the very same hand immediately after. A call by Espinar's K-3o meant Brenes was ahead, but when a king arrived on the flop, the title would head to Espinar, leaving Brenes a second place prize of $126,625 as consolation.