Seems having the first name Brian might be an advantage against Ilsidur1.  We’ve only been railing this match for half an hour or so, where Full Tilt Pro Brian Townsend is going toe to toe with Isildur1 across 4 tables of 300/600 PL Omaha. 

This match is sicker than a 150 pound teenager after a slab of beer and a shady prawn cocktail.

Here’s some of the bigger hands thus far.  As at the time of writing, Isildur1 looks to be about $300k down, which isn’t saying much, considering he was $650k down ten minutes ago. The Isildur1 and townsend rematch is heating up.
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As a poker player you’d pretty much have to have been living under a rock not to have heard the whispers of anticipation over Isildur1 escalate into a montage of jubilant cries, excited exclamations and gut wrenching groans as Full Tilt Poker railbirds across the globe lie privvy to this online phenom’s rollercoaster ride of urban legend heaters and soul crushing beats. 

Up $5 million one day, busto the next, it seems Isildur1 is well and truly back in the saddle and is set on either leaving those who face him on the felt broken and littered behind him as he cuts a swarthe through his opponents…or making them hundreds of thousands better off.  The decision isn’t yet out on which way Isildur1’s variance will run in this second round of explosive online action.

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Gratz to Tyron Krost, the 2010 Aussie Millions winner, and fellow skip.  Nice work keeping the title on home soil .  There were less runners than anticipated with only 746 players taking the felt over the first 3 levels of Day 1.  At only 23, Krost has added a significant $2M AUD payday to his hip pocket.

Other notables at the final table were Sorel Mizzy and Annette Obrestad, who were both forced to succumb to Krost at the final table.

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Big things all round this week with the breaking news that Full Tilt Poker have finally signed Tom “Durrrr” Dwan as a Red Pro, further elevating the stable of players aligning themselves with the online poker behemoth.  Online forums have practically reverberated with speculation of late as to when Tom Dwan joins Full Tilt and what deal would be struck in the process.

The site held an official press conference yesterday which was attended and introduced by Howard Lederer, who was joined by Full Tilt Pro’s Patrik Antonius and Chris Ferguson, and of course Dwan himself.

A regular at the Full Tilt tables, Dwan will now be sporting the Red Pro status and will no doubt be suitably plastered with FTP paraphernalia when playing live.  As Dwan has largely become synonymous with Full Tilt Poker’s nosebleed stakes, the match seems a good one.

Here’s the press conference:

Congratulations to Joe “The Kid” Cada for winning the 2009 WSOP Main Event!

Outlasting 6493 competitors, the kid with the freakish nose has taken down the biggest event in poker, with heads up play between Cada and Darvin Moon lasting 87 hands. Just eight days prior to his 22nd birthday, Cada is also now the youngest player to win the Main Event.

For those on Team Ivey it was a disappointing finish to yet another impressively deep run by arguably the best in the business.

Cada was the only man able to finish the dream run of Moon, who despite his self proclaimed good luck also showed significant poker smarts for a guy who was ‘new at this’ (at least until he hit the final table).

We’re sure we’re not the only ones already looking forward to next years Main Event.

Here are the official standings and payout:

$ 8,547,042      Joseph Cada
$ 5,182,928      Darvin Moon
$ 3,479,670      Antoine Saout
$ 2,502,890      Eric Buchman
$ 1,953,452      Jeff Shulman
$ 1,587,160      Steven Begleiter
$ 1,404,014      Phil Ivey
$ 1,300,231      Kevin Schaffel
$ 1,263,602      James Akenhead

Press Release

Online skill development site PokerVT.com adds Jon “PearlJammer” Turner to
current roster of online pros

LAS VEGAS, Sept 22, 2009 – Online, he’s known as PearlJammer. Off-line, this poker champ goes by the name Jon Turner – a name that’s just been added to the roster of online poker pros at virtual poker training site PokerVT.

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Just an interesting little tidbit which has reared its head this morning.  Apparently PokerStars has been experiencing a software glitch that enables players to accept the ‘rematch’ option after playing a heads up SNG…even if they don’t have enough cash in their account to foot the buy in.

Predictably, this has resulted in players with well off friends taking advantage of the glitch and fleecing this online poker bohemoth for thousands in short order.

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After having just extolled the virtues of bankroll management it seems only appropriate that we now focus on a young Australian who is renowned for exercising little to none of this very discipline…which hasn’t stopped him from tearing up some of the highest online stakes for PLO.

Playing as “KaiBuxxe” on Full Tilt and “RealAndyBeal” on Stars, this former Magic the Gathering guru has rapidly moved from $25/50 to the nosebleed stakes with a loose aggressive style, and recently found some footing…or did he?  Here’s what Pokernews.com had to say about it.

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Well, I’ve seen out this years World Series of Poker in relative blog silence but have enjoyed the coverage offered by the crews at WickedChops and PokerNews.  Being downunder its not quite as easy as jumping on a flight for a few hours (twenty maybe) and being in the middle of the action.  Still, it looked to be an interesting series and I’m suitably jealous of those at ground zero.

It looked a sick run for some of the pro’s this year, not the least of which was Mr. Phil Ivey himself, and its brilliant to see a final table with a home name pro in the thick of it.

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It appears the problems are continuing for a site already besieged by claims of faulty software, superuser accounts and cheating. Absolute poker once again finds itself under public scrutiny following recent reports that other ‘superuser’ accounts have been in action on it and it’s sister site, UltimateBet.

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