Poker News

PokerStars is already a prominent name in live poker as they are already involved with the EPT, but they have just made another huge move in live tournaments by also teaming up with the WPT as the official television sponsor for season 7 during international tournaments.

With Full Tilt already having the rights to the shows that broadcast in the United States, adding this tournament to their stable seems like a logical move. With a firm grip on the EPT, LAPT and APPT, PokerStars is now the premier sponsor of televised poker. Not that they needed any help, but this will have their logo and name in the house of every poker player on the planet.

More importantly for the site, it will also allow them to promote the success of their ever growing stable of poker player talent. While Full Tilt and the other major sites have seemed to back off a little bit in big name pro sponsorship, PokerStars continues to snag up just about every big name that becomes available. You have to imagine that every site on the planet was making a stab for Kid Poker. When he ended up signing with PokerStars, it had to be considered the biggest coup of the year in online poker.

The added exposure of course will mean more signups and more revenue for the giant of online poker. With legislation in place to lift the ban and get online poker legalized, this is going to be money well spent for PokerStars. The other sites stand back and wonder why they are so far behind, but this is a perfect example of why PokerStars is downloaded on everyone’s computer.

The company forces you to notice them and their players and associates themselves with anything and everything poker that they can. This sponsorship will more than likely mean a lot more satellites to all of their featured tournaments and the micro players will be coming out of the woodwork to make a $50 deposit and take their shot at poker glory. The other sites better get in gear before any law changes take effect or the only thing they are going to see will be a pair of PokerStars boots kicking up dust.

All in all, almost 1,200 players would sit down on Poker Room for the “shuffle up and deal” call, falling just short of the 1,300+ that showed up for The Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure. However, the 1,178 entries was the most ever for an EPT event. The online poker players once again showed up in force with well over 200 entries having been gained that way. In addition to the internet players, the field was rich with big names looking to take down a huge payday.

It is becoming tougher and tougher for big name Poker Players to succeed in these large fields as they always have a target on their head. No-name players have no qualms about putting their stack up for grabs against a pro just to be the person who took the out and gain their 15 minutes of fame on television during the airing of the tournament. Greg Raymer was the early victim this time around as yet another WSOP Champion falls on the first day of a major event.

At the end of day one, the board was littered with names that only friends and family would be able to recognize. There were still some professionals left, but it was the grinders and internet players that were making their marl Dragan Galic went to bed on the opening night with a comfortable lead of almost 30,000 chips and a stack of 107,800. Not a bad day of work.

Day 1b seemed to have a lot more star power in it and the chips were flying. With a prize pool of €5,713,000 and the first place winner becoming an instant millionaire, the amateurs and pros alike were slinging their chips in hopes of getting the early stack and play dominating poker.

One player of prominence that this backfired on was the infamous Poker Stars player, Dario Minieri. You may remember him for the WSOP as the flamboyant youngster that wore the large sunglasses and scarf at all the events. He also gained prominence for earning enough points on PS to cash them in for a car. He chose the wrong time to get aggressive as he moved all in with AQ and stood face to face with AA.

After two day ones, there were 469 players remaining for what looks to be a very lively tournament. The massive chip count of Dragan Galic held up to the second session, but second place overall was captured by Ljubomir Josipovic with 83,200. A few days from now, we will have yet another millionaire poker player. It would be no surprise to see a teenage internet player hoist yet another championship.