• Home
• Poker Stars Poker Room Review

• PokerStars

Subscribe

POKERSTARS LAUNCHES LAPT SEASON 3 IN BEAUTIFUL COSTA RICA IN NOVEMBER

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, has announced the schedule for the PokerStars.net Latin
American Poker Tour Season 3. After the huge success of the first two seasons, LAPT Season 3 will kick off in
Costa Rica. The event will run from November 19-22, 2009 at the 5-Star Paradisius Playa Conchal Resort &
Casino.
Players can buy-in to the Main Event in Costa Rica for $2,500+$200. PokerStars.net is also running daily
freeroll tournaments giving players the chance to win a prize package worth $6,000. The package will include
tournament buy-in, accommodation and spending money.
Team PokerStars PRO and Costa Rican poker legend Humberto Brenes said: “In just two seasons, the Latin
American Poker Tour has become the biggest poker tour in the region. It attracts the best players from Latin
America and all over the world. Last season, the prize pool hit a million dollars in Costa Rica and I know we’re
going to beat that this time! I am very proud to play in Costa Rica – it’s my home country and a very special
event for me. Tell everyone to come here – the Shark is waiting for them!”
Brenes will host Humberto’s ‘Shark Hunt’ Bounty Charity Tournament supported by PokerStars, with the
winner receiving an LAPT Chile package. The turbo structure charity tournament will be held on November 18,
2009 with a buy-in of $100. Half of the prize pool will be donated to The Whitley Fund for Nature. The donation
will be matched by Humberto Brenes and PokerStars. The other half of the prize pool will form the Team
PokerStars PRO bounty and be divided equally amongst the Team PokerStars PRO’s that play. To add to the
‘Shark Hunt’ experience there will be an extra bounty on Humberto Brenes; giving players the chance to win an
hour-long poker lesson from the ‘Shark’.
Following Costa Rica the LAPT will visit; the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in The Bahamas, Punta
del Este in Uruguay, Vina del Mar in Chile and Argentina for the Grand Final.
“I can’t wait for the start of LAPT Season 3,” said Andre Akkari, Team PokerStars PRO Brazil. “Costa Rica is
such an amazing country. I’m really happy that the tour will take in the PCA event in The Bahamas – it’s one of
my favorite tournaments of the year – it’s got everything; with over 50 poker events and fun activities in the sun
for friends and family!”
Last season the LAPT attracted over a thousand players from around the world including Team PokerStars
PROs Daniel Negreanu, Andre Akkari and Alex Gomes as well as PokerStars Ambassador and tennis legend
Boris Becker. This season’s tour looks set to smash records for poker events in the region, giving
PokerStars.net qualifiers the chance to test their skills against some of the world’s top pros.

PokerStars LAPT Costa Rica freeroll tournaments are running daily at PokerStars.net. Players have the
chance to win a prize package including Main Event buy-in, five nights hotel accommodation and money for
expenses. Please visit http://www.lapt.com/ for more information, updates and details on how to qualify.

FRENCH BUSINESSMAN CHRISTOPHE BENZIMRA WINS POKERSTARS EPT WARSAW

French businessman Christophe Benzimra beat Italian professional poker player Alfio Battisti heads-up
today to win the EPT Warsaw champion’s title and a first prize of 1,493,170 PLN (approx. €358,644),
and a seat at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo next year.
Benzima, 47, runs a Plexiglas factory in Bucharest, Romania, and only took up poker three years ago.
He has competed at almost every EPT in the last two years but had yet to cash in a main event. He said:
“I think I was lucky today. I am not a professional player, I play for fun. I really enjoyed it but I’m not
giving up work! I play poker just for the pleasure of it.”
The EPT Warsaw main event at Casino Poland at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, was one of the biggest
poker tournaments ever held in Poland attracting 203 players from around the world each paying 25,000
PLN to create a total prize pool of more than 4.7 million PLN (approx. €1,145,826). It was the fourth time
the EPT has visited the Polish capital.
Runner-up Alfio “aLFiosNob” Battisti, a SuperNova Elite on PokerStars, takes 834,840 PLN (approx.
€200,520) back home to Latina, near Rome in Italy.
Team PokerStars PRO Luca Pagano was eliminated in fourth place for 357,790 PLN (approx. €85,938).
It was a bitter-sweet finish for the 31-year-old Italian who broke all his own records in Warsaw; reaching
a fifth EPT final table and recording his 12th cash finish, but who was disappointed in defeat. Pagano
has now overtaken fellow Team PokerStars PRO Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier to top the EPT all-time
Tournament Leader Board. His best result in terms of money remains his sixth place finish at the
Season 4 Grand Final in Monte Carlo, worth €337,000.
Canadian PokerStars qualifier Clayton Mozdzen, 26, one of 33 players to win their main event seats on
PokerStars, came sixth, earning 233,750 PLN (approx. €56,144). The other four finalists were Ruslan
Prydryk from Ukraine, Russian players Anatoly Gurtovoy and Alexander Klimashin, and the chip leader
at the start of the day Oleksandr Vaserfirer who finished third.
ı
Among the 24 players to cash were PokerStars Passport winner Shaun Deeb and Polish PokerStars
player Wojciech Polak. Team PokerStars PRO Dario Minieri won the EPT Warsaw high roller event
earning €77,206 (approx. 322,375 PLN).
For blog reports, please see the PokerStars blog and video blogs on PokerStars.tv

The next event of EPT Season 6 is EPT Vilamoura in Portugal from November 17-22, 2009. Satellites
are running now on PokerStars for both Vilamoura and the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January.
See www.ept.com for further details.

LOCAL SIMON WATT WINS $209,000NZD AND IS CROWNED 2009 POKERSTARS.NET APPT AUCKLAND CHAMPION

AUCKLAND, New Zealand, October 18, 2009 – Tonight Auckland local Simon Watt became the
PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Auckland SKYCITY Festival of Poker Champion, outplaying
262 rivals over three days to take home the Championship trophy and over NZ$209,000!
The event started back on Wednesday, the four day event has been expertly run by the casino known for
the largest poker tournaments in New Zealand, Sky City Auckland. There were 29 different nationalities that
were in contention for the title and the $789,000 NZD prize pool. This continued to the final table with a
German, French, US and Chinese, joining the antipodeans.
The first two places were taken by players who qualified via PokerStars with Simon making his way through
via a $22 qualifier, not a bad return on investment. The heads up battle between Simon Watt and
Frenchman Gerome Gitteau was shorter than expected, it only took the courageous local five hands to take
out the championship. Gerome was unlucky in the first of these when a good read saw him call when he a
pair of eights after the flop, up against Watt’s Ace, 4. Unfortunately the ace arrived on the turn which
crippled the man who came to the final table as chip leader. The very next hand Simon’s pair of fives held
up and the hometown hero was crowned champion of Auckland.
The 26 year old software developer was delighted with his victory. After the win Simon exclaimed, it has
been an amazing field to come through, all the people I have played against I have enormous respect for
but I have been feeling lucky all week and this seems to have helped.”
One of the great stories of the tournament was the progress of Team PokerStars PRO Australia Eric
Assadourian and his father Assadour Assadourian. Eric finished the best of the team in 19th but could not
outdo his father. Assadour made it through to the final table and an impressive seventh place. The other
notable players in the international field included Lee Nelson, Tony Hachem, Emad Tahtouh, Grant Levy,
Celina Lin and Bryan Huang. Returning champion Daniel Craker also had an impressive return falling just
short of a repeat final table knocked out in 29th place.
For further information on the APPT visit www.appt.com.
Total prize pool $789,000 NZD. The final standings and monies earned in NZD/US dollars are as follows:
1. Simon Watt, Auckland New Zealand – $209,085 NZD
2. Gerome Gitteau, France – $142,020 NZD
3. Jason Brown, New Zealand – $82,845 NZD
4. Ke Sijia, China – $55,230 NZD
5. Richard Lancaster, New Zealand – $42,606 NZD
6. Jens Walther, Germany – $31,560 NZD
7. Assadour Assadourian, Australia – $23,670 NZD
8. Lance Climo, New Zealand – $18,936 NZD
9. Michael Shinzaki, USA – $14,202 NZD
[10th to 12th - $11,046 NZD, 13th to 16th - $8,679 NZD, 17th to 24th $7,101, 25th to 32nd - $5,523 NZD]

POKERSTARS QUALIFIER AARON GUSTAVSON BEATS WORLD CHAMPION TO WIN EPT LONDON MAIN EVENT

LONDON, UK, OCTOBER 7, 2009: American Aaron Gustavson beat world champion and Team
PokerStars PRO Peter Eastgate heads-up last night to take down the EPT London Poker Festival Main
Event for a first prize of £850,000.

The £5,300 buy in tournament was the biggest ever held in the UK attracting 730 players from all over
the world. Gustavson, a 23-year-old online pro, was one of 149 players who won their seats on
PokerStars.

Gustavson and Eastgate, who took home £530,000 for second place, started their heads-up battle
straight after the dinner break. The duel could have taken hours but it lasted only 15 minutes and seven
hands as Gustavson’s AQ beat Eastgate’s A9.
Gustavson, who plays online as “Aguskb” and has a string of successes on PokerStars, said: “I’m
speechless, totally overwhelmed. I don’t think it’s going to hit me for a quite a while. Having this title is
amazing – a dream come true.”

Gustavson plans to spend some of his prize money buying a house in Vegas and “perhaps a Porsche”.
He also wins a seat to the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo as part of his prize. His online results include
winning the PokerStars Sunday Warm Up in July for $135,000 and 12th place in the PokerStars $530
NLHE World Championship of Online Poker event last month.

Eastgate said: “It’s been an amazing ride. I made it to second place, which is far more than you hope for
going into a final table. Big applause for Aaron who won – he deserved it. I’m pleased I made it to
heads-up.” The final also featured PokerStars qualifier Martin Gudvangen from Norway (4th place,
£227,000), British PokerStars player Dominic Cullen (5th place, £173,000) and Raymond Wu from
Taipei, a member of Team PokerStars PRO Asia, who finished 7th for £87,000.
Among the 104 players to cash were; Kevin Schaffel, the PokerStars-sponsored World Series of Poker
“November Nine” finalist, Friend of PokerStars Darus Suharto, Team PokerStars PROs Maria “maridu”
Mayrinck and Arnaud Mattern, as well as the PokerStars-sponsored former England footballer Teddy
Sheringham.

This season’s EPT London Poker Festival, which took place at the Hilton Metropole for the first time,
featured 16 different events spread over eight days. Side event winners included Team PokerStars
PROs Joe Hachem, Jason Mercier, and William Thorson. The Main Event numbers staggered players
and media alike and topped last season by more than 100 players. In season one, 175 players entered,
creating a total prize pool of £524,000; this year the prize pool was seven times that at £3,540,500.
The last two days of EPT London were broadcast live on PokerStars.tv in seven languages; the event
was also filmed for television.

POKERSTARS CARIBBEAN ADVENTURE 2010 LARGEST POKER TOURNAMENT OUTSIDE OF LAS VEGAS

PCA Festival of Poker Schedule Announced
ISLE OF MAN (UK), OCTOBER 1, 2009 – PokerStars.com, the world’s largest online poker site, has announced its schedule for the seventh annual PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). The ten-day Festival of Poker will feature a rich mix of more than 50 events, starting on January 4, 2010 at the stunning Atlantis Hotel and Casino, Paradise Island, Bahamas. The Main Event is set to be the largest live poker tournament ever held outside Las Vegas in terms of player numbers and prize pool, and will bring together many of the world’s top poker players.

The Main Event at last year’s PCA attracted 1,347 players, including 845 who won their seat – and trip to Paradise Island – on PokerStars.com. The prize pool amounted to more than $12.6 million with winner Poorya Nazari from Canada taking home $3 million after six days of action in the sun. This season’s Main Event will have a $10,000 + $300 buy-in, creating an estimated $14.5 million prize pool.
Team PokerStars PRO Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, who won the Main Event in 2008, said: “The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is definitely one of my favourite tournaments of the year. This is where I had my first and biggest win to date, in the 2008 PCA Main Event. Last year, I had another memorable success, when I won the High Roller event. I love going to the Bahamas for the PCA! The location and the organisation are great, and I believe the competition is probably the toughest you can find in any live tournament, with all the internet pros and the best live players. I am really looking forward to playing the 2010 PCA!”

This season’s PCA schedule features the widest variety of poker events, buy-ins, game selection and formats ever offered. Events at the 2010 PCA will have: buy-ins ranging from $200 to $25,000; formats including full-ring, short-handed and head’s up; and an array of different live poker variants including No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha 8 (Hi/Lo) and Badugi/2-7 Triple Draw. The schedule will also include daily Battleship of Online Poker events (including some new surprise formats), three Ladies’ events and three 8-Game events – usually only  available in Las Vegas.

The festival will also feature the PokerStars World Cup of Poker VI in which the remaining nine countries from the global online preliminaries will fight it out at a live Grand Final for national glory and a share of the $100,000 first prize.

The PCA Festival of Poker will be filmed and broadcast on major networks across North and Latin America, Europe and Russia. The PCA Main Event, High Roller and World Cup of Poker final will all be broadcast live on www.PokerStars.tv as well as being broadcast as part of the European Poker Tour Season Six and Latin American Poker Tour Season Three TV series. Please see the PCA 2010 Schedule below*. For more information please visit  http://www.pokerstars.com/caribbean-adventure/

Copyright © 2007 Texasholdem – Poker Stars – Fan Site · Revolution Poker News theme by Brian Gardner · Anmelden