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POKERSTARS PLAYER JONATHAN DUHAMEL LEADS NOVEMBER NINE AT 2010 WORLD SERIES OF POKER

PokerStars player Jonathan Duhamel is massive chip leader;
Team PokerStars Pros William Thorson and Johnny Lodden enjoy deep runs but falter at final hurdle.
Las Vegas, NV – July 19, 2010 – Thirteen days ago, 7,319 players were gathered at the Rio Hotel in Las
Vegas with dreams of making millions and becoming the 2010 World Series of Poker champion. Now only nine
remain – and two of them are PokerStars players. Canadian Jonathan Duhamel is the massive chip leader and
American Jason Senti the short stack in the battle for poker’s ultimate prize, but all the players will have to wait
124 days until the November final for their next shot at the $8,944,138 first prize.
PokerStars player and former finance student Duhamel, who goes into the final with 65,975,000 in chips, first
hit the limelight when he came tenth at the Season 5 PokerStars European Poker Tour event in Prague, Czech
Republic for €42,800 – his best live result before now. The 22-year-old, from Boucherville near Montreal in
Canada, has already made the money in two events at this year’s World Series – 15th place in a $2,500 NLHE
tourney for $37,276 and 50th in a $1,500 NLHE Six-Max event for $5,724.
He said: “I don’t have much tournament experience. I’m a cash game player but I’m confident in my game. It
was a long day but the longer it was, the better it was for me because I could accumulate more chips.”
Duhamel says he plans to limber up for the November final by competing in some European Poker Tour events
as well as “have fun with my family and friends and relax.”
PokerStars-sponsored Minnesotan Jason Senti, 28, who is the short stack for the final with just 7,725,000
chips, is an internet pro who specialises in cash games. He is also an instructor for an online poker school,
after ditching his job as an electrical engineer some 18 months ago. The $811,823 minimum that he’s
guaranteed as a member of the November Nine dwarfs his best live result to date: 32nd place at the $10,000
World Championship of Heads-Up NLHE event during the 2009 WSOP, which won him $17,987. The other
finalists include Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (14,450,000) andıJohn Racener (19,050,000).
PokerStars-sponsored Brandon Steven, 36, was the final table bubble and returns home to Wichita, Kansas
with $635,011 for his tenth place finish. Steven and his brother Rodney – who busted out of the Main Event on
Day 1 – run health clubs and car dealerships in Kansas and are dedicated fund-raisers for local and national
health charities.
This year’s mammoth $68,798,600 prize pool is the second largest in WSOP history. PokerStars gave away
over a thousand seats to the 2010 WSOP, with more than 800 players accepting the challenge to compete in
the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship Main Event. Out of the 839 PokerStars players who took part,
145 have cashed, notching up at least $14 million so far between them.
The 2010 Main Event showed the strongest ever finish by members of Team PokerStars Pro. Eight made the
money but it was the spectacular runs by Sweden’s William Thorson and Norwegian Johnny Lodden that set
pulses racing. Both made it to the final 27 players of Day 8, the day when the November Nine are decided.
Lodden, the second shortest stack, bust swiftly in 27th place for $317,161 but Thorson seemed a plausible
candidate for the final until his jack-ten of diamonds was thwarted by John Racener’s KK. He was eliminated in
21st place, also for $317,161, the deepest ever WSOP Main Event run by a Team PokerStars Pro.

Other Team PokerStars Pros that finished well in the Main Event included British pro JP Kelly and Gualter
Salles from Brazil, who both survived to Day 6. Salles, a former racing car driver, had a remarkable experience
recovering from just a single $1k chip early on Day 5 to a peak of $1.5 million before busting in 117th place for
$57,102.ı JP Kelly was finally ousted in 111th place, also for $57,102.
New Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst, winner of the PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun event in
Connecticut in April, cashed in 476th place forı$27,519. Her fellow team members Jason Mercier and Greg
DeBora from Canada also min-cashed on Day 5, while Humberto Brenes from Costa Rica andıFriend of
PokerStars Pierre Neuville from Belgium both made the money on Day 4.
Mercier cashed an impressive six times during the whole Series but his best finish was tenth place in the PLO
World Championship for $50,867. Brenes’ 736th place finish in the Main Event, for $19,263, was his 58th WSOP
cash, making him one of the most prolific WSOP earners of all time. He is now in joint sixth place in the “All
Time WSOP Cashes” list.
Young Michiel Sijpkens from Holland was the best-placed PokerStars qualifier in the Main Event. The 21-yearold
from Rotterdam, one of the youngest entrants this year, won his seat only six weeks after his birthday in a
$33 rebuy on PokerStars. He finished 19th for a $317,161 payday. His performance was the second best
Dutch result ever in the Main Event, after Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske came tenth in the Main Event for
$373,000 in 2004.
Outside of the Main Event, Pat Pezzin, one of four new Team PokerStars Pro Canada members, nearly
matched this year’s record for most cashes during the Series with seven overall. Russian Team PokerStars
Pro Alex Kravchenko and Victor Ramdin both cashed six times.
Five Team PokerStars Pros competed in the Tournament of Champions, a $500,000 free-roll whose 27
participants were all WSOP bracelet winners and voted into the event by the public. Daniel Negreanu came
sixth, Barry Greenstein came fifth and former world champion Joe Hachem came fourth, each winning
$25,000.
It’s now become a given that the PokerStars party is the biggest and most spectacular celebration of the World
Series, if not the entire poker year. This year’s gathering was no exception. As well as winning their seats,
accommodation and spending money, PokerStars qualifiers were guests of honour at the lavish bash, mingling
with Team PokerStars Pros and other stars as aerialists, podium dancers, roller-skaters and Canadian singer
Esthero provided non-stop entertainment into the small hours at the spectacular Rain Nightclub. Rap superstar
Snoop Dogg, a keen poker player himself, was the headline act and had the room rocking into the small hours
– a fitting sequel to last year’s performance by Nelly.

DAVID WILLIAMS AND VANESSA SELBST JOIN TEAM POKERSTARS PRO

As the WSOP* main event gets under way, PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker room, last night
announced two great new Team PokerStars Pro signings: seasoned poker pro David Williams and Yale
Law School student Vanessa Selbst join the team.

Williams is one of the most successful poker players of all time, with big results in both No Limit Hold’em
and mixed games. He has performed well playing in the biggest cash games around and to date has
acquired $7,923,630 in live tournament winnings. Like so many others who have gone on to become big
winners, Williams started out playing Magic: The Gathering, the collectible card game, and this ultimately
introduced him to poker.
Success took off for him when he came runner-up to fellow Team PokerStars Pro Greg Raymer in the
2004 WSOP* main event. He may not have taken top spot, but he still walked away with a massive
$3,500,000. This kick-started a fine run of tournament success, including a 7 Card Stud WSOP* bracelet
in 2006. More recently, he took down the WPT Championship for a cool $1,530,537. Williams is also a
big name online, with a PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) title in an 8-Game
tournament for a cash of $107,800 in 2009.

Amazingly, Williams still finds time to play Magic: The Gathering with other poker pros. But as a new
Team PokerStars Pro, he’s looking forward to conjuring up even bigger tournament winnings.
Vanessa Selbst graduated from Yale with a degree in Political Science and is currently studying at Yale
Law School. She’s been a lifelong fan of games, including anything from cards to Pacman, and her love
of poker grew from there. In the space of just a few years, Selbst has built an incredible set of results at
major live tournaments, boasting $1,672,855 in live tournament earnings to date.
She made her first WSOP* final table in 2006, when she finished 7th in a $2,000 No Limit Hold’em
event, winning $101,285. Two years later, she won a WSOP* bracelet playing a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha
event, cashing $227,993 and beating a daunting field of 759. Selbst earned her biggest win earlier this
year, taking top spot in the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun Main Event.
She took down the tournament for a huge cash of $750,000, confirming her status as a highly talented
poker player.

All this, and Selbst is still at Law School. An amazing start to a poker career that, with the backing of
PokerStars, looks set to deliver many more winning verdicts.
Williams and Selbst play online at PokerStars.com using the screen names ‘dwilliams’ and ‘V. Selbst’
respectively. For more details, visit: www.pokerstars.net

POKERSTARS.NET EMPIRE STATE HOLD’EM CHAMPIONSHIP

PokerStars.net is pleased to announce its involvement in The Empire State Hold’em Championship at
Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York.

Running from August 14-18, 2010, The Empire State Hold’em Championship will be sponsored by
PokerStars.net and will feature a $2,500 buy-in main event open to all players of 18 years of age and
older. This is an exciting new collaboration for PokerStars.net in New York State and should prove a
popular draw for many players.

Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona was opened in 1993 and boasts a spacious 32 table poker
room, plus 60 additional tournament tables. It also offers Vegas style gaming, some of the country’s top
award-winning championship golf courses, numerous restaurants and world class entertainment.
All this makes for the ideal venue for the player party, hosted by the resort and PokerStars.net, on the
eve of the main event, on August 13 at 8pm at Lava Night Club.
Jason DiBenedetto, Director of Poker Operations at Turning Stone Resort and Casino, states: “We are
very excited about our new partnership with PokerStars.net and look forward to welcoming players to
Turning Stone Resort for this premier poker event. There will be preliminary events beginning on August
9 leading up to the main event and several events running after the main event through August 22.” For
more details, visit: www.turningstone.com .
As usual, players can win their seats into the Empire State Championship on PokerStars.net. The
package, worth $4,000, includes main event buy-in, six nights’ accommodation and travel expenses.
Qualifying events can be found in the PokerStars.net lobby under tourney >> regional.
However, there will be more going on than just the main event. Team PokerStars.net Pro Vanessa
Rousso will be hosting a ‘Bigslick Boot Camp’ on August 13 at 1pm. Players can win their entry into the
boot camp online at www.pokerstars.net or by buying-in directly via the Boot camp website:
http://www.bigslickbootcamp.com .

“I am very excited about this PokerStars.net sponsored event!” says Rousso. “It’s the perfect setting to
run one of the Bigslick Boot Camps and I’m really excited to be coaching this session the day before the
Main Event.”

For more details on the Empire State Hold’em Championship, go to the website:

http://www.pokerstars.net/poker/promotions/empire-state-championship/

POKERSTARS GRANTED FRENCH LICENCE TO LAUNCH POKERSTARS.FR

PokerStars has announced the launch of PokerStars.fr, a French-only version of the world’s largest
online poker site, after being granted the licence number 0006-PO-2010-06-25 from the Autorité de
Régulation des Jeux en Ligne (ARJEL) to operate in France.

The PokerStars ARJEL application was submitted on May 19, 2010 and met all ARJEL licence
specification requirements. From now on, PokerStars.fr will enable French players initially to play free
money tournaments and sit and gos. PokerStars.fr will begin running cash games once the regulations
of the French government for online poker have been published. This looks likely to happen tomorrow,
Wednesday June 30.

The launch of PokerStars.fr signals a milestone addition to the PokerStars family, following on from
PokerStars being granted a licence to operate PokerStars.it in Italy in October 2008.
“Players on PokerStars.fr will have fantastic new opportunities, not only to play online but to win seats to
famous international poker events like the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour and the World Series
of Poker in Las Vegas,” said Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier. “These tournaments
require players to have the right mix of skill, training and concentration, and PokerStars.fr will be the
perfect place for players to work on that.”
The success of players such as Team PokerStars Pros Grospellier, along with Arnaud Mattern and
Thomas Bichon, has fuelled the phenomenal growth in popularity poker has experienced across France,
along with major tournaments such as those on the PokerStars European Poker Tour, an event of which
is played in Deauville, while the Grand Final takes place in Monte Carlo. In addition, French rugby
international Sebastian Chabal and tennis pro Gaels Monfils are ambassadors for PokerStars and play
online on PokerStars as well as at live PokerStars events.

“PokerStars.fr aims to be one of the leading online poker operators from the day the French market
opens, offering players the best tournaments, promotions and opportunities to win seats at PokerStars
world renowned international tournaments,” said PokerStars French Country Manager Alexandre
Balkany.

For more information, go to: www.pokerstars.fr

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