January 21, 2008
Bertrand Gospellier - also known as ‘ElkY’ online - took down the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure earlier in the week. It couldn’t have been any more perfect for the man who was PokerStars’ first-ever SuperNova status’d player, and obviously one of the most feared tournament players in the world…
Was it any more fitting that a member of Team PokerStars take down the very tournament that bears its namesake? Yes…yes…a thousand times, yes. Here’s the post written on the PokerStars Blog after ElkY’s big win:
“Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier wins the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and $2 million.
Hafiz Khan eliminated in second place, winning $1,094,976
End of the road – That’s it. The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is done. At the end, it was a bluff gone awry for Hafiz Khan in a brief heads-up joust. ElkY, with the chip lead, raised 500,000 pre-flop; Hafiz pushed all in from the big blind. ElkY dwelt for a moment, but not quite as long as you might think for a $2 million decision. Obviously he had some read of Hafiz and called, flipping 8-8. Khan was caught and meekly tabled 9-3. The board bricked and ElkY’s eights were good. The Team PokerStars Pro member from France is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion. Bien, bien ElkY!”
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January 10, 2008
Image courtesy of PokerStarsBlog.com
After 4 grueling days of play, the final table of the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has finally been set. The final group consists of some very solid online and live poker talents, most notably Team PokerStars player ‘ElkY’ and 2007 Cardplayer Player of the Year David “The Dragon” Pham. The event is currently being played as this post is being made and you can follow all the updates of the event at PokerStarsBlog.com. You can also find a live feed by downloading PokerStars today.
Here is the final table list and their chip stacks heading into today’s play:
David Pham 7,390,000
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier 3,060,000
Joe Elpayaa 2,755,000
Haffiz Khan 2,560,000
Kris Kuykendall 2,150,000
Richard Fohrenbach 1,855,000
Craig Hopkins 1,770,000
Christian Harder 905,000
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January 9, 2008
Whew, it’s a New Year (2008, finally!) and I’ve been busy as hell it seems like. On top of attempting to finish AZGambler fully and actually market it more offline, I’ve been trying to work on my other sites and complete a lot of other freelance work. I’m also in the process of buying back my first site, www.PokerOwnage.com. It’s been a long process, but I’m hoping I can get better organized to finish all this shit and move on with getting everyone more updates and whatnot. I’m determined to fully complete a mini-network of sites here soon, and hire some writers to help me out with updates….cuz damn this is getting tiring sometimes, lol. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Hopefully more gambling news will be back on here starting this week! Take care!
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January 3, 2008
Online poker ace Isaac Baron - better known as ‘westmenloAA’ - took home top honors in the race for the CardPlayer Online Player of the Year Award. In a suspenseful final week that saw his nearest competitor, Matt ‘ch0ppy’ Kay, close the gap to just 26 points, it was Baron that would emerge the winner. It was a tight race all the way to the very end, but it was Menlo’s big $200 rebuy win in the closing days that sealed the door shut on ‘ch0ppy.’
The OPOY Award recognizes the top online poker players in the world, and only counts certain large buy-in tournaments from each of the biggest online sites in the world (Stars, Full Tilt, Ultimate Bet, etc) in their points race. Baron started 2007 by winning the $500 Sunday Million for $255,000 - and since then he has really never looked back.
Here are the final standings for the 2007 Cardplayer OPOY Award:
Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron - 8,304 - $1,036,452
Matt “ch0ppy” Kay - 8,278 - $823,067
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 6,676 - $615,419
James “P0KERPR0” Campbell - 5,938 - $616,616
Greg “DuckU” Hobson - 5,922 - $623,004
Luke “Bdbeatslayer” Vrabel - 5,880 - $541,447
“Andy McLEOD” - 5,840 - $537,512
Chad “lilholdem954” Batista - 5,814 - $767,559
Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - 5,770 - $561,886
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December 24, 2007
It’s December 24th, 2007, and Christmas is literally upon us! Just wanted to say that I hope everyone in the state of Arizona and anywhere else around the globe has a great holiday season and a very safe new year! Not much more to add to it, lol — although I would like to say it’s been a crazy year, and I hope that the site can really hit its full potential very soon. Those who have followed and supported me and the site since it was introduced a few months ago have been really great, and I really do think we’ve got some good things in place that could really help AZGambler.com one of the best local web sites in Arizona!
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December 22, 2007
I was chatting with one of our resident pros Brandon last night and he told me about a new game that recently opened up at Fort McDowell. It’s a $30-$60 Mixed game that runs on Wednesdays and Friday at 5 pm. Although the game doesn’t fill up regularly, it still gets some pretty juicy action even with just 5 or 6 players. If you’re looking to test your bankroll and your skills against some semi-decent competition (well, not THAT decent from what Brandon told me, lol), then this might be one of the games you’re looking for.
You can visit Fort McDowell’s website for more information on their poker room, special promotions, as well as game limits and selections.
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December 22, 2007
Online search giants Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft have agreed to settle with the United States Department of Justice over allegations that they “aided and abetted” illegal gambling companies and web sites by allowing them to advertise on their sites.
Although the “Big 3” have prohibited gambling advertisements since 2004, the D.O.J. was unrelenting in their pursuit of financial penalties. Even though the Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft didn’t admit publicly to the charges that they were accused of, they also did not contest them either.
Under the settlement, all three companies will pay a total of $31.5 million, with most of the fines going to charitable organizations, anti-gambling ad campaigns, and of course the U.S. government.
Microsoft paid the most out of the settlement, forking over $21 million alone. Yahoo had the 2nd biggest penalty, shelling out $7.5 million. And Google rounded out the fines by paying out $3 million. These financial penalties paint a clear picture on how the United States government will be treating American companies who choose to promote or advertise online gambling sites.
U.S. District Attorney Catherine Hanaway, who was the lead council on behalf of the D.O.J. during November’s House Judiciary Hearing on online gambling, is also the person responsible for bringing forth this most recent lawsuit against Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft. It is unclear whether her future agenda will stop here, or if there are more lawsuits coming against other companies who are performing the same practices in the United States.
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December 21, 2007
The 2007 WPT Doyle Brunson Classic featured one of the largest prizepools in the history of tournament poker outside the WSOP Main Event and WPT Championship. In fact, after 664 contestants plunked down $15,000 to buy in to the event, the prize pool would exceed $9.6 million alone - all the whole generating a first place prize of almost $2.5 million! The televised final table lineup would include a variety of both live veterans and online upstarts:
David “Devilfish” Ulliot, Ryan Daut, Ken Rosen, Ted Kearly, Jordan Rich, and Eugene Katchalov.
Action was fast-paced and dramatic throughout the entire final table taping, with Ryan Daut going out on the very first hand when his A J bricked out against Ted Kearly’s pocket 8’s. Jordan Rich would then run his pocket Jacks into the pocket Aces of Eugene Katchalov, going out in 5th place shortly after Daut exited the tournament.
From there on out, the young Katchalov steamrolled over the remainder of the competition, subsequently knocking out Ken Rosen and David Ulliot in 4th and 3rd place, respectively. He would take a commanding chiplead heads up against Jordan Rich, and it wouldn’t be long before a new champion would be crowned.
Katchalov had over $16 million in chips against the roughly $3.7 million in chips Rich had in front of him. It would only take 8 hands for the championship to conclude, with Eugene Katchalov hitting 2 pair with his J T versus the one pair of Jordan Rich’s K J on the final hand. The landmark win not only earned Katchalov the $2.4 million first-place prize and a $25k WPT Championship seat, but he was also apart of the FASTEST WPT final table on record. It took only 53 hands of play before the TV final table was shot and wrapped up!
*photo courtesy of CardPlayer.com
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December 20, 2007
My buddy John is hosting a special freeroll tournament over at Full Tilt Poker this weekend, with first prize being one of the hottest-selling items this holiday season — A NINTENDO WII!!! That’s right, he’s actually going to give one of you poor poker degenerates a chance to win one of the most sought-after consoles out there right now…and all you have to do is visit his site at NichePoker and simply sign up for his RSS feed to his site.
It’s quick and easy, and you’ll get updated news from one of the coolest new gambling sites on the web. In addition, you can check out the AZG Forums for more information — oh and did I mention John is putting a bounty on my head??? This should be something really fun to be apart of, so please check out the info immediately to get your ticket in!
Remember, the tournament will be at held at Full Tilt Poker on December 22nd, so mark it on your calendar immediately!
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]
] and won (1450) with four of a kind Queens
]
] and lost with a full house Aces full of Queens 
