Texas Holdem Poker

John Dolan starts 2nd in chips at this year’s WSOP final table with 46,250,000 in chips. This online pro, who plays online under the name”JRD312,” has numerous strong live tournament performances, including making the final table of $1,000 NL Hold’em Event #36 earlier in the 2010 WSOP and his $94,000 win playing online in a Full Tilt Poker $1k Monday tournament in 2009. John Dolan WSOP final table could be either legendary or short-lived, since the pro has had a tendency in the past to blow through bankrolls. Still, Dolan’s professional record is impressive, boasting over $1 million in lifetime earnings, including nine titles and 91 cashes. Dolan was born in New Jersey but grew up in Bonita Springs, Florida and attended Florida State University, where he studied Business.

Doyle Brunson Reaches Round 2 in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship

One of the poker players in contention is Doyle Brunson in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas. The tournament is unique and there was a lot of speculation if Brunson would be able to play as he had a dental surgery after the Super Bowl which took place last month. Doyle Brunson not only played in the tournament but also reached the Round 2. He defeated Brock “t soprano” Parker to qualify to this round.

In the final hand Brunson had A-Q of diamonds whereas on the other hand Parker had wired pair of eights. His had truly had created a tight spot. Brunson did not need to look back as soon as the queen came in the form of window card. In the round of 32 Brunson will now play Don Cheadle. Cheadle reached the second round by defeating J.P.Kelly.

The first round of the game truly saw the clash of the titans, when Howard Lederer played against Phil Hellmuth. This match was also very interesting like the match between Brunson and Parker. There was a race situation and Hellmuth finally won. In the 2nd round will have to play against Annette Obrestad who is another giant in the industry. He is the winner of the World Series of Poker in 2007 and he reached the second round by beating Orel Hershiser on Friday.

Davin Moon is the other player who qualified to the second round. He was the runner up in the World Series of Poker in 2009. The table on which he played along with Bill Huntress was the ‘quietest table on the set’. Moon held the best hand and showed a K-10 which included ten of clubs. The game also was very interesting and after a point there was no hope for Huntress, the Caesars qualifier to qualify to the second round. In the second round Davin Moon will play against Annie Duke who is a guest columnist in the Poker News Daily.

There were seven players who entered and out of these one was eliminated in the first round. These are the updates on the second round of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship for the year 2010. The action is taking place at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It starts at 1:00pm PT. The winner of the championship will be declared on Sunday after the final match happens that day.

Dutch Poker Players
There are many beloved poker players who come from the Netherlands, some very highly regarded in the poker community. One recently well-known poker player from the Netherlands is Rob Hollink, who took home three wins from the 2008 WSOP, one of which was first place in Event #30, the World Championship Limit Hold ‘em. He also placed 15th in Event #19 Pot-Limit Omaha and 22nd in Event #50 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha.

Another rising star from Amsterdam in the poker world is Noah Boeken, born in 1981. Like many other professional poker players from all parts of the world, his strategy skills came from excelling in the game Magic: The Gathering, which prepped him for a successful career in poker. His big break came from his 1st place win at the 2005 Scandinavian Open when he took down Ram Vaswani for almost $200K.
Boeken is often called Mini-Marcel after his mentor, fellow Dutchman and intercontinental poker champion, Marcel Luske, who is probably the most well-known of Dutch poker players. Luske is also known as the “Flying Dutchman” as he started out playing poker all over Europe, flying from city to city to compete in tournaments. Luske is an avid player at many high-stakes live events and a winner of millions of dollars. This classy poker giant, also from Amsterdam, is the definition of poker etiquette and his stylish air is pleasantly complemented by his acute sense of humor, known for breaking out in song at the tables and wearing upside down sunglasses. Being an older poker player gives him an edge against the young guns that populate the tables these days. He approaches poker with respect and in 2001 was ranked as the number one player in Europe, later to be European Player of the Year in 2003 and 2004. In 2008, he ranked as 150th on the Player of the Year list, up from 884th in 2007. Needless to say, he’s not new to poker.
Luske taught Boeken that there is a place for modesty and respect for yourself and others in poker and in life, in general. Luske has been called “Poker’s Roving Ambassador” for the goodwill he exhibits among his opponents. He embodies the honorable character of the region he represents and teaches Boeken to do the same. These two players are seen together often, representing the past, present, and future of Netherlands poker. Both of these poker players from the Netherlands are proud of the role they have played in Dutch poker, as well as global poker. They have a huge Dutch following, and many of their fans are inspired by them enough to follow in their footsteps. Luske, especially, has done a great job promoting poker as a rather admirable job in the Netherlands.

Sunday’s weekly Texas Holdem Poker Sunday Million Event at Pokerstars is once a month with a $500 buy in. It drew very well with a prize pool of over $1.5 million. Here, the Texas holdem poker action is down to the final four where the players agreed to a chop that left $30,000 to the winner. Player ‘usourcek‘ would only agree to the deal if he was given an extra $5,000. Chip leader at the time, ‘annekechillo‘ agreed to take $5,000 out of his cut to calm ‘usourcek’ and the deal was finalized. The numbers are below.

StaffBryanS [Host]: usourcek: $125,000
StaffBryanS [Host]: annekechillo: $196,750
StaffBryanS [Host]: tayballer: $126,070
StaffBryanS [Host]: hotmark777: $121,175

Play continued and a big hand quickly came up with player annekechillo getting all of hotmark777 ‘s chips in the pot with pocket threes against Ace high for a race. The outcome didn’t go annekechillo ‘s way.

PokerStars Game #15536821205: Tournament #77290333, $500+$30 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXII (100000/200000) – 2008/02/25 – 04:18:34 (ET)
Table ’77290333 283′ 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: usourcek (3262165 in chips)
Seat 2: annekechillo (13273911 in chips)
Seat 4: tayballer (8401976 in chips)
Seat 7: hotmark777 (6931948 in chips)
usourcek: posts the ante 20000
annekechillo: posts the ante 20000
tayballer: posts the ante 20000
hotmark777: posts the ante 20000
hotmark777: posts small blind 100000
usourcek: posts big blind 200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
annekechillo: raises 400000 to 600000
tayballer: folds
hotmark777: raises 1177777 to 1777777
usourcek: folds
annekechillo: raises 11476134 to 13253911 and is all-in
hotmark777: calls 5134171 and is all-in
*** FLOP *** [Jd Ts 4c]
*** TURN *** [Jd Ts 4c] [Qc]
*** RIVER *** [Jd Ts 4c Qc] [Qs]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
hotmark777: shows [Ah Kd] (a straight, Ten to Ace)
annekechillo: shows [3d 3s] (two pair, Queens and Threes)
hotmark777 collected 14103896 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 14103896 | Rake 0
Board [Jd Ts 4c Qc Qs]
Seat 1: usourcek (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 2: annekechillo showed [3d 3s] and lost with two pair, Queens and Threes
Seat 4: tayballer (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 7: hotmark777 (small blind) showed [Ah Kd] and won (14103896) with a straight, Ten to Ace

Annekechillo again got all the money in preflop, this time with King/Jack off against usourcek’s Ace/Nine.

PokerStars Game #15536852267: Tournament #77290333, $500+$30 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXII (100000/200000) – 2008/02/25 – 04:22:37 (ET)
Table ’77290333 283′ 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: usourcek (3302165 in chips)
Seat 2: annekechillo (5141963 in chips)
Seat 4: tayballer (7981976 in chips)
Seat 7: hotmark777 (15443896 in chips)
usourcek: posts the ante 20000
annekechillo: posts the ante 20000
tayballer: posts the ante 20000
hotmark777: posts the ante 20000
annekechillo: posts small blind 100000
tayballer: posts big blind 200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
hotmark777: folds
usourcek: raises 3082165 to 3282165 and is all-in
annekechillo: calls 3182165
tayballer: folds
*** FLOP *** [7d 4d 4h]
*** TURN *** [7d 4d 4h] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [7d 4d 4h Td] [Th]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
annekechillo: shows [Jc Kh] (two pair, Tens and Fours)
usourcek: shows [9d Ac] (two pair, Tens and Fours – Ace kicker)
usourcek collected 6844330 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 6844330 | Rake 0
Board [7d 4d 4h Td Th]
Seat 1: usourcek (button) showed [9d Ac] and won (6844330) with two pair, Tens and Fours
Seat 2: annekechillo (small blind) showed [Jc Kh] and lost with two pair, Tens and Fours
Seat 4: tayballer (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: hotmark777 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

The bad luck didn’t stop there as annekechillo put his tournament at risk with, once again, pocket threes. This time, however, ran into pocket jacks, which ended the player’s impressive run.

PokerStars Game #15536869233: Tournament #77290333, $500+$30 Hold’em No Limit – Level XXXII (100000/200000) – 2008/02/25 – 04:24:51 (ET)
Table ’77290333 283′ 9-max Seat #1 is the button
Seat 1: usourcek (7622107 in chips)
Seat 2: annekechillo (1579798 in chips)
Seat 4: tayballer (7061976 in chips)
Seat 7: hotmark777 (15606119 in chips)
usourcek: posts the ante 20000
annekechillo: posts the ante 20000
tayballer: posts the ante 20000
hotmark777: posts the ante 20000
annekechillo: posts small blind 100000
tayballer: posts big blind 200000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
hotmark777: raises 277777 to 477777
usourcek: folds
annekechillo: raises 1082021 to 1559798 and is all-in
tayballer: folds
hotmark777: calls 1082021
*** FLOP *** [5h 4s 9c]
*** TURN *** [5h 4s 9c] [Td]
*** RIVER *** [5h 4s 9c Td] [5d]
*** SHOW DOWN ***
annekechillo: shows [3c 3d] (two pair, Fives and Threes)
hotmark777: shows [Jd Jh] (two pair, Jacks and Fives)
hotmark777 collected 3399596 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 3399596 | Rake 0
Board [5h 4s 9c Td 5d]
Seat 1: usourcek (button) folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: annekechillo (small blind) showed [3c 3d] and lost with two pair, Fives and Threes
Seat 4: tayballer (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 7: hotmark777 showed [Jd Jh] and won (3399596) with two pair, Jacks and Fives

Shot stacked usourcek ran and ended up making the improbable run to victory and took down the extra $30,000. The final numbers ended this way:

usourcek: $155,000
hotmark777: $121,175
tayballer: $126,070
annekechillo: $196,750
PokerTov: $62, 465
backmanslivs: $46,212
HissiProppen: $33,464
cnew27: $21,034
sami31: $12,429

Keep in mind, the final four players made a deal based on equity when they were at four players.