Poker News Round-Up: 12/03/09

Poker News Round-Up: 12/03/09

Poker is global, 24/7 entertainment, with exciting off and online poker games taking place all the time. Never miss a story, a bad beat or the latest hot topics with our poker news… Headlines this week include:

Huck Seed Wins NBC Heads-Up Championship
WSOP Starting Chip Format Change
Obama’s Poker Challenge

Huck Seed wins the NBC Heads Up Poker Championships

The 2009 Heads Up Poker Championships attracted some of the biggest names in poker to Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas.  Dwan, Juanda, Hellmuth and Rousso were four of the stars that walked away with a cash payout for their $25,000 seat. 

One player missing from the list was Layne Flack.  Flack had been enjoying himself at the Pure nightclub on the evening before the poker tournament was due to begin.  Several cocktails later, he decided unwisely to drive home.  A boozy Flack was swiftly stopped and arrested by Las Vegas police and spent the next 24 hours in jail.  David Oppenheim took Flack’s place at the Heads Up Poker Championships and managed a creditable 5th place, collecting $75,000 in prize money in the process.

Huck Seed ran out the eventual winner of the tournament.   Seed defeated Vanessa Rousso, of Sports Illustrated fame, in the final of the event to collect the $500,000 winner’s prize.  Rousso, who has been in sparkling form of late, took $250,000 for her efforts.

New chip stacks and new levels for the WSOP 2009

Following several years of criticism from WSOP regulars, new chip stacks and more levels will be introduced to the WSOP festival this year.  Players are set to get ‘more play for their buck’ this time around as all chip stacks will be three times the amount of the tournament buy-in.  The main event will now feature a 30,000 starting chip stack for each player.

Jack Effel,  WSOP Tournament Director, said; “At 2x chips, players didn’t feel like they got a lot of play in the smaller events. With 3x chips, you can play around with the structure and add more levels. It’s a very competitive industry with a lot of tournaments moving to a deep stack format. However, putting on a successful event is difficult unless you really understand the math behind it.”  Effel concluded on the new structure; “It gives players plenty of game for their money.”

Remember you can qualify for the WSOP 2009 at 32Red Poker!

And finally…

…President Obama has been issued with a $1,000,000 poker challenge.  The challenging poker strategy team challenged the American President in a $1 million for $1 challenge match.  If the poker strategy expert wins then Obama would lose $1.  If Obama wins then the online poker room will donate $1 million to a charity of the winner’s choice. A suitable charity like Ford, GMC, the entirety of the US banking systems for example…

Anyway, Obama has yet to respond to the challenge, which has since been made open to any member of the US Congress on the same terms, as the legal debate on poker rumbles on in the United States.