PokerStars SCOOP Event #21-Hi: Spindler Tops Duthie for Heads-up Title

Event #21-Hi of the PokerStars All-Stakes Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) was a $25,500 heads-up no-limit special, featuring a select field of online poker's very best players. There were 32 entrants, with only the final four making the money. The semifinal matches then featured Benny "toweliestar" Spindler against Alex "mistakooll" Keating, and "Dokosoko" vs. John Duthie. 

Benny "toweliestar" Spindler built up an early lead against Alex "mistakooll" Keating before ending their semifinal match at the 30/60 level. In the final hand, Keating min-raised and Spindler called, leading to a  
 flop. Spindler led out 120 and Keating went all in for his last 791. Spindler called with and led Keating's . The turn and river came as Spindler advanced to the finals. Alex "mistakooll" Keating finished in fourth place for $120,000. 

The other semifinal was a back-and-forth battle between Dokosoko and John Duthie, with Duthie taking it down at 100/200/25. Duthie limped in and Dokosoko went all in for 4,072. Duthie called and tabled to Dokosoko's . The board ran out as Duthie's queens held up. Dokosoko finished in third place for $120,000. 

At the start of the championship match, Duthie and Spindler agreed to a deal. Each was guaranteed $250,000 with $60,000 left in the middle for the eventual champion. Spindler's road to the championship included wins over Thomas "tjbentham" Bentham, Andrew "RunThisTable" Lichtenberger, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Keating. Duthie's path to the final match consisted of victories against ScHnibL0r, Daniel "steamraise" Alaei, CADX2 and Dokosoko. 

Spindler built a chip lead in the final that John Duthie could not overcome. In the final hand, with blinds at 40/80/10, Spindler min-raised to 160 and Duthie shoved for his last 1,675. Spindler called with and had Duthie's dominated. The board rolled out with both players rivering the flush, but Duthie's second best to Spindler's. Duthie collected $250,000 for his runner-up showing, with Spindler collecting $310,000 as the champion of PokerStars SCOOP Event #21-Hi. 

Final Results: 

*1. Benny "toweliestar" Spindler -- $310,000 
*2. John Duthie -- $250,000 
3. Dokosoko -- $120,000 
4. Alex "mistakooll" Keating -- $120,000 

* - two-way deal; $60,000 to eventual winner

Source: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/04/pokerstars-scoop-event-21-hi-spindler-tops-duthie-heads-up-1360.htm

Poker Room Review: Tropicana Express, Laughlin, NV

The Tropicana Express is neither the busiest nor the biggest poker room in Laughlin. That distinction goes to a casino right across the street, the Colorado Belle. But if the Tropicana comes in at number two in those categories; it is in first place in one important way. It's the Laughlin poker room with the best sense of humor. 

The staff of this poker room started making jokes and cracking wise as soon as I arrived. When I took out a couple of hundred dollar bills to buy into the game, the dealer asked if I wanted to buy the room or just buy into their $2-6 spread limit 
 
hold'em game. When I asked about tableside food service, I was asked, with a smile, if I wanted to eat or play. When I spoke to the floor and asked about some of the rules, the rake, and the like, I was told that they had a strict English-only rule (as if my slight Eastern accent were not allowed). Yuk, yuk, yuk! 

The ambiance is simple and understated. There is off-white acoustic tile on the ceiling, comfortable contoured chairs with rollers, high-quality (but not fancy) tables with built-in cup holders, and a large wall of glass that stretches the length of the six-table poker room. There are also four tournament tables. There is tableside eating, made easy with small service tables. 

The room boasts many promotions. Earlybirds are treated to a free breakfast sandwich if they play between 8:00 and 9:00 in the morning. This assures a game when the room opens at 7:30 AM. High-hand promotions are generous: $25 for any player who gets quads, $150 for straight flushes, and $599 for any royals. Cracked aces get a spin of the wheel, with prizes from $20 to $500. And between 9:00 AM and 3:00 PM, there's a promotion that may be unique to the Tropicana Express. Players are awarded a "chit" for each hand they win. At the end of each hour, the player with the most chits wins $50. That's a big incentive for loose play, and a major enticement for players like me who want games with loose players! 

I found the level of poker play, generally, to be very beatable. At my table, where I played for about three hours, there was one good player, two very tight and passive players, and five awful, drunk and fun-loving players just in the game to lose their money, which they cheerily did. This was on a Monday night. Weekend action may be even better. I'll gladly return looking for a similar lineup. 

The standard game is the $2-6 spread limit game that I played in. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday night there might be a $4/8 limit game or a $1/2 no-limit game, I was told by the poker room manager, though neither runs all the time. There's a $30 tournament at 6:30 PM on Tuesday and Thursday, and a Saturday event at 2:00 PM. Cash games tend to go at least until midnight – and sometimes all night. Best to call ahead to check on the action if you're planning on arriving after 11:00 PM. When I was there on a Monday night from 10:00 PM until about 1:00 AM there were two tables of $2-6 hold'em going. 

The house rakes 10% up to a $3 maximum. They also drop $2 for the many promotions. Players earn $1.25 an hour with a Tropicana players club card. Drinks are free and food is very reasonably priced. Most sandwiches are in the $5 range. There's also a steakhouse that got very high marks from all the players and staff. The menu is pricey – between $20 and $40 for a steak. I was assured it was well worth the money. 

All in all. I really liked this room, in particular the festive mood created by the fun-loving staff. Most of all, I enjoyed the action from the loose players; they added to my bottom line. And that's no laughing matter.

Source: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/04/poker-room-review-tropicana-express-laughlin-nv-1352.htm

Everest Poker Announces $1 Million Match WSOP Promotion

The online poker site Everest Poker has come up with a unique promotion that stands to benefit all players who qualify for the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event via the site. Everest will be tracking the progress of all players who qualify for the WSOP Main Event through the site, totaling the winnings of those who cash. Whatever that figure turns out to be, Everest will then match that total up to $1 million, redistributing the amount evenly among all of the players who qualified for the Main Event via the site. 

The promotion, called the $1 Million Match, means that all players who qualify via Everest have a chance 
to make some extra money, even if they are knocked out early on Day 1. For example, if 100 players were to earn their WSOP Main Event seats through Everest, and among those a dozen players cashed for a combined total of $500,000, Everest would then match that $500,000 by awarding each of the 100 players $5,000 each. 

According to Sondre Wasses, Nordic Regional Manager of Everest Gaming, the site made an effort last year -- the site's first year as a WSOP official sponsor -- to encourage more European players to go to the World Series. "This year," says Wasses, "we want to reward that loyalty by offering a knock-out reason to qualify with us. This bonus gives everybody hope of winning something even if they are out early." An extra benefit, says Wasses, will be "an added sense of camaraderie to all those [who] qualified with us." 

There are many ways to qualify for the WSOP via Everest Poker, some for as little as $3. Check out Everest Poker for information about the Steps sit-'n'-gos and other scheduled tournaments. [Note: Promotion not available to US residents.]

Source: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/04/everest-poker-announces-million-match-wsop-promotion-1349.htm

The PokerNews Profile: Alex Kravchenko

His stare can send shivers down your spine. From behind shiny aviator glasses, he sits stoically at the tables, his cool silence giving away nary a tell. Alex Kravchenko hardly cracked a smile when he won his first WSOP bracelet in 2007, but the hardware he brought home to Moscow ended up inspiring an entire nation of poker players. (Ivan Demidov was one of them, rolling up a stake and heading to Las Vegas the following summer and ending up $5.6 million richer as the 2008 Main Event runner-up.) Now, poker is booming in Russia. Some of the biggest cash games in the world are played in Moscow. There's a new Russian Poker Tour sponsored by PokerStars. And it's impossible not to link many of these new 
 
developments to the stunning success Alex Kravchenko has enjoyed over the last two years on the world poker stage. 

Alex Kravchenko was born on April 21, 1971 in Arkhangesk, in the northwestern part of what was then the Soviet Union. While enjoying a successful first career as a business investor, Kravchenko started frequenting some of the casinos in and around Moscow. He started off playing blackjack, but soon discovered he could beat the game of Oasis Poker, a Caribbean Stud variant. In short order, Kravchenko began making more money in the casinos than he did in business. By 1997, Texas hold'em had been introduced in the Moscow casinos and Kravchenko began playing in cash games and small buy-in tournaments, all while still working his day job. His first taste of tournament success came in the 1999 Moscow International tournament series at the Cosmos Card Club, where he made three final tables in no-limit hold'em and seven-card stud events. 

Within a year, Kravchenko was traveling around Europe for poker tournaments. He made two final tables at the 2001 Austrian Masters, and notched his first tournament victory in the ATS2,000 pot-limit Omaha event. Kravchenko continued racking up the cashes over the next two years, making final tables in Paris, Helsinki, Barcelona, St. Petersburg, and his hometown of Moscow. Before anyone had ever heard the name Chris Moneymaker, Kravchenko had already earned nearly $175,000 from live tournament play. 

In 2004, Kravchenko played his first World Poker Tour events, cashing in the Aruba Poker Classic and the Grand Prix de Paris. It wasn't until 2006, though, that he started traveling on a more full-time basis for major tournaments. Kravchenko cashed the 2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and made the final table of a €1,000 side event at the EPT Monte Carlo before heading out to Las Vegas for the 2006 WSOP. He cashed twice at the series, both times in pot-limit Omaha events, and earned seventh and tenth place finishes down the street at two Bellagio Cup II events. Close, but no cigar for Kravchenko, who returned home to Moscow for another long Russian winter. 

2007, however would prove to be Kravchenko's breakout year. He won his first WSOP bracelet in one of the first events of the series, the $1,500 Omaha 8-or-better event, for a $228,446 score, and went on to cash in four more preliminary events, including a ninth-place finish in the $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Kravchenko's biggest splash would come in the Main Event, though, where he finished fourth place out of 6,358 entrants. Kravchenko won over $1.8 million for his finish and got a huge amount of face time on ESPN in the process. Soon after the WSOP, he picked up sponsorship from PokerStars, signing on as a member of Team PokerStars Pro. 

Kravchenko traveled the European circuit that fall, making another final table at the WSOP-Europe's £2,500 H.O.R.S.E. event. He got even more television exposure competing in the PartyPoker Premier League in London, and cashed twice on the EPT, finishing 17th in Baden and 36th in Copenhagen. Back in the U.S.A. at the 2008 WSOP, Kravchenko racked up two more cashes, finishing 13th in $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud and 27th in $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold'em. His best tournament finish in '08, however, came at Baden's Poker EM, where he finished runner-up to Sandra Naujoks in the €4,000 No-Limit Hold'em event for $171,631. 

Outside of poker, Kravchenko enjoys playing basketball and tennis and spending time with his wife and children. He still calls Moscow, Russia home.

Source: http://www.pokernews.com/news/2009/04/pokernews-profile-alex-kravchenko-1346.htm