EN
FR
Annie RKH
Follow

Meet Sara Chafak: A Beauty Queen of Many Talents

Finnish celebrity Sara Chafak has been the talk (and feast for the eyes!) of the world poker community ever since the airing of the latest PokerStars Shark Cage episode. Miss Finland famously sent professional player @Ronnie Bardah to the cage, pulling off an amazing bluff against his trips.

PokerStars Shark Cage, Ep. 7

The 24-year-old  owes her exotic beauty to her Moroccan father and Finish mother and has amassed an impressive resume for her age. She studied Marketing and Economics for a while, then finished culinary school,  and is now a professional chef with her own TV show in Finland. In-between she won Miss Suomi 2012 and represented Finland in Miss Uiverse 2012.

 

The next year Sara was one of the celebrities in the Finnish edition of the Dancing on Ice reality TV competition, in which she and her partner finished third. 

Photo: Jussi Helttunen

Singing is another one of her interests and hobbies. Finnish rap duo JVG has released a song named after her and Sara Chafak features in the video:

JVG Ft. Mikael Gabriel - $ara Chafak REMIX

Winning beauty pageants, singing, cooking, ice-skating - Sara loves a challenge and the cameras and audiences love her back so it's hardly surprising she ended up in televised poker. She first learned the game from her boyfriend when she was 19 and was hooked immediately. In Shark Cage 7 she joins a brilliant line-up including @Eugene Katchalov @Kara Scott  @Jean-Robert Bellande. Watch her in action:

"Who's the fish now..." 

24Kitchen Best of Sara Chafak!

There are more Chafak moments to enjoy in the full Shark Cage episode, which you can watch on YouTube (with commentary by EPTLive co-hosts Joe Stapleton and James Hartigan).

And if you can't get enough of her, head to www.highendmanagement.com and treat yourself to a whole gallery of Chafak photos :)

#womenINpoker 

Marketing, Cooking, Economic, Dancing, Singing, Iceskating, Poker... interesting mix :)

cheers to her

How Good Table Manners Can Take You to Premier League Tables in Poker

German poker pro @Sebastian Langrock became a milionaire in 2013. However, NOT by winning a major live high-roller or high-stakes cash game. He did it by answering correctly 15 questions in the German edition of the popular TV show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"! The prize money allowed the professional poker player and football fan to move on up "from the second division  to the Premier League in poker".

Langrock's performance in the show was the result of 6 months of preparation and demonstrated not just his general knowledge, but his ability to make smart decisions under pressure and readiness to take risks. All of which are qualities that he has been putting to good use at the poker tables. 

The 37-year old player from Munich had already been making a living from poker for 5 years when he appeared in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Sebastian first learned to play cards when he was 5 and had known for a long time that poker was the only career path that he wanted to pursue because of the freedom and excitement it offered.

As he shared in his winner's interviews, the one million just meant he would leave the second division and enter the Premier League of poker! His five-year goal? The Champions League :)

Yesterday Sebastian Langrock took another step toward this goal. He made it to the final table in WPT National Prague and finished 3rd for $57,339 - his biggest score to date. 

PokerNews Live Reporting

 

GL to Sebastian in his poker future and meanwhile, here is the final one-million-euro question that he answered correctly:

Who should be familiar with the 'twenty past four' position?

a. driving instructor b. karate master c. waiter d. landscape architect

Langrock had chosen to play the newly introduced Risk Mode format, where players are given an extra, fourth lifeline but forfeit the last 'safe haven'. Any wrong answer to the final questions 11-15 would have sent him home with only €500! As it happened, the one-time waiter never even needed his remaining lifeline and gave the right answer even before the option came up on the screen :)

 

Table etiquette:

When finished, place your knife and fork together in the "twenty past four" position, as if your plate were the face of the clock, with the knife on the outside and the fork on the inside.  

 

 

 

 

 

 


Jauchs "Wer wird Millionär?": So zockte sich der Pokerspieler zur Million - SPIEGEL ONLINELange überlegen musste Sebastian Langrock nicht: Ohne seinen letzten Joker einzusetzen, beantwortete er die Millionenfrage bei Günther Jauchs "Wer wird Millionär". Wären Sie auch so weit gekommen wie der Münchner Poker-Profi? Testen Sie Ihr Wissen!www.spiegel.de

 

Wer-wird-Millionär-Gewinner aus München Vor einem Jahr gewann Sebastian Langrock in der Sendung "Wer wird Millionär" eine Million Euro, und jetzt? Ist er nicht glücklicher. www.sueddeutsche.de

Surprising article, thanks Annie ;).

Weekly RankingHero Highlights

Our AspersCastle Mission is picking up speed and we've added three more days and £100 to the prize package (now you can win £300 to cover expenses besides the £200 buy-in)! Special welcome to @Mark Duguid and all of our friends from the Ace High Poker Group on Facebook! Good luck to @Chris McPhee @Laszlo   @Alessio Bianchi @Adam Piotrowski and the big French group that has now entered the race led by @Jason Matthieu @Pvbart and @Jinna to mention a few! 

The most-liked entry in the AspersCastle Mission by Wednesday 10 December will win its author a £500 package for the 25K GTD Christmas Cracker Tournament at the @Aspers Casino - Westfield Stratford City where the hosts will have lots of surprises and gifts for the players :)

This week we introduced to the community our Last Longer winner and 6th place finisher in the Unibet Open Main Event  - @Paulo Rodrigues! He is an amateur player from Portugal who has long been a regular in @Unibet Open events - find out more about Paulo from his interview

You will be pleased to know that we are adding more functions at your service and there is now a hand sharing tool in the post editor (from pokerhandreplays.com for now, with more to come soon!)

Other highlights of the past week that you may have missed:

The Two Things You Need to Know About Poker Home Games - As Seen on 'Friends'

The Four Challenges of Poker Photography

Girls Want to Have Fun Even With $100,000 on the Poker Table

Our attention will now be turning to the WPT National Series with the final day of WPT Paris tomorrow and the WPT Prague reaching its final phase as we write. The results will be up soon and we hope to have some good news from RankingHero members :)   

Thank you for sharing your poker knowledge and lessons learned (French speaking members will enjoy this post about GTO by @Sylvain Ribes) and hope to see you on Facebook and Twitter, too!

Yours truly,

@Annie RKH 

#RKHweekly 

4 Comments Display all

thanks RKH team you are great

 most of you have been fun & creative, GG !!

Welcome to Mark Duguid and all of our new friends from Ace High Group :)

@Mark Duguid is one of our new UK members and founder of the poker-dedicated Ace High Facebook group. Thanks to the support from his friends and followers on social media, he is one of the leaders by likes in the AspersCastle mission :)

You can watch his interview and find out how to pronounce his family name :) in this video from the Genting Poker Series Edinburgh!

We hope that, as the founder of the FB group, Mark will set up a second home for it on RankingHero by creating an Ace High Club page! All the more that members with linked accounts can post directly to Facebook and Twitter from our website and with the latest edition to the editor tools, they can now share hands from pokerhandreplays.com!

9 Comments Display all

Welcome !!!

Girls Want to Have Fun Even With $100,000 on the Poker Table

The first all-female Poker Night in America was one televised cash game with such great table talk that, with better sound, it might work as a podcast as well :) The laughter and chatter never stops, right up to the last group photo and final chip count:

The leading ladies of U.S. poker cover every possible conversation topic, including - but not limited to - 'girly' talk about shopping, relationships and children. The only silent poker faces at the table at any one time are those directly involved in the action and even then, they are just a joke away from breaking out in a big smile. Thank you, ladies, and looking forward to the continuation (hint hint to quote dmoongirl ;)

Here is a taste of the action with a hand in which everyone seemed to have a reason to see the flop:

 

 Read on #womenINpoker :

The New Poker Role Models - Danielle Andersen

Vanessa Selbst has Long Outgrown the Female Poker Rankings

Ebony Kenney Bio and Poker Profile

 

Ranking Worldwide Women: all time by earnings (3,729 players)

 

YouTube: Ladies' Night - Seminole Hard Rock - Part 2 (12.0214)

Very cool video ;)

ahah :)))  #ladiesnight 

True Hero of Amateur Poker: Meet Unibet Open Finalist & RankingHero Last Longer Winner Paulo Rodrigues

Poker media and fans sometimes get so engrossed in the big winners and stars of the game that we tend to forget the ranks and file of live tournament poker - the amateurs with real day jobs who have to save up vacation days and money to play half a dozen tournaments each year; who are struggling to overcome more or less vocal family disapproval; who have to juggle relationships, work,  and the all-consuming passion for poker...

All the more reasons to be really happy when one of our own gets the occasional break. A more important cash or final table in a tournament make the daily grind, sleep deprivation, and frustration worthwhile and are all the more rewarding when you have a community such as RankingHero to share it with. 

Please give a warm welcome to our latest Last Longer winner - @Paulo Rodrigues, who took the RankingHero patch to the final table in Unibet Open and finished 6th! 

Paulo, you come from Torres Vedras, Portugal. Please tell us a little bit more about yourself - how old are you, where do you live, how do you make your living?

Torres Vedras is a little town north of Lisboa, near the coast. I am 35 years old.
I work in marketing/communication at the airport at the moment. I have had this job for 8 years and I really enjoy it.

How big a part does poker play in your life?

Poker is a passion or a hobby or a good addiction, whatever you want to call it. I started poker around 2008 and have played since. Everyday I read, play or watch poker as I feel this is the way to improve your game.

Have you ever had any problems with family, work, friends or girlfriends because of poker?

 I never had problems with my work but as I have conservative parents they really don’t like it as they see it as gambling and are afraid of addiction. They have slowly gotten used to the idea, also some positive results helps with that. Maintaining a relationship in combination with poker is a real challenge for me as many girls don’t accept it; they first say they do but as poker takes up a lot of time (if you have the drive to get better) it’s hard and we have all heard the phrase "are you playing again”. I therefore struggle a bit with balancing poker and a relationship.

Are you passionate about any other games? 

I have always been competitive, whether it was soccer, tennis, basketball or just video games. Always wanting to get better and win.

Would you rather have Portugal win the WSOP Main Event or the FIFA World Cup?

I would love to have a small country like Portugal win the world cup, it would give the Portuguese so much joy and pride in a time when a lot of people struggle financially. Soccer is a big deal in Portugal.

Portugal winning the WSOP is less significant as poker is of course not so big as football and this would make less of an impact. Of course I will give it a shot in 2015 or 2016 as I am planning to play it.

What do you love and hate most about poker? Do you prefer online or live poker?

I love tournaments, I love to get far, to see players drop and managing to survive and get as far as possible. I definitely like live poker more than online. Unfortunately I don’t get to play a lot of live tournaments a year so I play online every Sunday. What I hate about poker - probably the river :) To be honest, there aren’t a lot of things I hate and I can’t think of any now.

Which is a stronger motivation to play - the thrill of competition or the money?

For sure the thrill, but the money gives you the extra motivation to play focused and to make the right decision every single time.

Do you have any regrets about how you played in the latest Unibet Open at @Aspers Casino - Westfield Stratford City? A specific hand from the final table that you wish you could replay or one that you are happy with? Which of the other finalists made the strongest impression on you?

I don’t have any regrets about my play, even after watching it on youtube and seeing the cards I made the right decisions and played focused. Of course we all regret playing the last hand but I can accept losing after getting all my chips in with the nuts. I think all finalists were equal and if you study the final table, the player with the best hands won in the end. I don’t feel that anyone outplayed the others. I thought there were 2 or 3 weaker players but the rest were equal.

 

Did it bother you to play at a TV table? Did it change anything in your game?

It didn’t bother me at all, I think it made me even play better and more focused.

You have five tournament cashes recorded in our database - the three biggest ones from Unibet Open events. What is it about the @Unibet Open tour that you like best?

Unibet Opens are fun and exciting. You always see the same players, which is nice. I've played 11 Unibet Opens and I will keep playing them. The staff is nice. The structure of the tournament is good and of course the Unibet parties are outstanding. I can recommend to all players to play a Unibet Open to experience it.

By the way, this is the second time you finish 6th in an Unibet Open - do you make a big deal of such things? Are you superstitious? Do you have any special ritual before or during a tournament?

This 6th place was totally different from my first Unibet Open final. In St. Maarten I was short-stacked and mainly focusing on the money jumps. Whereas in this final I was playing to win. I was long time second in chips and felt like I could really win it. Finishing twice in the 6th position is a pure coincidence.

Before a tournament I try to get a good rest so that I can be focused to play a long day and to reach the second day. 

When did you first visit RankingHero? What is your impression of the site so far?

I didn’t know your site before I entered the Last Longer competition. So having two hostesses and this competition made me get to know your site. The site looks amazing. I see it as a combination of Facebook and HendonMob.

Which players would you put in your customized leaderboard on RankingHero? 

I haven’t looked at this feature, but obviously it is fun to have some friends on it so that you can compete. 

Would you share a playlist or album that you like to listen to while playing?

I don’t listen to music while playing. I have tried that but I feel that on long poker days it will make me more tired and I prefer to be focused on the table and socialize with other players

Have you thought about any New Year Poker Resolutions? What are your goals in poker for 2015?

I try to play a minimum of 5 or 6 live tournaments a year. The goals I have are to improve my ITM percentage and be profitable and enjoy the game.

Good luck and thank you, Paulo, for taking the time to answer our questions! I sincerely hope you will find among us lots of recognition, friends, and maybe even a poker-playing girlfriend who will not be nagging you with the eternal question "Are you playing again?"... :)

Photo credit: Tambet Kask, Unibet Open

GG Paulo Rodrigues :) very interesting interview 

The Two Things You Need to Know About Poker Home Games - As Seen on 'Friends'

Back in the days of five-card draw poker and Friends Season 1, guess which character famously threw away a pair of Jacks 'because they didn't look happy'?..

Watch "The One With All The Poker" where Phoebe just needs "ten of spades and the six of clubs" and Joey gives his home game lesson Number 1:

"It's a poker game. You can't serve anything with more than one syllable."

 

Ross sums it all up in Lesson Number 2:

Look, Rachel, this is poker. I play to win, alright? In order for me to win, other people have to lose. So if you're gonna play poker with me, don't expect me to be a 'nice guy,' OK?

Oh well poker sucks, let's play Bamboozle ! 

I remember the sad kings hahahah love the movie

The Four Challenges of Poker Photography

Christmas is coming and it's time to count our blessings and say our thank yous. This is a shout-out for the other pros in live tournament poker - the invisible women and men with the cameras! The best of them manage to capture moments of triumph, weakness and pain. The very best give us a glimpse of the personalities behind the poker faces.

Christian Zetzsche by Harry Brouwer

So what stands between a photographer and a great poker shot? Professional poker photographer Tambet Kask identifies the following four things that make the genre special and challenging:

1. Low Light

Dim lighting is a nightmare for photographers and the first and foremost challenge they have to deal with in live poker. Moreover, without recourse to flash, as it is strictly forbidden in poker tournaments..

2. “Pokerface” and emotions 

You need to be patient, alert, and invisible in order to catch any emotion that might break down a player's poker face for a second.

3. Focus

To keep the images sharp you have to choose the right settings for the camera, reacting quickly to the slightest change in the environment.

4. Details

You must remain the artist throughout, thinking about composition and angle all while adjusting ISO, shutter speed, aperture, and waiting for that burst of emotion on your target's face.

Read the post by Tambet Kask, So what is so special about poker photography? on www.klamberproductions.com

All of the above makes even more impressive the work of the poker photographers who have mastered the challenges of the profession and have been making us feel closer to the players we like and the poker action we crave!

Respect and thank you, Melissa Haereiti, Jayne Furman, Alin Ivanov, Tambet Kask, Franҫois-Xavier Thiébaud, Christian Zetzsche, Joe Giron, Neil Stoddart, to name just a few!..   

Neil Stoddart by Lina Olofsson

 

 

 

Being around poker players is kind of like being around successful musicians because the ego is there, the bankroll is there and you're dealing with some really interesting characters and personalities,” Giron told PokerListings.com.

For me the essence is going beyond the basic poker-face photography and capturing images that tell a story about what these players are going through to become champions, or the dejection of getting so close and falling short.”

 

 

 

 

Joe Giron, www.joegironphotography.com

Allin Ivanov by Christian Zetzsche

Poker photography by Franҫois-Xavier Thiébaud:

 

Read on:

Tech Tips: How to Take Great Poker Photos

Capturing the cards in photography—Beginner’s pointers for poker photography

Christian Zetzsche blog: To fold or not to call?!

PokerNews: Poker Jobs: Poker Photographer Alin Ivanov "Pursue Your Passion and Start with Your iPhone"

PokerListings: Franҫois-Xavier Thiébaud: "Poker is a Present for Any Photographer“

RankingHero Founders Lead Community Back to Fun in Poker

Sometimes you don't even have to play in order to have fun in poker! @Lucille Cailly @Pedro Canali and @Nicolas Levi join the community's latest mission - #AspersCastle and build their own castles of fun:

Don't worry, our Ambassadors are disqualified by default! So don't be intimidated and post your own improvisation on the theme of poker chips & playing cards.

There's a great prize up for grabs and you will be amazed what a little burst of creativity on the side can do for your poker morale at the tables!

Just follow these three simple steps:

1. Arrange a deck of cards or some chips in a fun way

2. Take a snapshot, upload it, and share it with the hashtag #AspersCastle

3. Collect the most likes and win a trip to play at Aspers Stratford!

 

MORE INFO | PLAY NOW!

RankingHero Last Longer Winner Paulo Rodrigues Takes the Patch All the Way to 6th Place in Unibet Open

One hundred players joined the RankingHero community from @Aspers Casino - Westfield Stratford City in the past week and wore our patch in the @Unibet Open Main Event! TWO of them made it all the way to the final table.

Congratulations to @Tomasz Kozub who finished 9th for £6700, and to @Paulo Rodrigues , winner of the RankingHero Last Longer and 6th place finisher in the Main Event, for £13500!

Watch the last hand for the RankingHero patch and Paulo Rodrigues in the Unibet Open

 Unibet Open Final Day Live Webcast

Watch Tomasz Kobuz in his last hand at the final table

Visit our photo album of Last Longer entrants on Facebook!

Don't forget to enter the latest mission on RankingHero - go to #AspersCastle and find out how you can win a £400 prize package!

GG to the winners ! You can come and see my post for the mission aspers ;) vote for it if you like it

VGG to all... it's nice to see all these patches being displayed on TV !

congrats