Past, Current, and Upcoming Poker Events Around the World

From Macau, through Montreal, to Cannes - there is more to poker than the WSOP! In the few hours until play resumes at the Rio in Vegas we take a look at three poker events elsewhere in the world:

Just finished:

The PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour, Season 8, Macau, 21-25 May 2014, where the prize pool reached $3,349,064!

Main event winner @Jiajun Liu , long-time pro and High-Roller winner @JJ Liu and @Celina Lin, with three ITM finishes at APPT8 Macau!

Final Table in progress:

Main Event (2 million CAD guaranteed prize pool) in the 2014 PokerStars Canada Cup, @Playground Poker, 16-28 May, 2014

Don't miss the live stream with commentators Joe Stapleton and James Hartigan on PokerStars.tv!

The Bubble Boy who finished 10th on Day 4, @Antonio Esfandiari :

Just about to start:

The PMU.fr World Poker Tour National Cannes, 29 May-1 June, 2014

The final hand last year, with winner @Guillaume Darcourt :

WPT N Cannes 2013 - Main Finale by PartyPokerfr

The Mixed Max - Third Most Expensive Buy-In Event in 2014 WSOP

The four-day 25K Mixed Max event has the third most expensive buy-in on the 2014 WSOP schedule (after The Big One for One Drop and the 50k Poker Players' Championship). It brought in 131 entries for a prizepool of $3,111,250. The field is studded with stars, one of whom will pocket the first-place prize of $871,148:

The Mixed Max will run for 4 days with a different variant each day:

Day 1- nine-handed; Day 2 - six-handed; Day 3 - four-handed; Day 4 - heads up (big stack vs short stack, and the two middle stacks pitted against each other).

Unsurprisingly, the interesting structure and big prizepool drew most of the stars of poker to the field. Even the early eliminations in this #WSOP2  event read like fantasy poker team lists:  @Marvin Rettenmaier  @Sorel Mizzi @Jennifer Tilly @Dimitar Danchev and @Scott Seiver were all sent to the rail. 

You know it's #WSOP season when you get a poker news update like "Ivey check-raises Hellmuth" - check back often on RankingHero and hopefully we'll have many such poker moments:

phil_hellmuth ‏@phil_hellmuth  12m

Somehow down to 46k (from 75k): folded Ad-Jd on As-Qd-10c flop; then folded Ac-Jc on this board Jd-8d-4d-7s-8d. Both hands vs @PhilIvey

Read on:

Happy 2014 WSOP! First event under way!

The 25K WOSP Fantasy Draft

Sacramento Hero JC Tran With a Hometown WPT Victory

Negreanu and Ivey With Public Offering of WSOP Bracelet Bet

Phil Hellmuth Shines Among Top 10 Players by All-Time Combined WSOP Earnings

Happy 2014 WSOP! First event under way!

The #wsop14 kicks off with a rain of 1$ bills in the Brasilia room and the first Casino Employees event. 769 entries so far, with late registration open until Level 5. GL!

45th Annual World Series of Poker

The 25K WSOP Fantasy Draft at the Aria on May 26th

What? It began in 2011 - an event where teams made up of poker media & industry professionals and top players compete among each other with draft lists of eight players participating in #WSOP. Jason Mercier was in the winning team the first two years, and last year it was Matthew Waxman's team that emerged victorius. Both are actively involved in 2014, as well.

Where & when? @Aria Resort and Casino with live reporting by PokerNews; draft came to a close last night. Now the drafted players will be earning #fantasy points for their teams throughout the WSOP (Rules).

Who? @Jason Mercier @Daniel Negreanu @Robert Mizrachi @Todd Brunson @Jason Somerville @Matt Waxman  are just some of the team members - full info about the teams and draft is expected today on the event website: http://www.25kfantasy.com/ and on PokerNews.

Why? Sounds like pure fun? It is actually quite serious business, with a $25,000 buy-in and an impressive resulting prizepool! In 2011 the first-place prize was $225,00, in 2012 - 178,750, and in 2013 - $210,000.

Posted by PokerNews on Twitter. The TeamMedia draft: @Phil Ivey  @Stephen Chidwick  @Andrey Zaichenko  @Chris George @Martin Jacobsen  @Faraz Jaka @Jeff Madsen @Greg Merson 

You can see the draft results for all 12 teams posted by Daniel Negreanu here

Follow the #25Kfantasy and #TeamMedia hashtags on Twitter for fun exchanges between the competing teams. Don't forget, the 45th Annual World Series of Poker kicks off today, May 27th with the Employee NLHE Event. 

Take a look at some of our featured rankings:

Phil Hellmuth Shines Among Top 10 Players by All-Time Combined WSOP Earnings

The Ten WSOP Main Event Winners in the Post-Moneymaker Poker Era

Viva Las Vegas - Elvis Landmarks in the Entertainment Capital of the World

Elvis has a special place in the heart of the Entertainment Capital of the World and judging by the hundreds of Vegas venues and businesses using his name and image, the king of rock 'n' roll has been returning the love in dollars :)

This year marks the 50th aniversary of the release of one of the best-liked films starring Elvis - Viva Las Vegas, with Ann-Margaret (where Elvis plays a racing car driver trying to raise money for a new engine so he can take part in the first Vegas Grand Prix).

The same-titled song only became a hit later, even though Elvis apparently never performed it live.

In fact, Elvis made his unsuccessful Vegas debut when he was 21 and already a nationwide sensation - in 1956 at the New Frontier Hotel.

He was not well-received by the Vegas audience of the time and would not return again as a performer until 1969. The year marked the beginning of a seven-year-long successful collaboration with the International, now Las Vegas Hotel and Casino - with a total of 837 sold-out performances in front of 2.5 million people.

Meanwhile, in 1967, Elvis had formed yet another bond with Las Vegas. He married his fiancée, Priscilla on May 1, in a private ceremony at the Aladdin hotel. 

Little did they know that their wedding would later inspire an entire industry of Elvis-themed wedding chapels and impersonators. One of these is The Little Church of the West - the oldest wedding chapel in Vegas and the one featured in the Viva Las Vegas movie (and listed in the National registry of Historical Places).

Today "Elvis Slept Here" signs can be spotted across Las Vegas and he is even present in restaurant menus. The Hard Rock Cafe features an entire Elvis wall, with a life-size statue of the King, some of his guitars and gold albums.

Of course, one other Vegas industry in which "Elvis never left the building" is show business. The world famous Cirque du Soleil created a special show dedicated to the King - Viva Elvis, which ran for two years at the @Aria Resort and Casino. Another attraction are the Flying Elvi (a ten-member sky-diving team of Elvis impersonators). Currently running music shows include: Legends in Concert at the Flamingo Hotel and Million Dollar Quartet, at Harrah's. 

Elvis fans and art lovers will be sorry to hear that the much acclaimed "Warhol Out West" exhibition at the @Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art is no longer on view. In 2013 Vegas visitors could see the iconic "Double Elvis" and more than 50 other works by Andy Warhol at the Bellagio Gallery.

List of Elvis-themed restaurants in Vegas here 

Buy tickets for Elvis shows in Vegas here

Viva Las Vegas wedding packages 

More on RankingHero and #VegasBaby :

Bellagio Treats for Poker Playing Art Lovers

So you're flying to Vegas baby?..

Phil Hellmuth Shines Among Top 10 Players by All-Time Combined WSOP Earnings

With the WSOP National Championship just finished in Atlantic City (congrats, @Dominik Nitsche!) and the 45th Annual World Series of Poker about to kick off in Vegas, we take a look at the top ten players by all-time combined #WSOP earnings (Circuit and Series):

Seven of the top ten are main event winners and the bulk of their WSOP earnings come from a single cash;

Two (@Antonio Esfandiari and @Sam Trickett) owe their position to enormous cashes in the 2012 Big One for One Drop, and

One is an impressively consistent player (and winner!) with an amazing number of 102 ITM finishes in WSOP over the 26 years since he first cashed in a WSOP event (1988) - the outrageous and yet immensely popular @Phil Hellmuth!

This year, the 'Bad Boy of Poker' celebrates his 50th birthday and the 25th anniversary since he won a WSOP Main Event in 1989 (and the first of his 13 bracelets), and we hope he will remain as scandalously entertaining and successful for at least another 25 years!

"My 50th birthday is this summer, my 25th wedding anniversary is coming up, and of course, my 25th anniversary of winning the main event. Oh my goodness!"

Another WSOP ranking:

The Ten WSOP Main Event Winners in the Post-Moneymaker Poker Era

Weekly RankingHero Highlights

#VegasBaby on our mind and in our hearts this week, with flying-to-Vegas tips and the Sixth Commandments of @Nicolas Levi; art at the legendary @Bellagio; the poker strategy challenges in VegasHero Mission 6 with ambassador @Guillaume De La Gorce; #WSOP Main Event winners and alarming news about ID requirements concerning WSOP players.

Featured player: SCOOP 10K Main Event winner, Ivan Soshnikov.

Learning from the best: the inimitable Scotty ‘It’s all over, baby’’ Nguyen with tips about table talk and the final hand of the 1998 WSOP Main Event (don’t miss the great impression of Scotty by @Daniel Negreanu)

Stats in the spotlight: the last ten WSOP Main Event winners by all-time earnings

We are happy to welcome among us @Lupe Soto - the founder of the Ladies International Poker Series (LIPS) and great supporter of #womenINpoker! Hopefully we will soon be able to update the circuit page with past tournaments results, and Lupe will present the next big event on their schedule: Ladies Poker Week!

Warm welcome to: @Magdalena Tsaneva (featured in this article and hopefully more in the near future :) @Orez Mokedi (who has been running real good in 2014, GL this summer!)  @Danny Thanh Nguyen @Frank Conti and all the other newly created accounts on RankingHero! Don’t forget to visit and like us on Facebook, as well, and to create your own social hub on RankingHero :)

Special thanks to all the contributors in the Mission 6 strategy challenges - @Manmoon @mandrin81  @Aladin Reskallah, to mention only a few!

If you have been away for a while, you can catch up with RankingHero news in previous Weekly Highlights articles:

16 May Weekly Highlights 

9 May Weekly Highlights 

2 May Weekly Highlights 

GL to all RankingHeroes and RankingHeroines :)

Yours truly,

@Annie RKH 

 #RKHweekly 

Important Notice to International Players on Their Way to Vegas and WSOP

You may have heard the news already - the WSOP announced new requirements regarding non-U.S. players: they will be asked to present a SECOND ID, other than their international passport, stating their current address.

Before you lash out at the #WSOP for this last-minute change, this is obviously not something they invented on a whim because the field of entrants was getting too big and unmanageable, nor is it a conspiracy to eliminate the competition for American  players :)

In fact, the proof of residency requirement results from federal anti money laundering legislation and is applicable in ALL casinos, online gambling sites AND financial institutions in the U.S.

The good news is that if you don't have such an official ID (identity card or driver's license) with address information, the casinos will accept any utility bill in your name or a credit card / bank statement. Most EU national identity cards include address information. In any case, poker players registering for the WSOP will hardly find this too much of an obstacle as proof of residency is commonly required by online betting and gambling sites worldwide.  

You might care to know that French and German identity cards DO include address information, so if anyone was hoping to get rid of some of the formidable players from these two countries, don't count on it :)

There are at least two indications in the latest statement by WSOP Media Director Seth Palansky, as reported by igaming.org, that there is no reason to panic if you're already on your way or in the U.S.:

“All companies involved in big financial transactions received an e-mail about this last week stating that an attempt should be made to verify residency of international customers.”

“At the end of the day our obligation is to do our due diligence. It’s not going to prevent anyone from playing or withdrawing funds. That’s for sure, but it may prevent them from playing online poker because that does call for a utility bill to prove your residency."

Even more straightforward reassurance is found in yesterday's tweet by Palansky:

SrslySirius Takes on Sheldon Adelson in his Latest Video

Bluff Magazine's SrslySirius (Thomas Keeling) introduces himself on Twitter as "YouTube satirist, poker enthusiast, Multimedia Producer @BluffMagazine". Thomas Keeling has long been on my official three-people-to-take-in-a-desert-(free)wifi-zone. His remixes are invariably witty and sometimes lol-funny and he has a flair for spotting controversial stories, heroes and anti-heroes in poker. Some of his videos show amazing insight, knowledge and sensitivity to poker players' top concerns and issues and rank with the work of the most respected poker journalists. Here's one such example:

"This is a remix of the interview @Howard Lederer gave to PokerNews. This was the first time Howard had spoken publicly since Black Friday, and many people were very dissatisfied with the answers he gave. Another 2+2 member created a great clip reel of Lederer saying “I don’t know” dozens of different times. My video was aimed more at taking his words out of context, reflecting what people were really thinking, and showing the man having a dancing good time!" - See more at: http://srslysirius.com/

In his latest video, SrslySirius takes on the arch-enemy of online poker, Sheldon Adelson, and who else to oppose to the gambling mogul if not the superhero Pokerman:) Enjoy the trailer: 

More SrslySirius remixes in these articles on RankingHero:

Will the Poker Community Forget, Forgive or Forbid Howard Lederer from Ever Coming Back

Mimi Luu the Only Lady at WPT Rolling Thunder Final Table Today

More on Sheldon Adelson:

The Billionaire Battle Over Online Gambling in U.S.

Anti Internet Gaming Bill Introduced in U.S. Congress - Don't Let the Sky Fall on Poker Again

Poker Table Talk Tips From the Master - Scotty Nguyen

With $11,702,955, @Thuan B. "Scotty" Nguyen ranks 12th in the world by live winnings. He has won FIVE WSOP bracelets - the most coveted decoration in the world of poker. He is the only player to have won both a WSOP Main Event (1998) and the H.O.R.S.E. Championship (2008) and has several WPT titles. Yet despite all of these accomplishments, Scotty Nguyen is likely to go down in poker history with the way he played and 'table-talked" his winning hand at the 1998 WSOP and his classic line: "Call it, and it's all over, baby".

Scotty has always acknowledged that #PokerTableTalk is an important part of his game. Here are some of his own thoughts and tips on the subject:

As the poker world knows I love to talk at the poker table and it’s not just for effect baby. Opponents often think too much about what you say to them, and if you can get into their heads, you can control their actions at the table.

If you have a good read on your opponent, and you can figure out what he is probably holding, then sometimes it doesn’t matter what two cards you have in your hand, because you can just play his.

The key is not to listen to what your opponent might say, but how comfortable he is when saying it. That is when you look for neck throbbing, slurred words, or a shaky voice.

Scotty Nguyen discussing poker with @Oliver Ali Nejad:

Scotty Nguyen impression by @Daniel Negreanu  :)

Read on:

WSOP Final Hands - Scotty Nguyen in 1998