Kristy Arnett Leaves PokerNews but Stays in Poker

Video podcast host and writer @Kristy Arnett has just announced, with "a ton of excitement for the mystery of what's to come but also with a heavy heart", that she is leaving PokerNews after four years. There are few top pros she hasn't interviewed over those four years and few poker amateurs who haven't watched her coverage of the biggest poker events.

"I've been really passionate about playing poker, so I'd like to see what it's like on the other side of the mike and take a shot as a player."

In fact, Kristy's RankingHero stats show her first cash from a live tournament dates back to before she joined PokerNews - the 2009 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza, where she finished 34th out of 592. Since then she has earned a total of eight cashes in major poker events and it will be interesting to watch her play now, armed with all the knowledge gained from observing and talking to the very best.

Kristy's interviews and strategy podcasts have been an invaluable and fun source of information and we'll certainly miss her. We wish her lots of luck at the tables and a profile page on RankingHero full of ITM!!!

Kristy on her last day in Vienna where she covered the #Eureka and #EuropeanPokerTour .

Speaking of offices, remember the Google office building in The Internship?..

Winamax is looking for talents

Emmanuel Boisgontier on Rankinghero

Great article about @Winamax in la rude baguette http://www.rudebaguette.com/2014/04/03/work-hard-play-harder-discover-online-poker-leader-winamaxs-hr-standards/ The office look very nice.

Sofia Lovgren Leaves PKR for Mysterious New Adventure

At only 20 years of age, @Sofia Lovgren was the first woman to sign with #PKR and the innovative poker room has probably never regretted their decision to bet on this young Swedish player. She has been a loyal and hard-working ambassador, active in the social media, maintaining an impeccable public image and keeping fans and media happy with interviews, personal messages, and retweets.

Sofia turned 24 last month and has just announced that she is leaving PKR and is on her way to the 'next big adventure' in her life: 

It is now six years since I started from the lowest levels building a bankroll on PKR.​ After grinding millions of hands and just turning 20 I was given the responsibility to be the first female Team Pro. I was from day 1 very well treated by this unique and friendly community. So many people have tried to encourage me and made my poker life enjoyable.

PKR has been like my second family and it has been an absolute pleasure to work with so many genuine and nice people and to represent this unique poker site and community.

Whatever I do in the future and whenever I play poker I will always remember that PKR is where I found the love to poker. PKR has always been and will always be the funniest poker site on earth.

I wish all my PKR friends the best of luck and I'm sure I will see some of you soon again! You will still see me playing online on PKR now and then and maybe we meet in Vegas 

The only indication about that adventure comes from a very sincere and touching PKR farewell message:

"She has been offered an opportunity which any of us would find hard to decline, though it was nevertheless a very difficult decision for her."

There have been no leaks about what that might be so we'll have to be patient for another 10 days and wait for Sofia to reveal it herself as promised. 

Staking - Key Financial Tool of the Poker Economy

Backing, #swapping, #staking, selling action, chopping - these are all financial instruments used on a daily basis in the poker stock-exchange where the pros are both 'traded' and 'traders' themselves, where there are undervalued and overpriced stocks, high-risk and low-return investments and futures deals.

The Wall Street Journal recently brought up the subject of staking in a story entitled 'The Hidden Game Behind Professional Poker'. @Daniel Negreanu is one of the players Alexandra Berzon cites in her WSJ article:

"Two years ago, he says, he invested about $2 million in 10 players at the World Series of Poker. ..he thinks not all the players he backed played seriously enough or treated his money as their own; ultimately, he says, he lost about half of his investment. Nowadays, he's backing only two players."

"I don't let players quit me. If you've got me stuck $200,000 and say, 'Yeah, I don't want to play for you anymore, I want to play for this guy,' I would be like, 'Huh, that's really shady.' That's really not fair."

@Jason Somerville on staking and the poker economy (2013 PCA Q&A session):

"You can definitely make a lot of money in backing if you're really good in accounting, really smart with who you're staking, picking guys that are loyal to them. Actually, accounting is probably the toughest thing is staking... especially because we're so lazy, you know,"

A few weeks ago @Mike McDonald talked at length to poker writer Remko Rinkema, including on his own staking experience (read the interview here). 

Unfortunately, the power of one's stare cannot guarantee a good ROI in poker staking and Mike McDonald no longer backs other players.

"..having to send $10,000 over and over and over again to various players, while only getting back money a few times was just very stressful. Looking on PokerNews and seeing your horses play hands in ways you don’t agree with is hard too, and that comes from someone who’s already extremely critical of himself. I even lost sleep over the stress of staking and once I got a chance to get out of it I did.

..I was well above expectation and I still found it stressful, so that should tell you something."

During the PCA, in January 2014, @Vanessa Selbst , @Isaac Haxton and  @David Williams  gave a Team PokerStars Pro Q&A on the topic.

You can read the summary of the session here, but basically, the most important conclusion and advice to backers is to make sure their 'horses' are in for at least 20-25% themselves so that they are really (and literally :) invested in their game. As for contracts (rare) or handshake deals (most of the time), neither guarantee payback so it is important to know and trust the person you decide to back.

Finally, staking is happening on all buy-in levels and in live and online tournaments alike. Here is one offer for this weekend if you are curious about the way it's done and as usual, you can find lots of useful tips on twoplustwo - http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/163/staking-selling-shares-online/

EPT10 Ladies Event Winner Natalie Hof

She comes to poker with a background in education science and theology; plans to continue with a degree in cross-cultural education and one day hopes to make a difference as a social worker and help ease the integration of Turkish children within the German school system. Meanwhile she wouldn't mind winning a main event and if you're wondering what to give her for her next birthday, the girl wants a pony :)

Bright, natural,  beautiful, with an engaging smile and personality - PokerStars couldn't find a better Friend and did well to sign the former German EPT presenter, @Natalie Hof in October 2013. She is also the host of a German TV show - "TV total Pokerstars.de Nacht". Not to mention happily in love with none other than the 2011 WSOP champion @Pius Heinz.

She developed a taste for live poker when she was offered the buy-in for a small local tournament for her 19th birthday and finished 3rd. By the time she realized it may have been beginner's luck she was hopelessly hooked on the game and contnued to play throughout her university studies, missing out on all the college parties but accumulating experience at the cash tables and in online poker.

It helped that she was in a relationship with a notable German player (are there any other but notable German players :) - @Torsten Brinkmann. By 2012 she was the German EPT presenter and got to know the few German players who were not already her friends. Natalie always stresses in her interviews that talking and listening to her poker friends is what has helped her improve her game most. It is also one reason why she thinks German players have been so successful - they are a closely-knit community and always support each other.

Natalie won the #EPTVienna Ladies' Event on Sunday 23rd March, with a first prize of Euro 5,325. Her largest cash was from EPT9 Berlin in 2013, where she finished 39th in the main event and she has earned a total of $59,444 from live tournaments since 2011.

In a recent interview in Vienna for PokerFirma.com, she was asked how she would define herself - student, presenter, or poker player:

"I'd say first and foremost Natalie; who does some TV presenting; loves to play poker; is going back to her studies in cross-cultural education; and is madly happy."

All the best, Natalie and we hope to see you soon here on RankingHero!

 #womenINpoker 

***

Here's a charming selection of outtakes from Natalie's first assignement as poker presenter at the WSOP 2011:

Crimea - A New Home for Russian Poker?

Last week 100 UN member states voted against the annexation of Crimea by Russia and declared illegal the preceding referendum. Meanwhile the Russian government is working hard on plans to ensure sustainability of the Crimean economy and apparently one possible approach is to make it a special gambling zone.

Some experts expect the annexation to cost at least as much as the Sochi Winter Olympics (the most expensive Olympic games ever and a veritable feat since the location is basically a seaside resort). Right now Russia’s ministries of economy, finance and regional development reportedly have an April 15 deadline to estimate potential revenues and the cost of setting up a gambling zone in Crimea (a project which is by no means new and has long been under development in Ukraine). 

Photos from the only operational gambling zone in Russia - Azov City resort, long way from Vegas :)

Russia banned gambling in 2009, except for four designated 'gambling zones' - Krasnodar, near Crimea in the southwest; the Kaliningrad exclave between Poland and Lithuania; Altai, on the border with Kazakhstan, and in Vladivostok on the Pacific coast. However, only one of the four gambling zones is currently operational - Azov City resort in the Krasnodar region. In the other three construction is still under way.

The @Russian Poker Tour has been homeless since 2009 and has been seeking venues in neighboring countries for its events (most recently RPT teamed up with the Lebanese Poker Tour in Montenegro). In February of the current year RankingHero reported on the suspended RPT in Kiev. As violence in the Ukraine capital exploded on the 18th of February, about 150 players were locked inside the Kreschatyk Club and remained there for 15 hours before they could be safely evacuated.

With the explosion of violence, the 150 players who had come to the Kreschatyk Club for RPT Day 2 were locked inside the premises and noone was allowed to leave or enter. 

Another blow against Russian poker came on March 21 when Russia’s Internet Service Providers blocked access to a large number of online gambling sites including PokerStars, partypoker, Unibet and Titan Poker. It is as yet unclear whether this will be part of a campaign to completely #banonlinegambling. PokerStars responded to concerns voiced on a twoplustwo thread with the following statement:

We are aware of the recent situation in Russia. At this time we do not believe this changes our ability to offer services to Russian players. As such our operations continue as usual….Our terms and conditions make it clear that our services are not for use in jurisdictions where it is illegal to do so, but the measures taken by Roskomnadzor, and the resulting action with the Common Registry of Banned Websites that prevents access to our PokerStars.COM website, does not affect [the] ability to continue playing at PokerStars.

Eastern Europe with Excellent Record from Eureka and European Poker Tour in Vienna

#EPTVienna events broke many entry records and to a great extent this is due to the association with the #EurekaPokerTour and the influx of players from Central and Eastern Europe. Vienna is traditionally the friendliest and probably most accessible Western destination to people from the former Eastern bloc and for many in Central and Eastern Europe the Austrian capital is an inherent part of their own cultural and historical heritage.

So they were many and they did well, playing final tables and winning side events, and last but not least - supporting each other from the rail.

The Bulgarian rail, led by PCA champion, @Dimitar Danchev cheered enthusiastically for the two Bulgarians at the EPT Main Event final table.

Not counting Ukrainian-born @Eugene Katchalov, who won the Eureka High Roller, here are some of the Eureka and EPT champs from Eastern Europe:

@Michal Vojtisek	@Dmitry Chop

@Zoltan Gal	@Alexey Khoroshenin

You can check out their live earnings on their profile pages and make sure you follow them as we will probably be hearing of them soon!

Ukraine With First Ever EPT Champion

While the Russia-Ukraine crisis was top news all over the world, poker seemingly managed to reconcile national differences and #EPTVienna was the stage for model European coexistence and sportsmanship, without - at least to the distant observer - any open confrontation and tension. In fact, the newly crowned EPT champion, @Alexey Khoroshenin, is possibly the best spokesman for reconciliation - he is Ukrainian but lives in St. Petersburg, Russia. All of his statements after the victory referred to his Ukrainian countrymen AND to the 'people of St.Petersburg, where I live now'.

Be that as it may, Alexey Khoroshenin has made poker history as the first ever Ukrainian EPT champion. He was actually the first surprised by his own achievement - 'I was convinced @Eugene Katchalov had won it before and only now realized he had won the high roller event'.

The latest EPT champion comes from Ukraine, lives in St. Petersburg, Russia, and is 27-year-old. His first name has caused some confusion with the two alternative spellings in circulation - Alexey and Oleksii are both versions of the original Алексей Хорошенин. His first cash recorded on RankingHero dates back to 2011 and he has been active on the EPT circuit in the past two years, with quite a few ITM. After the EPT Vienna win, Khoroshenin more than trebled his live career winnings, to $1,089,082.

Khoroshenin did well from the very beginning and was the chip leader of Day 1a though he started the final table as the second to the last in chips. As he noted himself, this did not seem to matter much as everyone was comfortable enough in the beginning and the chip leader was just one double-up away ("on these final tables I guess it makes no difference how many chips you’ve got because a single hand can change everything")

What DID make a difference, however, was the pressure of the prize pool and the high stakes. "Things were much easier for me after the three-handed deal. Up to then, as each raise was at least Euro 100,000, I couldn't help thinking about the money and I think the others did, too. That's why we made the deal."

And here is how the three players agreed to #chop the prize pool, setting aside Euro 50,000 for the winner:

By heads-up, Khoroshenin had a huge advantage, with 20.7 million in chips vs Anthony Ghamrawi's 6.5 million and it took them less than an hour to get to the final all-in that awarded the second prize to the young Austrian and the championship, to Khoroshenin and Ukraine.

Sanremo - the Next Dream Destination on the European Poker Tour Schedule

The @European Poker Tour Season 10 list of venues reads like an “8 Places to See Before You Die” tourist guide. So where are our 'accidental tourists' from the #EPT headed next, before the grand final in Monte Carlo?

"Gorgeous', 'amazing', 'spectacular' - no interviewed #EPTVienna player spared their admiration and awe for the grand Hofburg Palace. @Jan Heitmann jokingly said in an interview that the only possible locations after the Imperial Palace in Vienna were the Buckingham Palace and… the Vatican. High Roller winner and @Everest Poker ambassador @Fabrice Soulier also shared his fascination with the Hofburg as a poker venue and the magic definitely worked for him :) Even if less fortunate, @Bertrand Grospellier and @Jonathan Duhamel were among the many who tweeted about the fabulous venue:

But if you think that the Hofburg Imperial Palace will be very difficult to match, think again :) The Italian Riviera will certainly delight all the participants with fantastic seaside atmosphere, delicious food and wine, and irresistible Italian charm.  

The Festival runs April 9-20 and the €4,600 + €300 Main Event will be taking place April 14-20, 2014. The schedule is on RankingHero and we will of course keep you updated as the festival approaches!

In 1951 Casino di Sanremo hosted the  very first edition of the famous Sanremo music festival and all the following ones until 1976, so the melodies probably linger on in this fabulous venue. Here is something to get everyone in the mood for #EPTSanremo :)

Everest Ambassador Fabrice Soulier with the EPT10 High Roller Victory

French WSOP bracelet winner and #Everest ambassador @Fabrice Soulier  was moved to tears yesterday when he accepted the trophy for the EPT10 Vienna High Roller event. “It is not the money,” he said, “It’s just… everything…”

It is at times like this that one realizes that poker truly is a sport and the victory does not at all boil down to the money alone. To a player like Fabrice, to whom the game has meant so much and for so long (his first recorded cash on RankingHero is from @Aviation Club de France and dates back to 1999!), winning such an event is an immensely rewarding and emotional experience - in terms of personal achievement and sense of fulfillment, and in terms of further recognition from one’s peers and the world poker community.

#EPTVienna broke many attendance records and the High Roller event was no exception, with as many as 181 entries! The Everest brand ambassador was the most experienced and decorated player at the table, as well as the biggest live tournament earner -  he has won a World Poker Tour event and made four World Series of Poker final tables, winning his bracelet in 2011, and with his latest win, his live earnings rose to $5,484,292.

Fabrice was short-stacked most of the tournament, “so I had nothing else to do but observe people.. I waited.. and took my time in the beginning and I observed a lot.” All the patience and observation definitely paid out in the end and Fabrice triumphed with an Ace of Spades that won him the last heads-up pot against @Anatoly Filatov and the first prize of Euro 392,900.