Newsletter 11.27.2015

NOMINATE THE FUNNIEST MISREAD IN POKER!

FREEROLL FESTIVAL - $800 TO WIN!

Celebrate the coming New Year with RKH on Titan Poker with 4 FREEROLLS!



Starting next Tuesday, play our freeroll festival on Titan Poker in December and January, for RankingHero members only!

$0 TO PLAY = $800 TO WIN!!!

Create an account:

• Follow the link HERE, and get a 200% WELCOME BONUS up to $2000 with the code "RKH2000" and participate in our exclusive RKH FESTIVAL with $800 TO WIN!

To participate:

• Enter your nickname in the green box at the top left of the Titan Poker page.

• You will receive the passwords 30 minutes before each Freeroll!

More info here.


GOOD LUCK!

NOMINATE THE FUNNIEST MISREAD IN POKER!

RankingHero invites the whole community on a joint quest for the funniest fail in poker, which will receive the inaugural Rankinghero Goldfish Award!


This weekend, nominate the worst misread!

Choose your own or pick one in the RKH Selection.


The most liked ones will be shortlisted and a public poll is to decide which hand deserves the RankingHero Goldfish Award for the Funniest Fail!


More info here.

Newsletter 11.18.2015

NOMINATE THE WORST FOLD EVER!

MISSION RKH GOLDFISH AWARD, 2nd CALL FOR NOMINATIONS!

RankingHero is looking for ‘the best of the worst’ on a mission to find the funniest live poker fail of all time!

You have until Monday 23 November to nominate the worst fold ever!

Every week, a new topic. At the end, a public vote will decide the winner of the RKH Goldfish Award for the biggest fail in poker.

There are many RKH goodies to win!


More info here.


Have fun!

Newsletter 11.13.2015

MANY RKH GODDIES TO WIN!

MISSION RKH GOLDFISH AWARD: THE FUNNIEST POKER FAIL!

The end of the year approaches and everyone will be drawing up top 10 and ‘best of’ lists of all kinds.

RankingHero has decided to look for ‘the best of the worst’ on a mission to find the funniest live poker fail of all time!



Every Monday and Thursday, we’ll announce a new topic.

Post a video, a photo or a hand history to nominate a fail.

First call for nominations: Worst Bluff



You have until Monday, 16 November to post your entry under this topic. Then we will call for nominations in a new category!


Many RKH goodies to win!



More info here.


Have fun!

Battle of Malta High Roller: Filatov, Moschitta and Stephensen are in!

Malta. Saturday, 7 November. 9pm.

"The best player at the table has all the chips!" French pro @Fabrice Soulier, registered in the NLHE Grandmaster High Roller, just saw a big pile of chips going to the stack of the Italian  @Luca Moschitta.

Luca Moschitta, in the middle, chilling.

This High Roller, planned to last 2 days, began at 6pm, only 20 meters away from the Main Event.

At dinner break, Fabrice still has the starting stack. However, he doesn't really understand why they have to take a dinner break only 2 hours after the tournament started.

Scrutinizing the dealer. Does he try to find a tell on her to have a better read on the deck ?

One table away, the November Nine @Felix Vincent Stephensen, is in too. Not really focused, he seems more interested in another game: Stoke City - Chelsea.

" It's MY screen, ok? Stop looking at MY screen. "

Also in, @Anatoly Filatov.

(Photo: PokerListings)

Home-made chipcount tomorrow, during Day 2.

To be sure not to miss any update, follow the hashtag #BoMRKH2015! 

Battle of Malta: The money bubble was a quick affair

Malta. Saturday 7 November. 7:30pm.

The tournament director just anounced hand-for-hand play. 

There are 182 players left. 180 of them will cash.

It is time to grab my pen and my notebook to get some faces, expressions, impressions. Nervousness for some, eagerness for others.

I expect the usual bubble. Long. Very long. Perfect, I prefer to take my time to describe the emotions in the room.

Congratulations, and THANK YOU, Mr. 181!

It takes me 30 seconds to get from the media table to the poker tables.

I cross the French pro @Nicolas Proust, standing up, waiting for the burst.

We talk 20 more seconds and we hear a man shouting and applauding. One player already busted.

Not even the time to say "already?" out loud and I see people gathering around a table, whispering excitedly.

Thirty seconds later, screams and applause flood the room.

There it is, they are all going to get paid. Each of the 180 survivors will leave this room with at least €1,150!

This bubble lasted for around 3 minutes and I must admit I feel a bit disappointed.

Anyway, let's congratulate all the winners and feel glad that the dinner break is coming soon!

To be sure not to miss any update, follow the hashtag #BoMRKH2015! 

Battle of Malta: Day 2 has started !

Saturday 5 November.

583 players gathered in the Casino at Portomaso for Day 2 of Battle of Malta. 583 survivors of a 1,804 players field in total!

An impressive number, record for the BoM festival, that makes it one of the most popular in Europe!

Such a big number of players made the total prizepol reach 874,940€ that will be shared by around 12% of the total field.

By the way, today is payday!

Payout: 

From PokerListings. 

Here is the non-exhaustive chipcount at the beginning of the day:

Average stack: 77,000 chips.

Our blogger @Kat Arnsby began the day with a comfortable 113,700 chips stack. An unlucky encounter later, she is down to 3 BB after the first break!

Follow all her updates on her profile or with the hashtag #BoMRKH2015.

A few famous names:

@Gianluca Escobar: 202,500

@Fatima Moreira De Melo: team pro Pokerstars.com : 64,400

@Felix Vincent Stephensen: 30,800

@Sabina Hiatullah: 39,900

@Antoan Katsarov winner of the 2014 Battle of Malta: 39,000

An updated will be published around diner break.

To be sure not to miss any update, follow the hashtag #BoMRKH2015! 

Battle of Malta Day 1B - Photos

 Battle of Malta. 5 November. Day 1B.

The second Day 1 flight of Battle of Malta gathered 640 entrants. Added to the 305 players on Day 1A, the 2015 Battle of Malta should break last year's record of 1447 entries with the Day 1C today. Here is what we saw yesterday:

Le second jour 1 de Battle of Malta a rassemblé 640 personnes. Ajoutés aux 305 entrants d’hier, Battle of Malta 2015 va sans peine battre le record d’affluence de l’année dernière (1 447 joueurs), grâce aux 900 personnes attendues aujourd’hui. Voici ce que nous avons pu capturer de la journée d’hier :

This happened during the karaoke. But technically, it was after midnight, so, yesterday :)

Ok, c’était durant la soirée karaoké après le Day 1A. Mais techniquement, cela a eu lieu après minuit, donc hier

@Maria Ho busted, unfortunately, but at least she could enjoy a beer and was free for the package holders party. We should see her re-enter today.

@Maria Ho a malheureusement été éliminée. Mais elle a au moins pu profiter d’une petite bière et participer un peu plus tard à la soirée des détenteurs de packages. Elle devrait normalement re-entry aujourd’hui.

The Kights of Malta are guarding the Trophy. Don’t you dare trying to steal it if you’re not worthy!

Les Chevaliers de Malte gardent le trophée. N’ayez pas la prétention d’essayer de vous en emparer sans vous en montrer dignes !

A good way to hide your facial tells. An ugly way, but efficient in a blizzard !

Une manière comme une autre de chacher ses tells. C'est un peu moche mais probablement efficace lors d'un blizzard.

Now that she busted, Maria can fulfuill her host duties. Here with an Amrican Idol star who crossed the world for the occasion and busted too.

Une fois sortie du tournoi, Maria a tout le loisir de remplir ses obligations d'hôtesse du tournoi. Elle est ici avec un gagnant de l'émission American Idol, venu exprès pour la compétion.

Blogging and playing at the same time. Kat had a tough day.

Jouer tout en bloggant. Dure journée pour Kat.

The very humble @Benny Glaser finished the Day quite short with 36,000 chips.

Le très humble @Benny Glaser, détenteur d'un bracelet WSOP, termine la journée short avec 36,000 jetons.

By the end of the Day, Kat Arnsby gets tired, but is quite successful in keeping her eyes open. Like... WIDE open. She ends the day with 108,000 chips for an average of 62,000.

A la fin de la journée, Kat a beau être fatiguée, elle n'a aucun mal à garder les yeux ouverts... GRANDS ouverts ! Elle termine la journée à 108 000 chips, pour une moyenne à 62 000 !

----------------

Cocktails for packages holders :

Cocktails pour les gagnant de package :

As far as I can read, it seems to be here.

Appremment, c'est par là.

When Maria doesn't hold the mic, she fills the emptiness with a glass. Classic.

Lorsque Maria ne tient pas le micro, elle comble le vide avec un verre. Normal.

Some package holders ; probably.

Des gagnants de package, apparemment.

And 2 high-quality hand-made pictures of the Hilton Hotel where the party took place.

Et 2 photos de qualité du Hilton, où a eu lieu le cocktail.

To be sure not to miss any update, follow the hashtag #BoMRKH2015! 

Pour ne rien rater, suivez le hashtag #CoverageBoMFR !

Battle of Malta - Kat Arnsby in action!

Battle of Malta. Thursday 5 november. Day 1B. 

The RKH qualifier, @Kat Arnsby, is quite a colorful character. I’ve known her for 24 hours and I’ve never heard so many words in my life.

She’s friendly, talkative, easy on people and, as you know by now, she’s a terrific singer!

Yellow and pink, with horns. You can't not not notice her

At a poker table, she’s just the same. She talks a lot, befriends her neighbour and wears… colorful clothes.

When I arrive at her table, I see a board with 2 jacks and a big pile in front of her. Her opponent pays and she shows trips of jacks. “I always have it”, she says, smilling. “This guy is charming but I don’t want him to get my chips”. Her table is going to have some fun today. So does she, since she grew her stack up to 42 000 chips before the diner break.

Kat and her new friends.

This attitude (and clothes ) get her spotted by Doug, a Pokerlistings reporter. On the break, little interview of our Hero of the day! She’s a very efficient RKH ambassador ;)

This is the occasion to show you the cigarette break terrace.

And the view from it.

Lovely, isn’t it?

To be sure not to miss any update, follow the hashtag #BoMRKH2015! 

Battle of Malta - Day 1A: Party time!

Wednesday 4 November. Battle of Malta - Day 1A.

Dear RankingHeroes,

We’ve known each other long enough for you to know the truth… This is my first live coverage.

As a consequence, I learnt a hard truth: the Day 1A of a tournament is a bit boring.

The structure of Battle of Malta is really great for players. Very deep stacks. 25,000 chips and 500 big blinds to begin with.

But to a reporter, nothing really happens. Of course, there are some busts. Sofia Lovgren, for example. But a little bird told me she may re-enter.

Fortunately, at 10pm, the action gets hotter.

But right now, the stacks are big and the action is slow.

So, around noon, crossing @Maria Ho in front of the casino, I ask her for an interview at 4. She tells me there will be a karaoke for Battle of Malta entrants, tonight, at 10pm.

As a coincidence, our blogger @Kat Arnsby just arrived, she loves to sing, needs to let off steam, and will reveal herself as a very good performer.

We stay in the tournament room to take pictures of the famous entrants that day: Sofia Lovgren, the 2014 November Niner Felix Stephensen, Sabina Hiatula and Gianluca Escobar...

   
@Sofia Lovgren and @Felix Vincent Stephensen 

@Sabina Hiatullah and @Gianluca Escobar 

At the bar, around 10:30pm, no one around yet.

Kat and I order lemonade on the terrace, waiting for Maria and her gang.

When the BoM hostess arrives, she tells us it will begin soon. The singing battle in Malta is on. The bar is now almost full of faces quickly crossed in the casino.

Kat gets up from her seat. She grabs her bag, heads to the bar and puts down “Dusty Springfield. Son of a preacher man” on a little piece of paper.

She’ll be the first one to sing tonight.

One beer… One lemonade later, Kat grabs the mic and neatly performs a song that my camera could unfortunately not catch.

Kat clearly has an edge on Maria Ho when it comes to singing!

After the usual applause and congratulations for our RankingHero, Maria Ho seems eager to show us who’s the star here.

Her voice is quite high and her flow is impressive - she churns out rhymes as fast as a dealer deals cards.

As she told me in the interview earlier, what’s great about Battle of Malta - besides the competition - is the fun ruling the place, during the tournament and outside of it too!

A bit later, Kat meets a player. “His face looks familiar but I’m not sure. Ok, he looks like my brother, but I’d recognize my own brother, right?. He says he’s a pro, but not really famous…”

One google search later, we realize we’ve just met @Benny Glaser, a bracelet owner from the UK. Let’s hope she doesn’t meet him again tomorrow at her table.

One more lemonade and heading to the hotel. Tomorrow is a serious day with both our hostess Maria and our singing blogger Kat entering the game!

To be sure not to miss any update, follow the hashtag #BoMRKH2015! 

Battle of Malta - Day 1A: It's on!

At 2pm, @Maria Ho, host of Battle of Malta, kicked off the tournament.

She will be playing tomorrow, at the Day 1B, and meanwhile kindly accepted to answer a few questions about being both player and host at BoM. A busy week is coming for her!

Interview is coming soon!

It is now the first break of the day.

286 players registered so far. 17 of them already busted.

The blinds are 100/200 and the average stack is 26,580.

In the field, I've spotted the French pro @Fabrice Soulier and the Malta resident @Sofia Lovgren. 

According to Maria, we can expect more stars in the coming days such as @Fatima Moreira De Melo and @Dominik Nitsche. 

More to come soon!

To be sure not to miss any update, follow the hashtag #BoMRKH2015!