Gus Hansen is more than used to be the center of attention when he sits down at a poker table. But this week on NBC’s Poker After Dark the Danish poker pro might feel it a little more than usual.

Hansen is the only male player at the six-handed table as one of poker’s most eligible bachelors is joined by are Vanessa Rousso, JJ Liu, Clonie Gowen, Beth Shak, and Erica Schoenberg. The six players will duke it out every week night on NBC for the winner-take-all $120,000 first place prize.

Gowen has appeared on PAD twice already and counts two wins to her credit while Hansen has made six appearances with only a single win to his name. The only other player at the table with any PAD experience is Rousso who is 0-2 so far. Liu, Shak and Schoenberg are all making their PAD debuts this week.

This match will begin airing on NBC late night Monday at 2:05 a.m., March 31, and will continue for five consecutive nights in the same time slot.  A special program called the “Director’s Cut” will air late night Saturday, April 5, at 1:00 a.m., right after Saturday Night Live.

The world’s leading poker magazine, Bluff is launching in South Africa in April 2008. As the official digital media partners for the World Series of Poker, Bluff boasts a monthly print-run of over 200,000 copies in the USA and will form the cornerstone of the local poker community in South Africa.

Bluff features content from top professional poker players, making it a magazine written for players, by players. These include the likes of Mike Caro, Annie Duke, Phil Laak, 2007 Bluff Magazine Player-of-the-Year Bill Edler and many others.

Bluff SA is published under license from Bluff Media in the USA by the Maverick Publishing Company who are behind other leading niche titles such as Muscle Evolution and Fitness Magazine.

“These are exciting times for the local poker industry. The phenomenon of poker has taken South Africa by storm, and having our very own finish third in the World Series of Poker has put SA on the poker map internationally,” said Andrew Carruthers, Managing Director of The Maverick Publishing Company of the third place finish of South African Raymond Rahme in the 2007 WSOP main event.

He also says that cash games and online players are churning out a new league of South African tournament players, all passionate about the game and hungry for the respect that comes with top placings.

“Bluff SA is dedicated to the growth of the industry in South Africa, the education of players and supplying the local market with authoritative and informative content.” Carruthers said. “Simply put - we’re all about ‘The Thrill of Poker’.”  

Bluff SA will be advertising on the All Africa Poker Channel on DSTV channel 393 and is collaborating with other local media providers to bring more poker-related content to the airwaves.

Bluff SA will also be featured on the All Africa Poker Channel in five-minute episodes of the Bluff Magazine Guide to Winning Poker, where top poker players and writers for the magazine will provide helpful strategic tips and tricks.

The magazine will be available on South African shelves beginning Monday, 31st March 2008.

Sunday afternoon 324 players ventured into the Borgata poker room in Atlantic City for the $1000 Ultimate Super Satellite event in hopes of securing one of the most lucrative satellite packages around.

The final six players all received a prize package worth $50,000. Included in the package is $10,000 for entry into the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open (Sept. 21 - 25), $10,000 for entry into WPT Foxwoods Classic (April 4 - 9), $25,500 for entry into WPT World Championship (April 19 - 25) as well as $4,500 for travel expenses.

The players who won the packages were Gennaro Cammarota, Cameran Bahrami, Athanasio Diakos, Edward Betlow, Thomas Daubert and John Celii. The seventh and eighth place finishers, Robert Woodruff and Lindsay Runyon, both won a $10,000 entry into the Borgata Poker Open. Vijay Aggarwal took home $4,000 cash for finishing ninth.

Of the 324 players who entered the tournament, 148 qualified through one of two $220 satellites held at the Borgata in March.

Atlanta, GA (July 31, 2007) - Bluff, the world’s leading poker magazine is set to launch in South Africa in April 2008.

The world’s leading poker magazine, Bluff is launching in South Africa in April 2008. As the holder of exclusive rights to the World Series of Poker, Bluff boasts a monthly print-run of over 225 000 copies in the USA and will form the cornerstone of the local poker community.

Bluff is compiled by top professional poker players, making it a magazine written for players, by players. These include the likes of Mike Caro, Annie Duke, Phil Laak, Howard Lederer and many others.

Bluff SA is published under license from Bluff Media in the USA by the Maverick Publishing Company who are behind other leading niche titles such as Muscle Evolution and Fitness Magazine.

Says Andrew Carruthers, MD of The Maverick Publishing Company, “These are exciting times for the local poker industry. The phenomenon of poker has taken South Africa by storm, and having our very own finish third in the World Series of Poker has put SA on the poker map internationally.”

He also says that cash games and online plays are churning out a new league of South African tournament players, all passionate about the game and hungry for the respect that comes with top placings.

“Bluff SA is dedicated to the growth of the industry in South Africa, the education of players and supplying the local market with authoritative and informative content.” Carruthers continues. “Simply put – we’re all about ‘The thrill of Poker’.”

Bluff SA will be advertising on the All Africa Poker Channel on DSTV channel 393 and is collaborating with other local media providers to bring more poker-related content to the airwaves.

Bluff SA will also be featured on the All Africa Poker Channel in five-minute episodes of the Bluff Magazine Guide to Winning Poker, where top poker players and writers for the magazine will provide helpful strategic tips and tricks.

The magazine will be available on South African shelves from Monday, 31st March 2008.

When the field 3,818 players in Full Tilt Poker’s $750,000 Guaranteed tournament had dwindled down to 28 players, “Viablo2” was in complete control. As the only player above 1 Million in chips Viablo2 actually had better than double the stack of his nearest competitor.

As the final table approached Viablo2 was no longer in the chip lead but had a top three stack and was by no means out of it. The roller coaster final table however would be somewhat unkind to Viablo2 as “clotilda” came out on top and captured the $135,195.38 first place money.

“serbie” would put himself into the chip lead after coming out on top of the first elimination of the final table. On a board reading Ks10sJc “Cuzzinlaw” pushed all-in holding Qs10h only to be called by serbie’s KhQc. Neither the turn nor river completed Cuzzinlaw’s straight or trips and he was out in 9^th spot.

“MattEMenz” would send the next player packing with a pre-flop all in race situation. MattEMenz held AhQd against the 5c5h of Kr sunshine. The Qc on the flop sealed the fate of “Kr sunshine” and moved MattEMenz to near the top of the chip counts.

Viablo2 would keep his momentum going with yet another elimination. “RoothlusJr” pushed his remaining stack in holding Ah6h and Viablo2 was all too happy to make the call holding AdKc. When the flop included the Ks Viablo2 had yet another scalp and an even larger chip stack.

A speed bump was on the horizon though and while “Cocio2680” was doing his best to simply stay alive Viablo2 and clotilda got involved in a huge pot. Continuing his aggressive play Viablo2 re-raised all-in holding AcQh; clotilda quickly called and showed his dominating AsKh. The flop brought no dramatic relief and Viablo2 had doubled up clotilda. Only a few hands later though the two would tangle again.

This time it was Viablo2 holding big slick and having his all-in called by clotilda who held A9. Despite losing some chips clotilda was still the chip leader at this point while Viablo2 found himself back in contention.

One player who wasn’t in contention was the short-stacked Cocio2680. He would finally find the rail in sixth when serbie called his pre-flop all in holding 8h8d. The 8c on the flop eliminated Cocio2680’s chances of having his Ad9c win the coin flip.

Five-handed play produced a new chip leader as MattEMenz finally found himself with the big stack after taking a pot off of Viablo2. But that chip lead would prove to be short lived as Viablo2 became the first player over 4 Million in chips after rivering two pair with Ac8c against the pocket nines of “emzewart“.

Busting in fifth was serbie who found himself in bad shape with KhQc against the AdQh of emzewart. When the board brought an ace it meant serbie was eliminated. Cruising along at this point a bad beat was just around the corner for emzewart.

Both emzewart and MattEMenz got their chips in pre-flop and turned over nearly identical hands. MattEMenz held AdJh while emzewart held AhJs. The board brought four diamonds giving MattEMenz the nut flush and the chip lead three handed. Viablo2 would eliminate emzewart on the very next hand.

When heads-up play began Viablo2 was where he was nearly three hours earlier, the chip lead; Viablo2 held 7,331,456 chips while clotilda held 4,122,544. In a short heads-up session clotilda clawed back to even up the chip counts and eventually took the lead. The end would come when Viablo2 re-raised all in with As4s and clotilda called holding 3c3d. The board produced no ace and no four and clotilda had won the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed.

The highest finishing Full Tilt “red” pro was Roland de Wolfe who actually bubbled the final table in 10th for 7,330.56. Lee Watkinson also had a strong showing coming in 15th for $5,421.56.

Don’t forget to check out the Sunday Report for complete final table payouts.

Every Sunday the best online poker players play in the $200 buy-in PokerStars Sunday Million in pursuit of their share of the prize pool. But every three months the buy-in jumps to $1,000 and only the cream of the crop show up for one of the most prestigious online tournaments.

Sunday’s event saw 1,869 players pony up the $1,000 creating a prize pool $869,000 greater than the $1 Million guarantee. When final table play began “UH Big Tex” held the chip lead and despite some swings throughout the course of final table play, UH Big Tex came out on top.

The first player eliminated from the final table was “mendieta19“. With a short stack he pushed all-in with Kc8c. He was called by “BrokenTPot” who showed Kh5s.  The 5h on the flop put BrokenTPot ahead and with 8 on the turn or river mendieta19 was sent to the rail.

“Governator” took the chip lead when he eliminated “Eeedz” in 8th place by rivering a straight against a flopped set of fives. BrokenTPot would come close to regaining the chip lead not long after as he eliminated “quadducks“. After pushing all-in before the clop quadducks must have been devastated to discover that the only caller, BrokenTPot held a dominating Ad10s. The board brought no help for quadducks and his roar was silenced.

One of the relatively quiet players at the final table was “driverseati“. After hiding for most of his time at the table driverseati finally made a move putting all his chips in with 8s9c only to have another quiet player, “dannyred99“, make the call with pocket tens. The flop brought the 9d and the turn gave him two pair with the 8c, but the Qh on the end paired the board and counterfeited his two pair, eliminating him in 6th place.

BrokenTPot continued to chip away at the chip lead of Governator. Facing an all-in bet by a relatively short-stacked “playmeandpay“, BrokenTPot made the call with 8s 9s and found himself in a coin flip situation when playmeandpay turned over pocket threes. The 9c was the first card on the flop and playmeandpay’s tournament was over.

With four players remaining three players wanted to look at the possibility of chopping the remaining prize money, but with a commanding chip lead Governator decided he was more interested in playing it out - for now.

UH Big Tex made a strong move when he eliminated dannyred99 in fourth spot. From the big blind dannyred99 was all-in with Kc Qd but found himself needing help against the Ac Td of UH Big Tex. The Ad on the flop ended any hope for dannyred99.

Talk of a deal based on chip stacks then resurfaced and Governator, who originally expressed his desire to play it out, consented to pausing the tournament so the numbers could be explored. Under tournament rules $40,000 had to be left out of any deal for the players to play for. That left $643,306.40 for the players to divide and when the numbers were given, all three players agreed to the chop.

The chop was as follows:

Governator: $237,199.67
UH Big Tex: $205,736.56

BrokenTPot: $200,370.16

The three players would then continue to play with the eventual winner taking home the remaining $40,000. Not long after agreeing to the chop Governator would surrender the chip lead by calling UH Big Tex’s all-in bet on an 8-high flop. Governator held top pair, but UH Big Tex won the hand with pocket jacks. UH Big Tex continued his dominant play when he eliminated BrokenTPot in third.

When heads-up play began UH Big Tex held 15,630,747 of the 18,689,990 chips in play and it wouldn’t take him long to eliminate Governator. The final hand saw UH Big Tex call from the small blind to see a flop of 7h8cTc. UH Big Tex bet 260,000, Governator raised to 777,777 and UH Big Tex raised to 5,330,000; Governator calls all in. The turn brought Ac and the river brought Qc. UH Big Tex turned over a flush while Governator showed two flopped pair.

Taking the chop into account UH Big Tex won $245,736.56.

For a complete listing of the final table results check out the Sunday Report.

When Michael Mizrachi was eliminated from the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Challenge championship event shortly after Midnight last night it set up the TV final table for the event. With the chips bagged and counted Jason Potter, who had the chip lead at the start of Day 3, stood on top with a chip count of 1,156,000.

Just behind Potter stands Lee Markholt with 1,137,000 in chips. Potter and Markholt are the only two players to have cracked the 1 million mark in chips.

With ten players remaining it looked as if the TV final table may be one of the toughest in WPT history. But Chau Giang, Phil Ivey and Mizrachi were all eliminated before the before the final six competitors broke for the night.

The most experienced player left is David “The Dragon” Pham. The runner-up for Bluff Magazine Player-of-the-Year in 2007, Pham is currently in 10th in the 2008 race and could vault himself into second place with a victory Friday.

Final table play gets underway at 5pm Pacific Friday.

World Poker Challenge Final Table Chip Counts and Seating Assignments

1. Jason Potter - 1,156,000 (Seat 4)

2. Lee Markholt - 1,137,000 (Seat 6)

3. Bryan Devonshire - 674,000 (Seat 5)
4. David “The Dragon” Pham - 406,000 (Seat 3)

5. Zach Hyman - 285,000 (Seat 2)

6. Jeff DeWitt - 249,000 (Seat 1)

Jason Potter, the player who was robbed of a good share of his winnings in Australia earlier this year, has seen his fortune swing again as he sits atop the leaderboard at the World Poker Tour’s World Poker Challenge wrapped up play late Wednesday night in Reno.

The field is now down to 27 players as Robert Goldfarb went out in 28th, bursting the money bubble and ending play for the day. Goldfarb was eliminated by Zachary Hyman, who sits in fourth with 298,000, on the final hand of the night.

Just ahead of Hyman is Jordan Rich with 327,900 chips and Ron Linden with 301,400. Day 1 chip leader Phil Ivey is comfortably in fifth place with 286,100 chips but the remainder of the leaderboard reads like a who’s who of tournament poker.

Michael Mizrachi (255,900), David Pham (195,100), Erik Seidel (138,600) and Chau Giang (159,800) are all still in the running for the $493,815 first place prize.

Play will resume Thursday at 2pm Pacific and will continue until only six players remain for the taping of the WPT final table Friday.

Nine levels of play have been completed in Reno and none other than Phil Ivey sits atop the leaderboard at the 2008 World Poker Challenge championship event. Ivey’s 179,900 chips have him just ahead of Eli Elezra with 173,800.

Men “The Master” Nguyen, who is leading the Bluff Magazine Player-of-the-Year race, was one of the 186 Day 1 casualties as was defending World Poker Challenge champion J.C. Tran.  Some other familiar faces to the hit the rail were Gavin Smith, 2007 World Series of Poker champ Jerry Yang and Barry Greenstein.

Ivey leads the way despite being more than an hour late returning from dinner. During his absence his chip stack dwindled to below 10,000 as blinds and antes were removed from his stack. Once he returned to his seat he steamrolled the competition and began picking up chips en masse.

The World Poker Tour event started with 261 players paying the $7,500 buy-in to create a prize pool of $1,866,000 with first place paying $492,000. Play will resume at Noon Pacific on Wednesday with the final table taping scheduled for Friday.

The Merge Network has added yet another room to their growing online poker network as TexasHoldem.com today announced that they have officially opened their doors and yes, American players are welcome.

The Merge Network boasts some unique player-friendly features fans of GSN’s High Stakes Poker will like one in particular. Players can elect to “run it twice” giving them two separate boards to play after the chips have gone in. Other impressive features include a Bad Beat Jackpot, bounty tournaments, shootout tournaments, resizable tables, player accolades, “Rabbit Hunting,” and a buddy list feature.

In addition to playing in daily freeroll tournaments and guaranteed tournaments, players on TexasHoldem.com can enjoy learning the game of poker in cash games ranging from low to high stakes, while capitalizing on a generous deposit bonus of 100% up to $500. 

On the last Sunday of each month, qualifying players at TexasHoldem.com will receive entry into freeroll tournament where the prize pool is guaranteed to be at least $50,000. 

“This freeroll is just a way for us to say ‘thank you’ to our loyal players,” said Nick Whiting of TexasHoldem.com.

The $7,500 buy-in championship event of the 2008 World Poker Challenge gets underway today and is always the case some of the biggest names in the game are making the relatively short trip from Las Vegas to Reno.

Some of the players expected in Reno to play for the title include Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren and Bay 101 Shooting Stars winner Brandon Cantu. Play begins Tuesday and continues through the week until the six-handed TV final table is taped on Friday. 

March 24 - Mirage Poker Showdown
March 31 - Bellagio Cup III (Part 1)
April 7 - Bellagio Cup III (Part 2)
April 14 - Legends of Poker
April 21 - North American Poker Classic
April 28 - Mandalay Bay Poker Championship
May 5 - Borgata Poker Open & Spa
May 12 - WPT Ladies Night V
May 19 - Turks and Caicos Poker Classic
May 26 - Gulf Coast Poker Championship
June 2 - WPT Spanish Championship
June 9 - Foxwoods World Poker Finals
June 16 - Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic
June 23 - World Poker Open (Part 1)
June 30 - World Poker Open (Part 2)
July 7 - Borgata Poker Classic
July 14 - L.A. Poker Classic
July 21 - WPT Celebrity Invitational
July 28 - Bay 101 Shooting Star
August 4 - World Poker Challenge
August 11 - Foxwoods Poker Classic
August 18 - WPT Ladies Championship
August 25 - WPT World Championship