PokerWorks

Splashing the Pot captures the foam created by the disturbance and turbulence of action, action, action, and is filled with tidbits above and beyond the victories and beats and adds a little spice to the game of poker.

Shaun Deeb Makes Brief Return to Online Tournament Poker
 
Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb made a brief return to online tournament poker, but don’t get too excited, it was a freeroll.  As a top 100 member of PokerStars Tournament Leaderboard Points (TLB) for the year 2009, Deeb was eligible to play in the “Yearly TLB Tournament” with a top prize of $20,000.  Unfortunately for Deeb, he was never able to get anything going, finishing in 89th place.

Contrary to some reports, Deeb did not retire from online poker, he retired from tournament poker.  As of late he has been seen playing a variety of games, including 75/150 Omaha hi/lo on Stars, which he fired up shortly after busting out of the Yearly TLB Tournament.  He has also been seen on Full Tilt under his screen name “tedsfishfry,” playing 2/4 and 5/10 No Limit recently.

No word has come yet on when Deeb will make a full-time return to the online tournament scene he once dominated not too long ago.
 
Tony G. Among Other Greats Added to the PartyPoker Premier League IV

A basic who’s who of the poker world have accepted invitations to play in the PartyPoker Premier League IV tournament, to be played in front of live television audience in Las Vegas from February 7th through the 14th. 

The newest member of PartyPoker, Tony G., has accepted an invite to play and will be joined by an all-star cast in the poker world.  The “Godfather of Poker” Doyle Brunson accepted the last invite this past Wednesday.  Joining Tony G. and Brunson will be David Benyamine, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, JC Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Luke Schwartz and Roland de Wolfe.

Two more spots are yet to be determined.  One of those will be determined by an online qualifier, and the other will be determined by a series of one table tournaments to be played between members of Team Party.

Freeroll Fun Continues at PokerWorks

Another great week of freerolls brought to you by the PokerWorks family of poker rooms continues this week.  A freeroll on Poker770 with a prize pool of $2,770 kicks off the 15th of February.
 
The week ends with Poker Stars putting on a $2,000 freeroll on February 6 at 6:30pm ET.  That means this week you can take part in three tournaments with a chance to win your share $5,770 for the unbeatable price of free.
 
Please visit our tournament section for a complete list of freerolls and how to qualify for them.

Players Unsuccessful in Petition to Change World Poker Tour Bellagio Five-Diamond Schedule to Old Schedule

When the Bellagio announced its schedule for this year’s Five-Diamond Classic, running March 31 through April 24, some players thought it was a joke.   The reason they thought this was because of the 31 events scheduled, 17 of them, over half, are rebuy’s.  Almost immediately a petition was headed up by poker pro Scott Clements to get the schedule changed to one similar to the previous year, which featured less than half the amount of rebuy’s schedule for this year.
 
With plenty of time spare before the event, people thought that tournament director Jack McClelland, one of the most respected T.D.s in the industry, would hear out these complaints and maybe make some changes.  However, the petition was shot down, and the Bellagio announced they would leave the tournament as is.
 
Clements, displeased with this ruling, has announced on the poker forum TwoPlusTwo that he will not be participating in this series.  A number of other well known pros, online and live, have also followed suit.   It’s a shame because the Bellagio Five-Diamond Classic acts as a great warm-up for the World Series of Poker, which kicks-off just one month after this series wraps-up.  The Five-Diamond Classic kicks off March 30th with a rebuy.

Aussie Millions Ends, Bach Tames the H.O.R.S.E Event and Main Event Champion Crowned

David Bach continued to add to his impressive tournament resume by winning the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament.  Bach has put his name at, or at the very least, near the top of the best mixed game player in the world.  At least year’s WSOP he won the $50,000 World Championship of H.O.R.S.E., winning 1.2 million there.  While the prize money for winning down under wasn’t as much, the competition was just as steep.  He had to outlast another mixed game specialist, Jeff Lisandro.  After several hours of back and forth action, Bach finally got the better of his adversary.

The Aussie Millions made another one of its own a millionaire for the second year in a row when Tyron Krost took down the main event.  Krost, just 22 years old, was able to battle back from a massive chip disadvantage, which was caused by prohibitive favorite Sorel Mizzi holding most of the chips coming into the final table.  Mizzi flamed out, finishing third for AUD 715,000.  Krost was able to keep the title in Australia when he defeated Frederik Jensen in heads-up play, and added AUD 2,000,000 to his bankroll.

Roland Hawkings earned the final championship ring of the series, winning $28,875 in the $550 Turbo Event, the Aussie Millions last event.

*Read Billy Monroe's Blog*