Cheating Online Poker Bots Accrue $58,000 in Winnings At PokerStars
A pokerstars player noticed and reported similarities between 10 online poker player accounts, the similarities included things like the players changing stakes back and forth in the poker sites micro stakes tables at the same time, logging on and off at the same time, and making a lot of the same plays.
The player ‘Malloc” on the TwoPlusTwo poker forums and the PokerTableRatiings studied the habits of the ten ‘players’ and eventually reported the accounts to PokerStars.
PokerStars promptly began an investigation into the accounts and confirmed that their play coincided with bot behaviors. The scarriest thing about these 10 poker accounts is that they didn’t lose, they didn’t stay even, they won, and they won to the tune of $58,000.00. Historically, poker bots aren’t really known for winning. In fact, they tend to slowly lose small amounts of money. Very good bots have been known to break even.
The account names included in the investigation are:
- 7emenov bakabar
- craizer
- mvra
- nakseon
- kozzin
- demidou
- koldan
- Daergy
- feidmanis
According to reports from FlopTurnRiver.com Pokerstars is looking for any more accounts related to this ring as well as “potentially be redistributing some of the remaining balances in each of the bot accounts to the real players who played against them.”
PokerStars Announces Preliminary Schedule for 2010 WCOOP
PokerStars has announced the preliminary schedule for the upcoming 2010 World Championship of Online Poker. This year’s series will feature more events than last year’s series and hopefully even larger guaranteed prize pools.
Last year the series had forty five tournaments take place and over $50 million in guaranteed prize money. This year the series is going to have sixty two events and even though the guarantees have yet to be released, one would imagine they would be worth over $50 million since there are more events this year than last year.
The series is set to begin on September 5th and the first day will see three events taking place. The first event is the $215 no limit hold’em six max event and next will be the $10,300 no limit hold’em high roller tournament. The last event of the day will be the $215 two day event.
The WCOOP tournament series is expected to have a large variety of games and formats in the various tournaments for players to enjoy. These games include: Five Card Draw, Omaha, Razz, Eight Game, Badugi, HORSE, Single Draw and Triple Draw.
The main event is set to take place on September 26th at 17:00 ET and have a buy-in of $5,200. The main event is one of the highlights of the series and many top pros will be trying their hand at winning the event. Last year the event was won by Yevgeniy Timoshenko and he earned $1.7 million for winning the tournament.
Below is a list of the preliminary schedule. Changes can be made in the future and the guarantees are expected to be released soon:
Sunday, September 5th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max
15:00 ET: $10,300 No Limit Hold’em High Roller
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day
Monday, September 6th
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Shootout Six-Max
20:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Turbo with Rebuys
Tuesday, September 7th
14:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Five Card Draw
17:00 ET: $215 TBD
20:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels
Wednesday, September 8th
12:00 ET: $265 Pot Limit Omaha Knockout
14:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em Ante Up
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Two-Day
Thursday, September 9th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
14:00 ET: $265 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Knockout
17:00 ET: $215 Razz
Friday, September 10th
14:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Single Draw
20:00 ET: $109 Eight-Game 10-Minute Levels
Saturday, September 11th
13:00 ET: $109 No Limit Hold’em 10-Minute Levels
17:00 ET: $215 Limit Hold’em
Sunday, September 12th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
17:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day
Monday, September 13th
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Four-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Stud
20:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Turbo Cubed
Tuesday, September 14th
14:00 ET: $320 Mixed Hold’em Six-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Limit Badugi
20:00 ET: $1050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels
Wednesday, September 15th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Cubed
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Triple Shootout 10-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Eight-Game
Thursday, September 16th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max Cubed
17:00 ET: $320 Limit Triple Draw 2-7
Friday, September 17th
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $530 Limit Omaha High/Low
20:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em 10-Minute Levels
Saturday, September 18th
13:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Two-Day
15:00 ET: $25,500 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up Two-Day
17:00 ET: $320 HORSE
Sunday, September 19th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
17:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day
Monday, September 20th
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em 2X Chance
20:00 ET: $265 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Knockout
Tuesday, September 21st
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha
17:00 ET: $530 Stud High/Low
20:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels
Wednesday, September 22nd
12:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Big Antes
17:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha High/Low
Thursday, September 23rd
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Turbo
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $2,100 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
Friday, September 24th
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Cubed
17:00 ET: $1,050 Limit Hold’em Six-Max
20:00 ET: $215 No Limit Omaha High/Low 10-Minute Levels
Saturday, September 25th
13:00 ET: $530 Pot Limit Omaha Heads-Up Match Play
17:00 ET: $2,100 HORSE
Sunday, September 26th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
15:00 ET: $10,300 Eight-Game High Roller
17:00 ET: $5,200 Main Event Two-Day
Full Tilt Poker Announces FTOPS XVII
Full Tilt Poker is one of the most popular online poker sites on the internet today. Thousands of players log on to Full Tilt Poker everyday to enjoy the various poker games and tournaments that the site has to offer. One of the most popular options that Full Tilt offers is their Full Tilt Online Poker Series. The Series is about to start again and Full Tilt has announced the schedule of events.
This year the Full Tilt Online Poker Series XVII will begin on August 4th. The tournament will continue until August 15th and have thirty four events taking place. The total guaranteed prize money up for grabs will be $19 million but hopefully so many players will sign up to compete that the prize money for each tournament will surpass its guarantee!
Included on the schedule are six Rush Poker tournaments as well as knockout and shootout tournaments. There will also be a Bouncebackability Free roll which will be for those who end up being Bubble Boys. If you just miss the cash bubble in an event then you will be entered into the free roll. You will then have the chance to win a seat to the FTOPS XVII Main Event.
Even though the schedule has been announced it has not been told as to who will be hosting each event. I’m sure Full Tilt is still figuring out which star will host which event so we should find out in the near future who will be hosting the events.
The online poker series will kick off with a $200 plus $16 No Limit Hold’em event which will have a guaranteed prize pool of $750,000. Next up will be a $240 plus $16 Pot limit Omaha hi/lo knockout rush tournament which will have a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool.
The events with the larger prize pools are the $300 plus $22 no limit hold’em event which takes place on the 8th. This event has a $1,250,000 prize pool as well as the $1,000 plus $60 no limit hold’em tournament which has the same guaranteed prize pool. This event takes place on the 9th.
There is also going to be a $2,000 plus $100 no limit hold’em tournament ante from start which is a two day six max event. This tournament will have a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million dollars. And of course no one could forget the main event. The main event will have a buy-in of $600 plus $40 and be a no limit hold’em tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $3,000,000.
Of course if you don’t want to pay the buy-in you can try your hand at satellites that Full Tilt will be holding. Players can earn their seat to the tournament events by participating in the various satellites with varying buy-ins to earn their seat to a FTOPS XVII Event. Players can check out the FTOPS XVII page at Full Tilt to check out the full schedule of events.
2010 WSOP Event #56 Results
The 2010 World Series of Poker is quickly finishing up and event #56 has been completed. The event was a no limit hold’em tournament which had a buy-in of $2,500. The tournament had almost 2,000 players competing which created a total prize pool of $4,466,600.
The tournament saw some very stiff competition and once final table play began it would get even worse. When final table play began it would not be long before the first player would be eliminated. The first player to go would be Alfonso Amendola when he went all in against Tomer Curcio. Amendola held A-10 while Curcio held A-K. the board fell K-9-2-7-Q and Amendola would be eliminated in ninth place.
Eighth place would go to Joseph Curcio when he went all in and was called by Vladimir Kochelaevskiy. Vladimir would hold pocket aces to Curcio’s pocket jacks. The board would fall K-2-2-9-8 and Curcio would be out in eighth place.
The next player to go all in was Ali Alawadhi and he was called by Tomer Berda. Alawadhi would hold K-9 while Berda held A-6. The board would fall A-5-3-9-J and Berda would win the hand and Alawadhi would be out in seventh place.
Next to go would be Hungcheng Hung. He would go all in and would be called by Tomer Berda. Hung held Q-J and Berda held A-K. the flop showed 8-7-6 and Hung was behind in the hand. A 3 on the turn gave Hung one last chance and a 10 was turned over for the river card and it was no help so Hung was out in sixth place.
Fifth place would go to Mike Wattel and fourth would go to Salvatore Bonavena on the same hand. Wattel would go all in and Bonavena would go all in over the top. Bryan Porter would also call as he had both players covered.
Wattel held A-J, Bonavena held pocket eights and Porter held pocket jacks. The board didn’t help anyone as it fell 5-2-2-6-4. Porter had the best hand so both Wattel and Bonavena would both be eliminated.
Third would go to Bryan Porter after he went all in and was called by Berda. Porter held Q-9 while Berda held A-10. The board fell A-3-2-A-5 and with trip aces Berda held the winning hand and Porter was knocked out in third place.
This would leave Berda and Vladimir in heads up play. On the final hand Vladimir would go all in and Berda would call. Vladimir held 10-6 and Berda held A-4. The flop was in Berda’s favor with A-6-2. The turn brought a 3 and Vladimir would need a ten or six on the river to stay in. A 7 was the river card and Vladimir was out in second which left Berda to win his first WSOP bracelet.
Final Results:
1. Tomer Berda — $825,976
2. Vladimir Kochelaevskiy — $510,939
3. Bryan Porter — $353,260
4. Salvatore Bonavena — $254,777
5. Mike Wattel — $186,250
6. Hungcheng Hung — $137,946
7. Ali Alawadhi — $60,580
8. Joseph Curcio — $78,705
9. Alfonso Amendola — $60,580
PokerStars Signs Yet Another Poker Pro
PokerStars has been a very busy online poker room. From hosting the biggest land tournaments around as well as special online tournaments, the poker room is busy creating a top notch poker room for players to enjoy. The site has also been busy signing poker pros to their site. the site recently signed David Williams as a sponsored pro and now the site has announced the signing of poker pro Vanessa Selbst.
Vanessa is just twenty five years old and she comes from Brooklyn, New York. The poker pro has won a World Series of Poker bracelet and just over $1.7 million in live tournament winnings. Vanessa is known as an online poker player and she is especially skilled in the heads up no limit hold’em arena. Vanessa is known for taking down players cash but she is also a coach as well.
Vanessa works with Deuces Cracked which is an online poker training site. she is an executive producer and coach at the online poker site. Vanessa can now add Team PokerStars Pro to her list of accomplishments.
Vanessa can handle her responsibilities very well. She has been playing poker very well for many years, earning cash along with way, while going to school at Yale. She is hoping to work in civil rights law when she is finished with college. Vanessa even made time between playing poker and studying to be the head of the Yale Queer-Straight Alliance for a short time.
The poker pro began playing poker while still in high school and then it would be in 2004 that she became serious about her poker game. she took the time to research the game and then read several variations of poker strategy to become better at the game.
Vanessa has commented on how she learned to play the game and manage a growing bankroll: “I started playing $ 50 no-limit and slowly worked my way up. I had a breakthrough period in the summer of 2005, building an $8,000 bankroll into about $ 75,000 at Foxwoods and online. By the end of 2005, I had a very nice bankroll for $ 10/$ 20 and played mostly cash games. I was always a huge nit about bankroll management and very risk averse, so I never played as high as I probably should have. To this day, I have only rarely played any higher than $ 50/$ 100.”
So despite her great success, Vanessa has remained a not so well known poker pro. But now that she has signed with PokerStars she will become better known. Vanessa will be playing online at PokerStars on a regular basis as well as competing in live tournaments hosted by PokerStars. So fans of the game can check out how she plays and see she is a very skilled player and certainly deserves a spot on the PokerStars team.
