WSOP 2008

Team Member - Shaun Garvie

2008-07-04T00:07:51Z

It was Shaun Garvie’s competitive nature that got him involved in the game of poker many years ago. In fact, he had to stop playing sports because he nearly lost his leg to a tumour when he was younger – making him stronger and more determined to succeed. Shaun kicked it up a notch six years ago when he started taking his hobby a bit more seriously – beginning his journey to a successful online career which resulted in many wins including this $12,000 Team PokerNews Package. He admits to mostly playing poker online (due to convenience) with a preference for Texas Holdem. Additionally, he has aspirations to get into Omaha and Razz. The American switches from ring games to tournaments depending on how much free time he has. Winning this $12,000 Package made Shaun feel “excited and anxious at the same time.” “Excited about the win, but anxious about planning an extended trip to leave just days afterwards.” How did he celebrate? “I haven’t really had a chance yet… still trying to catch my breath,” explains Shaun. Outside of the poker circuit, you will find Shaun indulging in his other favourites including pool, bowling, chess and reading. This will be his second attempt at the WSOP – his first when he won entry to Event 40 in 2006. How will Shaun fare at the world’s biggest poker competition? Stay tuned to PokerNews.com and TV.PokerNews.com for the best and most comprehensive coverage brought direct to you from the floor of The Rio All Suite and Hotel Casino.

Team Member - Yonghui Jiang

2008-06-26T02:05:39Z

Yonghui’s interest in poker was fuelled by the simple fact that the he wanted to “learn something fun.” One and a half years from the day he first picked up this hobby, Yonghui is now the proud winner of a $12,500 Team PokerNews Package giving him the opportunity to represent the Team at the renowned World Series of Poker. The full time restaurant owner mostly plays poker online with a preference for tournaments over ring games. His favourite variation of poker is No Limit Texas Holdem. In his list of poker successes is one $9,000 win obtained after a recent online tournament. In regards to his massive $12,500 package achievement? “I felt hyper… [I was] jumping around and hugging my wife,” explains the father of one. “I also hugged my son.” When not juggling duties as a parent and business owner, Yonghui also enjoys watching television. This will be his first experience at a major poker tournament and his first attempt at the coveted Series. Best of luck to Yonghui and the rest of Team PokerNews! For all the best poker action the WSOP has to offer – keep your eyes glued to PokerNews.com.

Team Member - Yannick Schroeyen

2008-06-20T00:43:38Z

Hailing from Bringen in Belgium is another talented member of the 2008 Team PokerNews WSOP. Yannick Schroeyen has only been playing poker for about a year now and he admits he started because it looked fun and interesting. Yannick mostly plays poker online but we are confident it will be all smooth sailing for the Belgian as he attempts a live tournament that is the $10,000 Main Event. The student admits he is best at playing No Limit Texas Holdem, “however, I like Omaha High the most.” Yannick also has a preference for tournaments over ring games. Winning a $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll is Yannick’s biggest poker success to date and he admits to have felt, “stunned and in a blur.” He has yet to celebrate as he had to continue studying for his exams shortly after the freeroll ended. If you can’t find the student battling it out online, you will find him indulging in his hobbies which include “running and hanging out with friends.” This will be his first experience at a major poker tournament and his first shot at the Series. Good luck to Yannick and the rest of Team PokerNews! To watch all the live action direct from the tournament floor of the Rio – catch our live reporting team only on PokerNews.com.

Team Member - Fabrizio Arrigo

2008-06-12T02:03:11Z

Fabrizio Arrigo of Messina, Italy was crowned IT.PokerNews Poker770 League Winner taking home the title and a $12,500 Team PokerNews Package! Congratulations to Fabrizio for a fabulous effort and welcome aboard Team PokerNews. Even though he started playing poker (just for fun) only a year ago, Fabrizio has already enjoyed many online tournament first place finishes. Currently, Fabrizio plays poker both live and online and equally enjoys both tournaments and ring games. His favourite variations of poker include Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo and No Limit Texas Holdem. The Italian felt “very happy and excited” when he won a $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll and admits he has yet to celebrate. When not working on perfecting his strategy, Fabrizio enjoys football, playing the piano and listening to music. This will be his first experience at a major poker tournament and his first attempt at the World Series. As always, stay locked on to PokerNews.com for the best and most comprehensive coverage at the poker tournament of all tournaments – the 39th Annual World Series of Poker.

Team Member - Cristiano Loioli

2008-06-11T01:56:40Z

Cristiano Loioli of Ladispoli, Italy was crowned IT.PokerNews Poker770 League Winner taking home the title and a $12,500 Team PokerNews Package! Congratulations to Cristiano for a fabulous effort and welcome aboard Team PokerNews. The tennis coach has been indulging in his passion for poker for the past three years. He started simply because he liked it. Now Cristiano plays poker both live and online with a preference for tournaments over ring games. His two favourite variations of poker include Texas Holdem and Omaha. The Italian felt “crazy” when he won a $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll and admits he has yet to celebrate. Christiano comments, “I’ll celebrate when I win the WSOP.” Cristiano is no stranger to major poker tournaments having played at the EPT San Remo. He also recently won an online poker tournament pocketing a nice $5,500 for his efforts. This will be his first time at the World Series. As always, stay locked on to PokerNews.com for the best and most comprehensive coverage at the poker tournament of all tournaments – the 39th Annual World Series of Poker.

Team Member - Dion Fotopoulos

2008-06-06T01:47:35Z

Discovering poker whilst watching the Late Night Poker show several years ago is how it all started for Dion Fotopoulos. “Some years later I discovered the ESPN World Series broadcasts and was hooked,” explains Dion. Three and a half years on, Dion mostly plays poker online spending the bulk of his time with Razz, Stud, Omaha and No Limit Texas Holdem. He admits to playing more ring games but switches to tournament style when he plays No Limit Texas Holdem. Winning a $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll made Dion feel “physically ill… like I was going to throw up,” jokes the Australian. In fact, this is Dion’s second appearance with Team PokerNews – the first being in 2007 where he also represented the team at the WSOP Main Event. Outside the poker scene, Dion is a huge Aussie Rules and soccer fan. “I’ve also hosted weekly Progressive Dance and Wrestling shows, as well as breakfast and drive programmes on Community Radio,” says Dion. Will this be the year Dion takes home his very first bracelet? Stay tuned to PokerNews.com to find out how he and the rest of Team PokerNews fare at the 2008 World Series of Poker. Don’t forget to check out our brand-spanking new video site – TV.PokerNews.com/Video – streaming exclusive videos (and all the juicy goss!) from the floor of the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas.

Team Member - Dan Gold

2008-06-05T07:27:51Z

PokerNews welcomes Dan Gold to Team PokerNews WSOP 2008! Dan has 45 years of poker experience under his belt and currently indulges in his passion for poker both live and online. The retiree’s weapon of choice is No Limit Texas Holdem and he admits to preferring tournaments over ring games. Winning a package to the World Series made Dan feel “great” and he proceeded to celebrate by enjoying a glass of red wine. Away from the felt, the Israeli is also an avid fan of all things sports related. This will be his second attempt at the WSOP – his first being back in 1995. “I busted out of the Main Event after which I walked over to the Mirage Hotel where I managed to win some $650k that night,” explains Dan on his first experience at the Series. If you want to see how Dan fares at his second attempt at this prestigious event, keep your eyes glued on PokerNews.com – the exclusive update and live chip count provider of this year’s World Series of Poker.

Team Member - Paul Iliadis

2008-06-05T05:51:54Z

Paul Iliadis is a true fighter and has proven he has what it takes to build a successful career in poker. Finishing second, third and fifth in previous World Series freerolls did not deter Paul from trying again – and we’re glad he did because he has now walked away with a package to the year’s most coveted poker tournament! Australian student, Paul Iliadis started playing poker four years ago after enjoying a home game session with friends. Now he plays both live and online with a preference for ring games over tournaments. His two favourite variations of poker include No Limit Texas Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha. Winning this World Series package is Paul’s biggest poker success to date and he has yet to celebrate his win. Outside the poker circuit, Paul enjoys computers, video games and tennis. This will be his second experience at a major poker tournament and his first time at the Series. Good luck to Paul and the rest of Team PokerNews! For all live updates, as well as juicy behind-the-scene videos at this year’s WSOP – hop over to PokerNews.com!

Team Blog - Warm up events

2008-06-05T05:51:54Z

Hi all,

Just looking around at poker events around the WSOP, and there's a crazy amount of stuff on, especially if you're interested in some smaller buyin events.

Golden Nugget Grand Poker Series 6-June -> 7-July
http://www.goldennugget.com/pdf/The_Grand_Poker_Se ries.pdf

Binions Second Annual Poker Classic 28-May -> 8-July
http://www.binions.com/gaming/poker_classic.html

Caesars Palace Mega Stack Series 1-June -> 9-July
http://www.harrahs.com/images/non_image_assets/CLV _MegaStack_June08_.pdf

Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III 29-May -> 16-July
http://venetian.com/venetianeng/assets/files/DSE_J J.pdf

Regards, Stuart

Team Blog - Preparation WSOP started

2008-06-05T05:51:54Z

Hi
I am Richard Blaas (32) from the Netherlands I qualified through the pokernews Duplicate poker freeroll.
I played some tournaments at the Amsterdam casino this week and monday I am off to spain for a 3 week vacation and to play some torunaments at the Benidorm casino.
The 30th of June I will be flying to Las Vegas were I am staying at the Imperial Palace.
I can't wait to see you all at the pokernews welcomes party.

greetings,
Richard Blaas

Team News - $72,000 worth of World Series freerolls coming up!

2008-06-05T05:51:54Z

We're still giving you the chance to join the rest of our very special Team PokerNews WSOP by giving you another $72,000 worth of World Series freerolls to look forward to:

Pacific Poker - Saturday May 31 at 14:00 EST/15:00 EDT & Wednesday June 11 at 14:00 EST/15:00 EDT

Duplicate Poker - Sunday June 1 at 19:05 EST/20:05 EDT

Poker 770 - Friday June 6 at 14:30 EST/15:30 EDT

Mansion Poker - Saturday June 14 at 07:00 EST/08:00 EDT

Remember, winning a Team PokerNews WSOP package will give you a chance to join these guys at the year's biggest poker event, have your very own player profile published for all the world to see, get cash for travel, receive awesome player merchandise and get invited to the hottest party Vegas has to offer - the Team PokerNews Welcome Party!

Team Member - Andre Kaplar

2008-05-28T05:49:29Z

Congratulations to André Kaplar on taking home the title of 2008 TonyG WSOP League Winner! This win has upgraded André to the ranks of Team PokerNews allowing him to battle it out with all of poker’s finest at the 39th Annual World Series of Poker. What’s his story so far? It was five years ago when André started playing poker. “I started playing just for fun, but soon realised I could make some extra money [from it],” explains André. Now the translator enjoys playing poker both live and online with a preference for tournaments over ring games. His two favourite variations of poker are No Limit Texas Holdem and Omaha Hi/Lo. André has enjoyed many successes in his poker career including recently winning multiple online tournaments. Winning the TonyG WSOP League felt “like a dream was coming true” for André and he admits he has yet to stop celebrating! The Brazilian counts “watching movies and Friday-night-poker with friends and lots of beer!” as his two favourite things to do. This will be his first experience at a major poker tournament and his first attempt at the World Series. Interestingly enough, André also plans to get married in Las Vegas. Want to find out how it all goes down for André and the rest of Team PokerNews? Catch all the WSOP action only on PokerNews.com!

Team Member - Sebastiaan van Kempen

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Welcome back Sebastiaan van Kempen! An employee of a worldwide insulation company, Sebastiaan originally won a Team PokerNews package to the 2008 Aussie Millions in January and is now back to represent us at this year’s most exclusive poker tournament. Sebastiaan was understandably excited about winning a $12,500 Team PokerNews Freeroll and is looking forward to his first time at the World Series. The Dutchman started paying more attention to this hobby of his after he realized two years ago that “it was possible to earn some money with poker.” Currently, he spends his time playing poker online with a preference for No Limit Texas Holdem. Sebastiaan admits to playing more tournaments than ring games and manages to fit in a cash game every so often. If you can manage to drag Sebastiaan away from the tables, you will find him indulging in his other hobbies which include “playing darts and pool.” Want to be like Sebastiaan and win your way to the WSOP for next to nothing? Keep checking our Freerolls page for your next chance! Don’t forget – PokerNews is once again the official live chip count count provider giving you the all the latest WSOP updates direct from the tournament floor.

Team Blog - Booked in too

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Booked (for 10 days, if have to extend I guess I will not mind getting a new return ticket!)

For those interested, Rio still have rooms and, if you show them your WSOP entry ticket sometime, they will reduce the rate by $40 a day ... so somewhere, on average (weekends are horrible rates in vegas) at $140 a day.

Preparation will now have to be some live tournaments at Holland Casino, Schreveningen, coming weekend, they have some Euro 300+, 500+ freezouts ... maybe see some dutch team members there?

Team Blog - All booked

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

I'm all booked for Vegas. Flights were a bargain at only 3.4k on the worst airline I've flown, United. (Last time I flew United they had no in-seat entertainment system, and the pulldown screen for movies was broken) I'll be arriving on June 29th and leaving on July 12th (missing flights if still in obv), and staying at Paris because they comped me lots of nights for some reason.

A cash game/SNG between Pokernews players seems like a pretty good idea and I'm in.

Regards, Stuart

Team Blog - wsop team intoduction

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Hey everyone my name is Brennan Hanson and won my seat on full tilt. The first thing i did to get ready for the wsop was book my trip. I booked two weeks at the mgm and am staying from july 1- 15. Never been in vegas for longer than five days so this should be crazy! To get ready for the wsop i have been playing alot of poker live and online. I have also picked up a few new poker books and i would suggest gus hansens new book because he gives alot of insight and you can actually see all the hands he plays to win the Aussie Millions.
Cant wait to meet everyone and party down in vegas! I agree with Manila Fish we should get a sit and go or a cash game going with some of the players. The party will be fun!
Good luck at the tables till then!
Brennan

Team Blog - No fear and no loathing...

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Hey everyone,

Blogging here it is and (pending my visa) Vegas here I come! My name is Jed Acosta, 26 years old, and I've been grinding it out for almost 3 years now. I have managed to work my way up from online freerolls to now playing middle limits both live and online. Looking back, I must admit that I was never really impressed with my learning curve and yet when I think about the things I know now and didn't know two years earlier... it has made a world of difference! I feel like my game has never been better but at the same time I realize that there is still so much room for improvement.

Winning this seat after finishing second two weeks before in the same tourney just made it twice as sweet! Coming in second was my worst bubble result and the win was the biggest to date. Aside from playing even more poker, I plan to do a lot of reading and hand analysis in the coming weeks. I have asked some friends to be my dedicated sweat partners both online and live at least until l fly out of Manila . In my "spare" time I want to watch some videos of recent WSOP main events. I am also thinking of getting some much needed excercise to help with my stamina for the gruelli ng hours to come in the main event.

Congratulations to all the the other team members! I look forward to meeting you all at the party, getting drunk and maybe playing a friendly SnG! This is goin to be massive!

Cheers,
Jed

Team Blog - Welcome

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Hi,

(I posted this on my own blog but apparently it's supposed to go here)

Welcome to the official blog of my WSOP tilt! My name is Stuart and I'm from Australia. I have been unemployed and playing poker for a hobby for 7 years. I'm looking forward to being a part of Team PokerNews and meeting you all.

Anyway for my first post I thought I'd discuss what happened at my previous WSOP attempt in 2006. I'm a notoriously bad sleeper, and was still jet-lagged when starting Day 1C despite several days to acclimatise. This was compounded by playing a warm up tournament at Caesars the night before and accidentally final tabling it.

So I was ok for a while, gradually working my stack up to about 35k without ever being at risk. My table was fairly passive and only two people busted the whole day, which is a fairly poor table to be on considering some ppl finished the day with 150k+. Mark Seif was on my table, and was the source of a lot of my stack. The standard of players was generally poor and I felt I was the best player on my table.

With about an hour to go tho, I started to crash very hard. I had a watershed moment where I thought I should just go back to my room and lose the blinds. Instead I decided to stay and fold everything that wasn't AA. What I actually did was blast off my chips in a series of retarded hands and bust with about 15 minutes to go.

So this year I have a plan. I'm arriving on the 29th, and playing (hopefully) Day 1D, so I have a very long time to get over the jet-lag. I have a light-dark program to try and get my body into the right time zone. I also plan on using the time to play quite a few warm up tournaments, including Event #52 - $1500 NL, and whatever smaller tournaments are going. The other thing I'm planning on doing is getting some exercise every day, so I'm in the best condition I can be for a long day of tournament play.

Regards, Punter

Team Blog - me

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Well, who am I?
No one special, at least until November 9th/10th that is ;-)

I am ancient, born in 1953, croupier during the 1970's which included dealing 7 card stud - but I never understood (or even had an interest in) the game.

Discovered texas holdem nolimit in a Bolton Casino a couple of years ago. I entered the 100 player tournament, chip leader much of the time, made final table and should have won but came third when I did not appreciate that opponents could also have flush cards at the same time as me. In fact, I played this whole tournament without realizing that flushes were not unusal - I therefore over played/overbet/underbet many hands and was obviously very lucky.

Soon after I managed to pick up a few thousand online, +11K at my high point ... then the bad news ... I read books and articles and discovered Gap theory ... then I started losing :-( Apparently my expectations of always being in the money were not realistic (though i continued with about a 50% success rate in Bolton in low level entry tournaments). My online bank roll drained away over the last couple of years. Paid full entry into EPT Amsterdam 2006 and built a nice stack, blew it by getting greedy with a boat, came up against (an obvious) higher boat,

So, for preparation for WSOP, I will read (and reread) the standard bibles including the book of tells, but I have at least learnt not to rely on them and try to play my own game. I much enjoy face-to-face poker rather than online.

Major weakness ... boredom and lack of patience when I have a long run of poor cards resulting in lack of outstanding success, lack of memory for names.

Major strengths ... positive attitude, great memory for previous hands/betting played (maybe my chess experiences help that)

Cheers,
D

Team Blog - Its me!

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Hi all,
well I completed part1 -- a freeroll into the main event -- now part2 of the masterplan - Win it !

I wont bore you with a blow by blow commentary on my freeroll, but the hilights were a double up on hand one with a set, stealing a lot near the final table bubble to keep average chip stack, passive play on final table till only 5 players left, then the brilliance of doubling up three times in 5 hands with: K8s, QQ, QQ. I let a maniac who was allin every hand eventually knock out the others, I olled over to his allins at headsup until I actually had some cards. From way behind in stack size, I won my three calls of his allins with AJ, 88, AQ.

I gues it could have gone wrong at many points, the key points for me was the K8s doubling me up on final table and a maniac to play against heads up.

Looking forward to meeting the G, want to discover if he is truly a great guy or just the reverse. He was very quiet in Amsterdam.

Cheers,
D

Team Blog - Blogvegas

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Hey everyone,

I'm 26 and was born and raised in the Philippines. Poker really got kickstarted here a few years ago. In just a few short years, there are now tons of very good players, with major buy-in events from Pokerstars and the Asian Poker Tour becoming increasingly available. It's pretty sweet I picked the game up at the right time.

Looking forward, I can't wait for Vegas - being around the sick, gamblers of the world - imo, what's not to love? I (obv) want to do well in the tourney, but am looking forward to the entire experience, including partying it up with the rest of the team at the welcome party!

Cheers!
Jon

Team News - Two $17,000 packages to the WSOP from Pacific Poker

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

Our friends at Pacific Poker are giving you two more chances to win one of the biggest WSOP* packages available. Here's what a $17,000 Team PokerNews WSOP Package will get you:

Buy-in to the $10,000 Main Event
10 nights stay at the Venetian Hotel (Palazzo Tower)
$2,500 cash for travel
$2,000 cash for spending
A Pacific Poker Merchandise Pack
One invite to the 888 Welcome Party
One invite to Shane Warne's private poker event
One invite to the Team PokerNews Welcome Party

Both freerolls are scheduled for:

Saturday May 31 at 14:00 EST/15:00 EDT
Wednesday June 11 at 14:00 EST/15:00 EDT

For complete details on this incredible promotion, read the full article here

*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah's License Company, LLC (Harrah's). Harrah's does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerNews Ltd or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.

Team News - New WSOP Freeroll at MANSION Poker

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

PokerNews and MANSION Poker have teamed up again, this time offering players a chance to win their way to the biggest and most prestigious poker event in the world, the main event at the World Series of Poker. Best part of all...it's FREE!

All player's have to do to qualify is to download MANSION Poker via PokerNews, make a minimum deposit, and then earn 200 MANSION Poker Points during the qualification period.

Qualification period starts on May 10th at 12:00 GMT and ends on Thursday 5th at 23:59 GMT.
This prize package is valued at $13,000.

The Freeroll tournament is scheduled for Saturday June 14th at 12:00 GMT.

Existing MANSION Poker players are welcome to participate in this promotion provided they have signed up via PokerNews and have met all the entry requirements.

Team News - Play online pool & win a WSOP seat!

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

There are different paths to the WSOP - poker enthusiasts who also share a love for pool can now stand a chance to win a WSOP seat by taking part in a promotion launched by PoolStars.com.

Find more information at Poolstars WSOP Promo page.

Team News - Titan Poker hosts the next Team PokerNews WSOP Freeroll

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

The next Team PokerNews WSOP Freeroll will be hosted by Titan Poker - Saturday 19th of April. Those who have yet to participate in any PokerNews freerolls or have yet to sign up for an account with Titan still have time. Just sign up through PokerNews links, register an account, deposit and start playingl.

If for some reason you had to miss this one, don't fret - there are always more exciting freerolls available exclusively to you courtesy of PokerNews! Keep checking our Events page section.

Team News - PokerStars WSOP tournaments ahead

2008-05-28T03:22:19Z

PokerNews announces exclusive freerolls at PokerStars. Read the full story here