Amsterdam was a blast…

Amsterdam was a blast….. Watching the final table became quite a carnival, with Padraig and Scott Gray providing running commentary along with Joe, Scott, Dave “The Devilfish” Ulliot, Julian Gardner, Chip Winton, and many more. Beer was flowing copiously both at the rail and the bar, where half of European poker was camped out in a cool half circle…

We appreciated all the feedback we got regarding our Internet coverage. We were quite pleased considering the technical limitations we were operating under; it was like being on the raceway in a VW bus! But we had a great driver in Scotty, as in “I’m giving ‘er all she’s got Cap’n, I don’t think she’s gonna hold!” Peter Voolstra, Rolf Slotbloom, and the entire staff of Holland Casino both provided their own fantastic coverage of the event and supported us in providing ours. We hope we can combine resources even more in the future; And betting on poker is a definite go………

‘The field’ was the big winner on Betfair. Available for a sizable margin online at 2/1 just days before the tournament started, the field closed at about 8/5, the last offers being gobbled up by a gray German, upon opening his new Betfair account. Layne Flack was around in the half hour between the time the book closed and the tournament started trying to get a bet on the field at 7/5, but there were no takers. Julian Gardner was convulsed with laughter on walking into the casino pre-final table and finding out that the only two remaining runners in his bet to lay the field were Nic Szeremeta and Sigi Stockinger. I shared the feeling. Nic got excited with a jack-ten on the third hand of the final table and left in a whoosh. The biggest bet Sigi made at the final table was when he put up his 15,000 blind about an hour in. The field was the big winner.

It’s official…. “The Gentleman” Liam Flood is tournament director for the Poker Million – The Masters to be aired on Sky Sports early next year. The tournament is in good hands – Liam is the longtime tournament director for the Irish Open and an accomplished player as well. The complete list of celebrities playing is likely to not be released until the press conference the evening before the tournament begins in London on December 17th… Peter Costa, a Poker Million entrant, has a new idea for team tournament play that will revolutionize the concept, he says. He’s still mum for details.

Ladbrokes has unveiled their plans for two Poker Million seats to be given away online. The ten thousand dollar entries will be awarded through two one table satellites, to take place online on Monday 2nd and Tuesday 3rd December. Throughout November, Ladbrokes will be awarding seats at these two satellite tables. There are still about ten seats left, check full details at Ladbrokes.com. In a great twist, Ladbrokes will offer fixed odds betting on the one table satellites between November 27 and December 2.

Turnips?… You would have had to have been blind not to notice the emergence of the Swedes in the poker scene. Poker is hot in Sweden. And the Swedes have gotten good. They were all over the leaderboards. Rising stars include Jan Sjavik, Johan Storakers, Crister Johanssen, and the six foot teenage phenom Eric “The Viking” Sagstrom.

Jesse