Ever since the new and improved Mike Matusow replaced "The Mouth," the tournament trail has been slightly quieter, but only because Matusow has chosen to let his results speak for themselves... Read More

Ever since the new and improved Mike Matusow replaced "The Mouth," the tournament trail has been slightly quieter, but only because Matusow has chosen to let his results speak for themselves. In 2007, Matusow made two World Poker Tour final tables, scoring nearly $1 million for his...

The ship left port Sunday and will hit locations in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Maarten before returning back to Miami this Sunday. For poker players, however, the action is all on board. Only a ... Read More

The ship left port Sunday and will hit locations in Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and St. Maarten before returning back to Miami this Sunday. For poker players, however, the action is all on board.

Only a few hours after disembarking, the action got started in the cruise ship's poker room with a No-Limit Hold'em supersatellite. Since then, Caribbean Poker Classic has also hosted a $300 and a $400 No-Limit Hold'em event as well as another supersatellite.

Today there is a $500 No-Limit Hold'em tournament as players settle in one more time before the $2,500 main event kicks off on Friday. The main event is where the big action will be.

Poker players from all over the world won prize packages for the main event in online poker qualifiers. Some players won packages that just got them on the seven-day cruise and some cash for travel and expenses. Others won full $10,000 packages that included the cruise, money for travel, the buy-in for the main event, plus $2,300 in tournament vouchers.

In previous years the Caribbean Poker Classic has taken place on land. The past three years it was hosted at the St. Kitts Marriott Resort and The Royal Beach Casino. Before that it was at the Maho Beach Casino Resort in St. Maarten.

No matter where it's been, however, the money has always been good for participants.

In 2004 at the Maho Beach Casino Resort, the buy-in was set at $2,500 and the event drew 104 players. They competed for a $150,800 prize pool, and Grant Lang from Danbury, Conn., walked away the winner with $111,000.

With a change in venue to St. Kitts in 2005, the event also saw a boosted buy-in. Players posted a $6,300 buy-in, and when all 249 players were settled in, the prize pool was $1,458,480.

Bjorn Arild Wiik, from Norway, was the winner that year. He earned a $347,880 top prize.

In 2006, 155 players put up the $6,300 to play resulting in a slightly lower $930,000 prize pool this time around. Fredrik Haugen from Gothenburg, Sweden, got the best of that prize pool, taking home the first-place $221,000 prize.

Last year, the prize pool was $970,000 after 153 players came out to play. Brian Jensen, from Denmark, picked up $237,500 for the win.

On Friday, poker fans can find out how many players came out for the 2008 Caribbean Poker Classic and who will triumph over them as our very own Matt Showell sails the open waters to cover the event for the Live Tournaments section.

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Online player kaziunia was the luckiest of all, taking down the monthly $5,000 freeroll for a total of $1,250. CashmaHoody and Snackel74 each took down $1,000 weekly for $250 and $160 respectively. In... Read More

Online player kaziunia was the luckiest of all, taking down the monthly $5,000 freeroll for a total of $1,250. CashmaHoody and Snackel74 each took down $1,000 weekly for $250 and $160 respectively. In all, nearly 150 players were paid out in eight days.

Titan Poker is one of the most popular poker rooms on the planet and PokerListings players get some of the best bonuses by signing up through the site. The top room on the iPoker network, Titan is known for being among the most value-packed poker sites on the net, with numerous promotions and freerolls on a regular basis.

To learn more about Titan Poker check out our exclusive room review.

Here are the rest of the final-table finishers in the PL.com/Titan Poker freerolls:

Nov. 1 $1,000 Freeroll

1.	Snackel74	$260
2.	12021982	$155
3.	NURV2000	$95
4.	Bysid	$70
5.	TTR86247432	$55
6.	WitchJules	$40
7.	Okholm13	$30
8.	Imparanoid	$25
9.	MACHAVROUX	$20

Nov. 2 Monthly $5k Freeroll

1.	kaziunia	$1,250
2.	MFILE	$750
3.	Schifleguk	$400
4.	lorisjeans	$300
5.	FABI15000	$250
6.	GILKA13	$200
7.	MaHoBet	$150
8.	chandler18	$125
9.	Happylor	$100

Nov. 8 Weekly $1k Freeroll

1.	CashmaHoody	$250
2.	bosssssse	$150
3.	MrGrumpyBear	$80
4.	Sapike	$60
5.	GUADELOUPE	$50
6.	WitchJules	$40
7.	Benedetto	$30
8.	ManiLov1985	$25
9.	djsamsam	$20

Related Articles:

• ((Titan Poker)) to continue country race
• Cash flows at Titan for PL.com players
• Titan supersatellite: Almost go time
• Titan rewards French, Italian players
• Austrian wins two big opportunities at Titan

 

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On Saturday, November 15th, the Casino at the Hyatt Regency in Warsaw, Poland seated 217 players for the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Polish Open to battle for the largest Polish prize pool to d... Read More

On Saturday, November 15th, the Casino at the Hyatt Regency in Warsaw, Poland seated 217 players for the PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Polish Open to battle for the largest Polish prize pool to date. The €1,172,973...

An Italian may have held the chip lead coming in to the final table, but it was the tiny Iberian nation of Portugal that produced its first major poker tournament winner last night when Joao Barbosa w... Read More

An Italian may have held the chip lead coming in to the final table, but it was the tiny Iberian nation of Portugal that produced its first major poker tournament winner last night when Joao Barbosa won the EPT Warsaw main event.

To make the day even more special, Barbosa's come-from-behind win occurred on his 26th birthday.

Barbosa entered the final table seventh in chips and faced a tough fight given the strength of the remaining field.

French professional player Ludovic Lacay, EPT Prague champion Arnaud Mattern and the incoming chip leader, Team PokerStars Pro's Dario Minieri, loomed large as the day began at 2 p.m. local time yesterday, but the day would see the cards turn against them all as Barbosa climbed to the top of the heap.

After the usual jittery final-table opening rounds, Swedish short stack Michael Muheim was the first to go. After Sergey Shcherbatskiy limped in, the Swede shipped in his stack holding A-9. His timing couldn't have been any worse; Shcherbatskiy held pocket rockets, and they stood up to send Muheim home in ninth place with 78,120 PLN.

Not long afterward Lacay became the next casualty, thanks to a hand gone wrong in the big blind with pocket aces. Germany's Nico Behling opened the pot and then called a Lacay out-of-position reraise holding pocket eights, and when all the money got in the middle on the eight-high flop he was in fantastic shape.

The board ran out bricks and the Frenchman retired for the day in eighth place with 121,520 PLN. Behling, meanwhile, used Lacay's chips to begin running over the table.

The German would come back a little closer to earth but still manage to retain the chip lead. Minieri, meanwhile, decided to take out the only other Italian at the table coin-flip style. Super Dario's #Ah#Qh was racing against Andrea Benelli's pocket jacks, but two hearts on the flop and a third on the turn sent Benelli home in seventh place with 169,260 PLN.

Minieri would try to deliver another knockout blow with a suited ace, but his #Ad#Jd was in bad shape against Barbosa's pocket jacks.

Barbosa doubled his stack there and then quickly caught another break. The short-stacked Shcherbatskiy made a move with #Ad#5h and Barbosa called with pocket queens, which held up to send the Russian packing in sixth place. He earned 212,660 PLN, quite a return on a $7.50 PokerStars satellite investment.

After a Minieri double-up to take the chip lead away from Behling, the next player on the chopping block was EPT Prague champ Mattern. The Frenchman would bow out early despite getting in way ahead on two big hands.

On the first, his A-K fell to Bulgarian Atanas Gueorguiev's A-8 to take away half his stack; on the second, his pocket tens fell to Barbosa's pocket eights when the turn produced a set for the birthday boy. Mattern's dreams of becoming the first-ever repeat EPT champion were dashed in fifth place, earning him 269,080 PLN.

Gueorguiev had survived domination to double through Mattern, but when he got in ahead things didn't turn out nearly as well. The Bulgarian's #Ac#Kc was in fantastic shape on a king-high board against Barbosa's #Ks#Qs when all his money went in the middle, but a queen on the river was all it took to send him home in fourth place. He earned 325,500 PLN for his finish.

Following the dinner break Barbosa held the chip lead three-handed, but the more experienced Minieri was still a threat despite sitting on the shortest stack. The Italian even found a pocket pair to get his stack in the middle, but his sevens were dominated by Barbosa's pocket nines.

The two-outer never came, and just like that, Super Dario was done. He took home 455,700 PLN for another fine EPT performance.

Down to the final two, play slowed once more as both would-be champions played very carefully. Barbosa held a chip lead of 2-1 over Behling when they began, and worked his advantage up as high as 3-1 before crashing back down to even again.

It briefly looked like Barbosa might lose his lead when he shoved A-9 into Behling's A-J, but the board produced a split pot and Barbosa stayed ahead.

From there it was just a matter of time before Barbosa put Behling away. The final hand saw the German make a desperation all-in reraise holding #Js#7s and Barbosa call with #Ah#Th. They both paired on the flop, but Barbosa caught the best of it with his ace.

The deck couldn't save Behling on the turn or river, sending him home as the runner-up with 759,500 PLN. Barbosa, meanwhile, took home 1,358,420 PLN and a couple of sweet trophies, not to mention the honor of being Portugal's first major tournament winner.

To find even more coverage of the EPT stop in Warsaw, visit the Live Tournaments section.

The EPT will take a few weeks off before returning to action in Prague on Dec. 9. As usual, PokerListings will be on hand with the top-notch tournament coverage you've come to expect, so be sure to join us then for all the action live from Eastern Europe.

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The lawsuit, filed in Nevada District Court last Friday, Nov. 14, names Tiltware LLC and Full Tilt Poker as defendants and seeks $40 million in damages over Breach of Contract, Unjust Enrichment, Brea... Read More

The lawsuit, filed in Nevada District Court last Friday, Nov. 14, names Tiltware LLC and Full Tilt Poker as defendants and seeks $40 million in damages over Breach of Contract, Unjust Enrichment, Breach of Fiduciary Duty, Breach of the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing, and Fraud.

The filing came just three days after Gowen received notification that she was being dropped from the roster of Team Full Tilt.

Included as defendants in the 20-page lawsuit were some of Full Tilt's highest-profile endorsers, including Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Mike Matusow, Allen Cunningham, Gus Hansen and Patrik Antonius.

Other companies involved in Full Tilt Poker's operations, including Pocket Kings Ltd., Kolyma Corporation and A.V.V., were also named as defendants in the complaint. Judge Robert C. Jones will preside over the case.

In her complaint, Gowen alleges that in 2004 she was offered, and accepted, a 1% stake in Tiltware and Full Tilt Poker in exchange for her services as a celebrity endorser. She further alleges that she received no compensation other than that ownership stake for wearing Full Tilt merchandise and promoting the online cardroom.

According to the court documents, when other Team Full Tilt members were given distribution checks for their ownership interests in May 2007, Gowen did not receive one; in November of the same year she declined a $250,000 payment offered to her by Howard Lederer, as it was only a fraction of what 1% of the company was worth.

On the advice of her attorneys, Gowen declined to comment for this article. Tiltware LLC, meanwhile, issued this statement regarding the lawsuit:

"Tiltware, LLC, has been made aware of the recent filing of a meritless lawsuit by a former Full Tilt Poker endorser -- Ms. Cycalona Gowen. All claims have no merit and there are many inaccuracies improperly and unlawfully asserted by Ms. Gowen within her frivolous complaint. Tiltware LLC expects that this lawsuit will be dealt with accordingly by a competent court in due course."

A former teen beauty queen in her home state of Oklahoma, Gowen originally came to poker fame thanks to a final-table appearance during the first season of the World Poker Tour. She followed up that Costa Rica Classic performance with a win in the first-ever WPT Ladies Night, which would remain the single highest-rated episode of the landmark poker series for several years.

Before her confrontation with her former sponsor, Gowen had spent 2008 building upon her early success with a string of notable wins. In July she won the $5,000 event at the Bellagio Cup IV for over $437,000 in prize money.

In September she followed that up with $120,000 from her third Poker After Dark win, putting her atop the list of that show's winners along with Johnny Chan. Then in October she claimed the crown at the 2008 World Poker Open in Tunica for another $193,000. In all, those three wins netted her as much money as she had won in her entire career up to that point.

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With so much poker activity in Europe, a smaller field than usual turned up at the casino in the Hyatt Regency Hotel for the PokerStars.com 2008 EPT Polish Open. However, the 217 players who did turn ... Read More

With so much poker activity in Europe, a smaller field than usual turned up at the casino in the Hyatt Regency Hotel for the PokerStars.com 2008 EPT Polish Open. However, the 217 players who did turn up made for five days of high-octane, action-packed poker. Some of the notables included Sorel...

Joao Barbosa became the second player in a month to make the final table of an EPT tournament on his birthday, but he bested Gino Alacqua’s feat by a mile when he took down the title and the €... Read More

Joao Barbosa became the second player in a month to make the final table of an EPT tournament on his birthday, but he bested Gino Alacqua's feat by a mile when he took down the title and the €367,141 top prize at the PokerStars...

The HBO show Deadwood portrays the American West in the Black Hills of Deadwood, South Dakota before the end of the nineteenth century. The show involves a scene that portrays the death of Wild Bill H... Read More

The HBO show Deadwood portrays the American West in the Black Hills of Deadwood, South Dakota before the end of the nineteenth century. The show involves a scene that portrays the death of Wild Bill Hickok getting shot in the back at a poker table while holding the infamous hand aces and eights....