Welcome to the Poker News Daily Weekly Update, I’m your host Sean Gibson and I’ll be recapping the biggest headlines for the week in the world of poker.
Our first story follows the fall out from last week’s epic news coming out of the UB.com camp. Following last week’s overhaul at Team UB.com that saw Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth depart on the same day, the site has picked up its newest pro. On Thursday, UB.com officials announced that Prahlad Friedman had joined the team.
Friedman seemingly hinted at joining an online poker site back in November. The thirty two year old California native Tweeted…
“I said I would never sign with a poker site. Should I ever reconsider? What y’all think? I would have to get over the fact that I’m ‘selling out.’ I’m the only player in the world that hasn’t wanted a deal that I know of.”
However, since the Tweet, he’s apparently had a change of heart. Friedman told Poker News Daily on Thursday…
“I had a change of heart. It was all because of friends and family. They all convinced me that I could do greater good by signing and having more exposure and influence. We live in a society where the people who are the most well known have the greatest influence. I felt this could get me out there a little more. There’s also a charity component to my deal.”
In one of the most intriguing business alliances in recent years, Robert Croak, the creator of Silly Bandz will become the newest partner in DeepStacks Live.
Silly Bandz has sold over two hundred million dollars worth of toy bracelets. we interviewed Croad earlier this week who said that he will have day to day interaction building the DeepStacks brand and leveraging their pros which include Mike The Mouth Matusow and Michael Mizrachi.
In case you missed it, the very first episode of “The Showdown” with Jon Friedberg debuted this week on Poker News Daily. The weekly web-based series welcomed former “Survivor: China” castaway Jean-Robert Bellande to discuss a variety of topics ranging from bankroll management to the Spearmint Rhino in Las Vegas.
Friedberg is a former World Series of Poker bracelet winner who was an original ranked player on PocketFives.com. His former ventures include radio and television shows on CardPlayer and he brings a considerable amount of media experience to Poker News Daily. The USA-friendly site UB.com sponsors “The Showdown” and new episodes will be released every Tuesday.
Michigan online poker pro Jordan Young was named the winner of the two thousand ten PocketFives.com Yearly Leaderboard PLB title this week, accumulating over nineteen thousand PLB Points to take the honor from two thousand nine champ Chris Moorman. CardPlayer Online Player of the Year Taylor “taypaur” Paur finished as the runner-up in this year’s race.
Young, who is currently ranked number one in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, made huge waves on August First when he won two Sunday Majors on the same day, an accomplishment considered to be one of the greatest in online poker history. Young won the Full Tilt Poker Seven Hundred Fifty K Guaranteed for one hundred thirty two thousand dollars and, just hours later, took down the Sunday Brawl for another one hundred four thousand dollars. The scores were the largest of his young career.
A marathon three thousand hand session took place late Monday night in the Durrrr Challenge. The ongoing promotion on Full Tilt Poker between Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Dan “jungleman12” Cates is now one-third of the way through at seventeen thousand hands and Cates has built an eight hundred nineteen thousand dollar lead.
Cates has won eight of the ten largest pots during the second cycle of the Durrrr Challenge, including the four richest. Together, the eight pots add up to a colossal one point four million dollars, perhaps explaining part of his overall edge in the competition.
If Dwan is up by at least a dollar at the end of the fifty thousand hand challenge, then Cates will owe five hundred thousand dollars. If Cates is up by a dollar or more when the smoke clears, then Dwan will owe one point five million bucks after giving any taker three to one on their money. In either case, the winner keeps the spoils of the fifty thousand hands.
Last weekend, the second ever SuperStar Showdown took place on PokerStars and featured Isildur1 facing off against PartyPoker’s Tony G. After the twenty five hundred hand encounter, Isildur1 booked forty four thousand dollars in profit and was declared the winner, boosting his SuperStar Showdown record to one and one.
Following the match, Tony G sought comfort on the TwoPlusTwo forums and posted a four-paragraph recap. He closed by calling for another round with Isildur1, who many believe he backed earlier this year…
“Now, I need everyone to lobby for a rematch that is fair, and my sponsor deserves it. Let’s replay this thing on my home turf at PartyPoker ASAP and I will add $50,000 to the pool, as a contest of this magnitude deserves some money added and we will hide Isildur1’s identity. That is not up for discussion.”
Speaking of Isildur1, PokerStars is purportedly set to unveil his identity on Saturday night during the PCA. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily if that story does break for coverage.
Well, that does it for this week in the world of poker. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest poker news and also be sure to catch us on twitter at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanks for tuning in, and have a great week at the tables!