The European Poker Tour's team of tournament directors is second to none and only tinkers with established rules as and when absolutely necessary. This week in Barcelona, the EPT has introduced a new rule concerning when a stack is considered to be in play at the start of the day. In what can only be described as a pretty long and boring — but nonetheless important — post, PokerStars Blog explains the new approach.
A new look Jake Cody is playing today, but he’s equally at home on PokerStars regional tours. PokerStars Blog talked about the differences between the two, his new face fuzz and why you want to check your poker ego at the door. Read it at the PokerStars Blog.
On this week's episode of the PokerNews GPI Update, Rich and Eric look at a stagnant Player of the Year race and welcome Mukul Pahuja back into the top 10 of the GPI 300. They also take a look and see if there is still a Mizrachi in the top 300!
Every year, one of the biggest stories to come out of the summer and lead into the next poker season is who makes the World Series of Poker Main Event final table. Since the inception of the "November Nine" concept in 2008, the months between the reaching of the final table and the finale a few months later allow for heavy focus on the players that make it.
This year is no different, and the poker spotlight is strongly focused on Jorryt van Hoof, Felix Stephensen, Mark Newhouse, Andoni Larrabe, Dan Sindelar, William Pappaconstantinou, William Tonking, Martin Jacobson, and Bruno Politano.
Here at the European Poker Tour Barcelona, five of the nines players have already gotten down to action in the Main Event — Jacobson played Day 1a and bagged up 34,800, while van Hoof (currently an alternate waiting to get his seat), Stephensen, Larrabe, and Politano are all playing Day 1b.
Newhouse, Tonking, Sindelar, and Pappaconstantinou have yet to be seen, and it's interesting that those four are all the players from the United States, so the long-distance travel might be something they simply opted to pass on.
At any rate, having five of the November Niners in the field for this Main Event is great to see, and it shows the majority of the bunch aren't simply going to take it easy during the hiatus. Furthermore, van Hoof and Jacobson also played in the €50,000 Super High Roller a few days ago, albeit without a cash result.
As a little bit of fun, van Hoof — who is the chip leader of the WSOP Main Event final table — took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge yesterday with a little help from our very own Remko Rinkema, and he challenged the other eight final table players to do the same. Check out the video below:
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