Yorky Pud

Daniel Negreanu has reclaimed top spot in the all-time tournament winnings money listing from Phil Ivey after he was awarded $1,000,000 for finishing as runner-up in the $100,000 Super High Roller event at the PCA.

Despite the huge entry fee 38 players anted up, creating a prizepool of $3,743,000 which would be shared out amongst the top five finishers, with a massive $1,500,000 being paid out to the eventual winner. When play came to a close on Day 1 there were 23 players still with chips in their stacks, with Tobias Reinkemeir leading the way with 896,000 of them.

The plan for Day 2 was to play down to the final table of eight regardless of how long this took, with the tournament officials believing it could have been a ten or twelve hour session. However, they were mistaken as the final table of seven was reached in less than six hours. The reason it was a final table of seven and not eight as originally planned was because of the double elimination on the final table bubble.

Daniel “jungleman12” Cates lost all but 205,000 chips when he decided to run a triple barrel bluff on a flop reading Ah-9c-7c-3c-5h but Negreanu called him with 9h6c, which was surprisingly good! The next hand Cates moved all-in preflop with 2s2c and found a caller in the shape of Bryn Kenney holding pocket eights. No help from the deck and Cates was eliminated. On the other table James “Andy McLeod” Obst moved all in from under the gun with 9d8d and Humberto Brenes, from the big blind, made the call with KdQs. The final board ran out Jc-8s-5h-Qc-5c and Obst headed for the rail whilst the rest of the seven players bagged their chips.

Final table seat draw: Blinds 12,000/24,000/3,000a

1.) Nick Shulman: 2,990,000
2.) Sandor Demjan: 379,000
3.) Andrew “LuckyChewy” Litchenberger: 373,000
4.) Bryn Kenney: 1,390,000
5.) ---empty seat---
6.) Daniel Negreanu: 2,166,000
7.) Humberto Brenes: 757,000
8.) Eugene Katchalov: 1,476,000

It took just two hands of the final table for the first player to be eliminated and that dubious honour went to Litchenberger. Negreanu opened with a raise to 55,000, Demjan called from the small blind only to see Litchenberger move all-in from the big blind for a total of 376,000. Negreanu asked for a count and when he got his answer he flat-called, a move that caused Demjan to fold. Litchenberger's AdTc needed some help against his Canadian opponent's KcKh and although he paired his ten on the Jd-Ts-4h flop, the turn and river came the 9d and Ks respectively to bust him out and ship the biscuits Negreanu's way.

The remaining six players passed chips around for 45 minutes, none of them wanting to bust as doing so would see the surviving players paid out $200,000, possibly the biggest money bubble of all-time. In the end it was Demjan, Hungary's richest man, who was the last player to head to the rail empty handed. He opened to 62,000 and then called Katchalov's raise to 185,000. A flop reading 8d-8h-2d saw Katchalov continuation bet to 155,000, Demjan raise all-in to 551,000 and a quick call from Katchalov, who held JsJc, nicely in front of the black tens of Demjan. The 3d on the turn failed to alter anything and when the 9s peeled off on the river Demjan was eliminated and everyone else had reached the money.

Within minutes of Demjan leaving the table he was joined on the rail by Costa Rican Humberto Brenes. Shulman raised preflop, Kenney three-bet from the cutoff and Brenes moved all in for an additional 388,000. Shulman folded but Kenney made the call before turning over 9h9c, which was racing against the AhQh of his opponent. The five community cards came down Js-2c-6d-2d-Jc and with there being no ace or queen, Brenes was the fifth place finisher, worth $200,000.

Another 90 minute passed before the fourth place finisher was decided. With blinds now 20,000/40,000/5,000a Negreanu opened from the button to 90,000 and only Shulman called in the big blind. The dealer put out the Jc-Tc-3h flop, Shulman checked, Negreanu bet 110,000 and then quickly called when Shulman check-raised to 330,000. The 7c on the turn prompted Shulman to fire out a bet of 550,000, a bet that “Kid Poker” called. A fourth club fell on the river, the three, and Shulman moved all in for 1,070,000 and sending Negreanu into the tank. “I'll need a few minutes” informed Negreanu and he was true to his word because after around three minutes he came out of the tank and called! Shulam looked disgusted as he turned over Kh9h for a busted gutshot straight that he turned into an elaborate bluff, easily beaten by the AsQc of Negreanu. Although bitterly disappointed, Shulman's $400,000 should have cheered him up by now!

The aggressive Bryn Kenney was the next player to leave the table for the cashier's cage, around half an hour after Shulman's exit. Negreanu folded his button, which prompted a raising war between Katchalov and Kenney, which saw the latter call a four-bet from his opponent. Katchalov was more than a four-to-one favourite with his QdQs up against Kenney's 8h8c. No drama on a board reading Ts-4h-2h-4d-7c and Kenney was busted in third place, worth a not too shabby $643,000.

Chip counts going into heads-up

1.) Eugene Katchalov: 4,860,000
2.) Daniel Negreanu: 4,670,000

Within 30 minutes the players went from being even in chips to Katchalov holding a 8,650,000 to 850,000 chip lead! First Katchalov showed king-six on a board reading Kc-9s-4h-6d-5s prompting a muck from Negreanu, who said he had is opponent on the flop, meaning he had to have held nine-four, great turn card for Katchalov then if that was the case. Then a few minutes later with the action being on the Ad-Td-9h-4s turn, Negreanu checked, Katchalov bet 425,000 and Negreanu check-raised to 1,075,000. Katchalov made the call and both players saw the arrival of the rather inconspicuous 2h on the river. Negreanu lead out with a 425,000 bet but insta-folded as Katchalov moved all in. Not the best of starts for Negreanu.

He put his famous small ball style into play until he found a double up with AsJc against KhTd when neither player improved by the river with the money going in preflop, and then again 20 minutes later when his AsKd stayed in front of the Ac5c of Katchalov. Then after an hour of heads-up play the final hand took place. Negreanu min-raised on the button to 160,000, Katchalov shoved all in to exert maximum pressure on his opponent, who then sat playing up for the cameras before calling for his tournament life! Negreanu showed 5s5h and was shocked to be in front of Katchalov holding 4d4h. The Ac-Ts-8s flop kept Negreanu in front but the cruel 4s on the turn gave Katchalov a set of fours. Negreanu needed a five or a spade on the river to stay alive and although the two that peeled off was black it was of clubs, sending the popular vegan to the rail with $1,000,000 to console himself with.

This result catapults Negreanu to the top of the all-time money listings, $256,247 in front of the great Ivey. However, his stay could be short lived as Ivey has been playing in the US televised poker show “Poker After Dark” and the results are not known until the show airs later this month!

Whilst all eyes were on Negreanu some congratulations should be directed to Katchalov, who now has $5,894,962 in live tournament winnings himself. His cashes date back to 2004, with his major breakthrough being at the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for a career best $2,482,605. Since then he has cashed no fewer than 15 times at the World Series of Poker, including three final tables at this year's series.

In what will probably go down as one of the biggest anti-climaxes in poker, “Isildur1” was officially unveiled at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which is currently taking place on Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas. Three guesses who Isildur1 is...of course it is Viktor Blom.

Just as nobody was shocked when Elton John said he was gay, or when our beloved government increased VAT, nobody batted an eyelid as Blom's sponsors announced that the floppy haired Swede was the mystery nose-bleed stakes regular who's true identity was shrouded in mystery until this weekend. Most people had pointed the finger at Blom but the camera shy Swede always refused to give any interviews or simply denied he was Isildur1.

The 20-year old is a man of few words and you could probably have fit his first official interview replies on a single Post-It note. When asked if he was Isildur he simply replied, “Yes,” and when quizzed on why he never interacted with the press he told the crowd, “There was no reason for me to talk to the media.” Some will say Blom is cocky and arrogant for the way he goes about his business but I believe he is just a private person who has only come forward due tot he terms of his recent sponsorship package

So what do we know about Isildur/Blom then? Well although our American cousins would have you believe he suddenly appeared on Full Tilt Poker back in September, he actually built his bankroll on European sites. He has played poker since he was 14 but only deposited online when he turned 18-years old, putting $2,000 online and playing $0.50/$1 heads-up cash games under the moniker “Blom90” and other variations of the name. His hyper-aggressive style, one that leads fellow pros to label him as a maniac, saw him turn this $2,000 into $2,000,000 in just three weeks!

After beating up European foes he decided to take the fight to American players and switched to sites that allowed him to take on some of the biggest names in poker (American citizens have a limited number of poker sites they can play on.) He arrived on this particular scene in September 2009 and immediately caused a stir as he took on anyone at $500/$1,000 heads-up cash games, including destroying Tom “durrrr” Dwan for around $4,500,000! Whilst he was literally printing money at the No Limit Hold'em tables, he was bleeding cash at the Pot Limit Omaha tables like a severed pig.

He became the first player to ever lose a $1,000,000 pot when he tussled with Patrik Antonius, a pot that is still the largest-ever in online poker history. In the hand Isildur raised on the button to $3,000, Antonius made it $9,000 to play, only to see Isildur come over the top with a raise to $27,000! Not to be outdone, Antonius put in a further raise to $81,000, a raise that Isildur1 simply called. If you though the preflop action was crazy wait until you see what happened on a flop reading 4s-5c-2h! Antonius got the ball rolling with a $91,000 bet into the $162,000 pot and Isildur quickly raised the action to a colossal $435,000! Antonius then shoved for $779,000 and Isildur called off the rest of his stack, creating a monster-potten of $1,356,947! Both players revealed their hands, Isildur held 6d-9s-7d-8h for an open ended straight draw whilst his Finnish opponent had flop a wheel holding Ah-3s-Ks-Kh. Amazingly, Antonius was only a 55% favourite on the flop but the 5h on the turn put him way in front and when the 9c fell on the river the pot was passed to Mr Antonius!

Just a week later he won a $1,127,955 pot from Phil Ivey when he flopped a full house and slowplayed to the river where he began betting and raising. By the river there was a straight, flush and lower full house out there but Ivey mucked so we may never know what he held. The action Isildur created was immense, in fact if you look at the top 10 pots ever in online poker, he is involved in every single one of them!

Sir Isaac Newton stated that “what goes up must come down” and that was certainly true for our Swedish hero as his world came tumbling down on December 8 of 2009. The day started well with him winning $471,000 from Daniel “jungleman12” Cates and $722,000 from Brian Townsend but when he took on Brian “Stinger88” Hastings later on that day it all went horribly wrong.

The pair played a total of 2,858 hands and when the last hand was completed, Idildur's bankroll was no more as he lost a staggering $4,191,573.70 to his opponents! Almost $4.2m in a single day! The defeat obviously hit the headlines and many were unhappy by the fact Hastings admitted he and two fellow CardRunners pros, Cole South and Townsend had compiled a database on Isildur1 and it was used to get reads on the hyper-aggressive youngster. How would you feel if you lost $4.2m in a single poker session? Blom played it down saying, “I had some rough days,” rough days for sure my friend!

As you would expect Isildur disappeared from the spotlight but he did return at various points during 2010, though playing much lower than previously. He then vanished again until it was announced he was the latest addition to the PokerStars online pro roster, where he has been up to his old tricks at the $100/$200 and $200/$400 stakes, having mixed results as fans have come to expect!

So the poker world's worst kept secret is out of the bag. Other revelations that are rumoured to come out are that pot limit Omaha is a high variance game and the World Series of Poker Main Event attracts a lot of players.

Word is spreading like wildfire that the true identity of the mystery Swedish high-stakes cash guru, “Isildur1,” is going to be revealed this weekend, putting an end to the various theories that have been put forward over the past 18 months.

Isildur1's sponsor are currently hosting the 2010 PCA at the Atlantis Casino & Resort on Atlantis Paradise Island in the Bahamas, where 55 tournaments are going to be played over the next 10 days, including a Main Event with an estimated prizepool of $20,000,000! It was at the start of the opening tournament, the Super High Roller with a buy-in of $100,000 that it was announced Isildur1's identity would be revealed at 1900 (Bahamas time) on Saturday evening!

The latest name in the hat put forward by the online poker community is Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth, though this suggestion is rather tongue-in-cheek. Isildur1 is widely thought to be Viktor Blom and more substance was added to these claims when he bought in and took his seat in the $100,000 event around 90 minutes into play, though he did not sport any of Isildur1's sponsor's logos.

A total of 38 players parted company with $100,000 to take part in this landmark tournament, the second largest buy-in of all-time, narrowly missing out on the title to last year's Aussie Millions tournament with a AU$100,000 buy-in. However, 13 more people entered this particular tournament, creating a prizepool of $3,743,000 which will eventually be shared out amongst the top five finishers, with the winner taking the lion's share of $1,500,000.

Amongst those who paid the astronomical entry fee but will not see any return on their investment were 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Blom, and Ashton Griffin. Of the 23 who will return to the felt at 1200 noon Bahamas time (1700UK time) it is Tobias Reinkemeier who leads the way with 896,000 chips helped massively by the fact he cracked Shaun Buchanen's aces with pocket jacks when the latter made an unlikely straight on the very last hand of the night! Reinkemeier leads Daniel Negreanu, who has 848,000 chips, Bryn Kenney on 828,000 and Nick Shulman on 705,000.

Other faces to look out for are Daniel “jungleman12” Cates on 622,000, Mike “Timex” McDonald on 269,000 and Phil “Unabomber” Laak, though he is the shortest stack by quite a margin, holding only 99,000 chips. Be sure to check in after the weekend for a recap of all the action in this massive buy-in event.

At the beginning of December 2010, Betfair Poker announced a promotion that would see them give away 85 of the coolest gadgets on the planet, the Apple iPad. All players had to do was meet some very simply criteria by earning 50 player points on five consecutive days, or earn 250 player points on a Saturday or lay either 10 of the $10+$1 sit 'n' goes or MTTs during December.

In total 2,889 Betfair Poker players from as far and wide as Vietnam, Venezuela and Kazakhstan opted in for this fantastic promotion, around 2,000 qualified and 1,396 of those exchanged their ticket for 3,000 chips and a 12 minute clock in last night's tournament. The excitement of the players was there for all to see and the trademark Betfair Poker community spirit was as high as ever but please spare a thought for IFOLDAALOL who was the very first player out of the tournament moments after it got under way and he would not have been able to experience this very much!

One by one the field thinned and the must-have gizmo was getting closer to the surviving players hand, then a few hours into play an Austrian player known as Mitchnitsch committed the last of his stack, lost and busted out in 86th place, meaning any players who still had chips remaining in their stacks had made it to “the money” and would soon be in receipt of £450 worth of Apple iPad!

Whilst first place received the same as the 85th place finisher we thought it would be worth giving the top ten finishers, when the tournament ended, a big congratulations, simply for not sitting back and hoping to cash but going out of their way to hoover up chips. In order from first to tenth were DrOetker, larseda, andrelu89, loosemaf, D.Vislapu, pccp_, credne, Not For Free, w4stedt1me and Piotr6660B.

Your participation in this promotion is what has made it a roaring success and the fact the end prize was different from a normal tournament seemed to strike a chord with some of the players. TopperH x, who finished 75th and won an iPad, had this to say, “The promotion was excellent because it had an interesting prize instead of just cash, the structure was perfect and all the players seemed to enjoy themselves playing the tournament.”

Betfair Poker currently have a number of promotions running that could see you net you a $750 package to Betfair Poker Live! London, which runs at the start of February, along with raked hand races, SNG and MTT leaderboards with prizes totalling $165,000! Check the main Betfair Poker site for full terms and conditions.

The Apple iPad has been a massively successful and popular addition to the Apple family of electronics, having sold over 7.5 million units to date. The iPad has a 95% market share in the tablet computer market and is that popular that many outlets sold out over the Christmas period. For all you lucky winners, the company PrizeShark will be in touch by the middle of next week to confirm delivery etc.

Everyone loves a super hero, if not then why are comic books (or graphic novels as the geeks prefer to call them) and films depicting these characters so popular. They are part of folklore around the world, even the bible has some for crying out loud and as I type this the four-year old Step Pud is donning a rather fetching Batman outfit.

But what have our masked crusaders got to do with poker, do they have a place in our game? Well surely you have heard of the term “hero call,” a term reserved for when a player makes a call on the river in an attempt to snap off a bluff from their villain. A hero call is named as such because if you are actually correct and have the best hand then you look like a hero, less said the better regarding what you look like if you are wrong though!

So we have somehow made it to the river with Th9h on a board reading 3c-Ts-5c-Ad-Qh and we have checked to our opponent who pauses for a few moments before betting around two-thirds the pot. Does he have our pair of tens with a weak kicker beaten or does he simply hold some sort of busted draw and is bluffing? Before you don your cape and make a hero call you need to take a few things into consideration.

Firstly, what level of thinking does the villain partake in? If he is a rank amateur or someone who only thinks at level zero or level one then he is less likely to be bluffing and actually more likely to be holding the cards that he is representing. However, if your opponent is more skilled then they could indeed be attempting to represent a made hand even if they have a busted draw.

You also need to take into account any previous history that you may have with the player and try to apply any reads you may have to this situation. It is times like this that you need to know if the villain is capable of double and even triple barrel bluffing and whether or not they seem to alternate their bet sizes depending on the strength of their hand or when they are bluffing.

Using these two points you should be able to figure out if the line your opponent has taken actually makes any sense and if it is possible for them to hold what they are telling you they have. Use your common sense too, a player who has been passive on the flop and turn who suddenly bets big on the river is probably bluffing.

Finally, both your stack size and your opponent's stack sizes are very important when factoring whether you should call or not. Obviously this is not as much as a factor in a cash game where you can reload if you are wrong and villain gets away with the swag. But in a tournament the size of their stack can be a massive clue to their holding. Micro and short stacks are generally moving in preflop so your hero call generally happens before the flop and is based on pot odds only. Larger stacks are more inclined to be making moves where as medium stacks of 15-30bb are less likely to be doing so as losing would be disastrous to them.

By all means put your mask on and make the call if everything you have observed adds up to villain bluffing but try not to let one successful hero call send you to the dark side of habitually calling each and every river bet otherwise you will run into your equivalent of kryptonite!

Many poker players see the start of a new year as a chance to wipe the slate clean and begin again whilst others use it as an excuse to set themselves huge challenges such as playing a million hands throughout the year or earn $100,000 in 12 months. There will be thousands of players out there right now who's sole goal this year will be to go from being an amateur player into a professional poker player, though only a handful will succeed.

In order to succeed they will need bags of discipline, as without discipline there is almost zero chance of success in poker but they will also need to realise a few things about themselves, their opponents, the game in general and be able to put certain situations into perspective.

The first realisation one will need to make is that there is always someone better than you out there, you might not have bumped into them just yet but trust me they are there. This makes table selection vital, especially as you progress through stakes, so make sure that you simply do not sit at the first table that becomes available. Instead bide your time, do any research possible then choose your seat. If you are being outplayed by one or more of the table then simply leave, there is no room for an ego in poker.

At the start of a challenge most of us fly out of the blocks only for us too fizzle out after a few days or weeks of solid grinding. Make sure you have hobbies outside of poker, something that can take you away from the game even if these means having poker friends and non-poker friends. If you burn yourself out you will resent the game, and anything negative will be amplified, which is not a good position to be in. Remember that there will always be a game to play in, especially online, so you do not need to play every hour God sends, you can have a life and a career in poker regardless of what they will try and tell you.

If you are going to try and take the leap of turning pro, or at least semi-pro, then you need to do what Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt did and start to treat your poker as a business or at least like a job. Set yourself a schedule, give yourself breaks and even pay yourself some sort of wage. Think of poker as an employer in an attempt to give you more focus and discipline to your game and it will probably stop you from playing pissed up at 0130 in the morning, after all you wouldn't roll into work full of booze would you?

Above all you need to put everything into perspective. First, do not be down beat when you only earn $250 in a month when you wanted to win ten times that amount. There will be someone somewhere who is actually dodging bullets for $250 a month whilst you sit in your central heated home clicking buttons! Also, realise that one good session does not make you the next Phil Ivey but at the same time a disastrous session does not make you a failure.

Although I have had my HDTV and Blu-ray player for about a year now, it did take me a while to ditch the old technology and enter the new era though. Some of it was due to the cost of buying the new gear and also because I didn't actually believe it made much difference to a persons viewing pleasure.

However, now I have been converted I have turned into a snob and find it difficult to watch anything that is not in HD as it basically looks crap. I can't remember the last time I watched a standard DVD or even anything on “normal” TV simply because I don't enjoy it, so much so that I had kept switching off the various Harry Potter films until I could get them on Blu-ray. The Mrs knew this and bought me the boxset for Christmas and we've now watched them all.

Whilst the first two are pretty turd, simply because the majority of the cast hasn't even grown any pubes yet, the later ones are pretty damned good and look excellent in 1080p resolution, especially the magic tricks etc that are performed. I've not seen the very latest one, the one currently in the cinema, but I reckon it'll be pretty dark as the films have got darker and darker as they have progressed. Who'd have thought it, me a Harry Potter fan!

Of course it wouldn't be me if I didn't find something strange about the films would it? Those of you who have seen it may agree that it is pretty wrong on a few levels, mainly the fact a load of old, bearded blokes getting young boys and girls to dress up and sneak off to their dormitories. That Hagrid is the worst, lives on his own, surrounds himself with weird animals and gadgets, takes the kids into the woods and asks them to get their wands out. If I did half of that I would be banged up or hung by the local vigilantes!

Seeing as this is a poker blog and not a film review site I better talk about the stupid game that I am striving to beat. One of my biggest problems in recent years has been logging enough volume to get over the bitch that we call variance. Well I have been actively trying to make changes to counter this and so far I have managed to play 2,769 hands since Big Ben sounded in the new year but it has done little to eradicate the dreaded variance, if anything it has made it much worse.

I currently find myself down by a few cents less than four buy-ins, though I have cleared a part of a bonus that works out as a buy-in for my current stakes, so about three buy-ins down overall. However, I am running like death when I am all-in, especially when I am all in with a decent amount of equity. So far I am down, in terms of all-in expected value, to the tune of 6.35 stacks! I didn't even think it was possible to run so badly over a small sample size. I've lost stacks as an 84.1% favourite and twice as an 81.8% favourite. Holding 75.4% and 75.3% equity doesn't mean you will win either, it's been frustrating to say the least. Maybe I need to invite Master Potter round to do some magic schnizzle on my laptop?

I've obviously doing something right to get my money in good repeatedly so I will use that to keep my spirits up, along with the fact I know it is mainly just the cards not falling as they should. It also doesn't help when you raise preflop with AdKd, get three callers and the flop comes down 6c-7c-8c and stuff like that. It also doesn't help when villains call my preflop raises with 74o and J5s only to turn an unlikely two-pair against my overpairs. I guess it is just poker and if I play 30-50,000 hands this month, which I am on course to do, then this will just be a minor blip. Oh, and my timing and reads have been off too a few times. In one hand I bet the river with king-high after I sad to myself that the villain wasn't capable of calling with ace-high and he did just that. I also made a play based on the fact I thought my opponent had nothing but he actually had quads!

Well that's all for now I suppose, all that is left is to sign off and look forward to the VAT increase at midnight. Robbing gits. As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!

Sorel Mizzi has been awarded the 2010 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year award after amassing a record-breaking 1,777 points during the past twelve month. He beat second placed Thomas “kingsofcards” Marchese, the player who won the Card Player Player of the Year gong, by more than 500 points.

Mizzi has long been a force in online poker tournaments, mainly using the monikers “Imper1um” and “zangbezan24” though if rumours are true then he could have been acting under a number of different names also but that is for another article. Even before his exceptional 2010, Mizzi had already won $1,612,242 from live tournaments, which was one of the reasons Betfair Poker took a chance on the young Canadian in 2008 and became his sponsor despite the allegations surrounding his character.

He and Betfair Poker parted company in March but not before Mizzi had already managed make his biggest cash of $659,917 for his third place finish in the $10,000 Aussie Millions Main Event in January, a tournament eventually won by Tyron Krost. During March he went on a real heater, making four final tables, winning three tournaments outright including two side events at EPT Snowfest. He never let up throughout the year and his official figures for 2010 were no less than 26 cashes, 20 final tables and five wins, totalling $1,895,430. Regardless of your opinion you cannot argue with his extremely impressive results this past year and he is a deserving winner of Bluff's award.

Mizzi has not given any official interviews about his tremendous year as of yet but he did reveal via his Twitter account that during 2010 he travelled to 27 different cities, flew 94,433 miles and spent $18,800.93 on massages, must be nice to be able to even think of spending almost $19k on attractive ladies rubbing your back but when you have won over $6,000,000 from poker than it is a drop in the ocean.

The Canadian was joined in the top ten by some very talented players indeed. The aforementioned Marchese was second, followed by Portuguese businessman Fernando Brito who also won the EPT Player of the Year award. David Peters and the Partouche Poker Tour Champion, Vanessa Selbst made up the top five. Eric Baldwin, Dwyte Pilgrim, Chris Bjorin, Jason Mercier and Chris Bell were the players who finished sixth to ten respectively.

Anyone wanting to challenge Mizzi's crown will have the perfect chance to pick up some leaderboard points during January as there are two major events taking place. Between January 7-16 there is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, closely followed by the 2011 Aussie Millions, which runs 13-30 January, a great start to a 2011 full of poker!

In a few hours most of us will experience the huge anti-climax that is New Year's Eve. You'd think I'd love seeing the new year in, after all it generally involves copious amounts of alcohol, but it just gets on my nerves.

When I was younger, listen to me I sound like I'm 59 not 29, I always went out on the lash and I don't remember a time when I really enjoyed it. Don't get me wrong, I had a laugh and got to kiss a load of randoms but the pubs and clubs were absolutely rammed and it took half hour to get served. Not to mention the price of it all, some pubs charge £20 to get in and what do you get for that? Bugger all, you get to hand over £20. Nice. Then the taxi drivers, most of who around here are Asian so don't have their new year tonight but still charge you double time. Yeah right mate, jog on.

Another thing that annoys me about the new year is everyone making resolutions that they are all going to break within an hour or so of 2011 starting. Why wait until the new year just to stop smoking, drinking or stuffing your fat face? Surely if something is worth stopping/starting then it is worth doing it when you first think of it not waiting until the start of another year. That said I am going to be hypocritical and make some myself. Some will be poker related others not so, let's get cracking on them then.

I stopped smoking during the year so I can't have that as a resolution but I could probably do with cutting back on the ale and wine. Whilst I don't drink to pisshead proportions I do sometimes have a drink three or four nights in a row so I'll strive to cut down my alcohol intake, in fact I am going to try and not play online poker if I have been boozing and as I want to play a ton this year they should go hand in hand. In my previous post I hinted at becoming complacent in my work and needing to up my game. Well I really want to up my game in 2011, raise the bar and any other ridiculous corporate saying you can think of. I know I can produce better content than I have done recently so hopefully you'll see an immediate change.

Other life goals include trying to shift at least 1.5 stone, could probably do with 2.5 coming off but 1.5 seems a realistic target. I'd also like to get my motorbike licence at some point seeing as I broke my arm shortly before my test was due all those years ago. I can't afford a bike right now but getting a licence is the first step anyway. I'd also like to give something back to the world in some form. I can't give blood due to the blood products I received in the 80s having a bad reputation so that is off the list but I would like to do something for charity, either a one-off or a continual thing, though I would have to give this some more thought as it is difficult to juggle things at the moment. Finally on the life front I want to become a better person and a better dad. I'm not entirely sure how to go about that but it's on the agenda. Oh, and start to learn another language, probably Spanish.

With regards to poker this year has been pretty crap. I've hardly played, which is half my problem, but that will change in 2011. I am not setting any volume based goals, no monetary based goals instead I am going to set myself the challenge of not tilting, never deleting my Holdem Manager database in a fit of range and try to play my A-game at all times. I'd love to get my first entry on the Hendon Mob database but I'm not sure how much live poker, especially decent buy-ins, I'll play this year. Bit boring really!

Anyway, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you for reading my drivel for the past 12 months and keeping me in reduced priced Zinfandel and BOGOF Dominos Pizza! I'd also like to wish you all the best for 2011 and hope that we all come through it relatively unscathed! All the best and good luck at the tables!

On Sunday, whilst most people will still be recovering from their hangover sustained during tonight's / tomorrow's frolics two poker players will be battling it out at the virtual felt for the chance of $150,000 and some serious bragging rights.

Some are already labelling the match, which will see mystery Swede "Isildur1" take on Antanas "Tony G" Guoga, as a real life grudge match after Tony G was left disappointed with Isildur1 earlier this year when a staking deal turned sour and left Tony G with egg on his face.

When Isildur1 unofficially went bust after losing over $4,000,000 to Brian Hastings in a single day, the loud-mouthed Lithuanian made sure the entire poker community knew he was trying to stake the hyper-aggressive unknown and even offered to buy him into the Big Game IV earlier this year but Isildur1 pulled out at the very last minute, despite being told he could wear a disguise to keep his identity a secret. At the time an obviously disappointed Tony G wrote on his blog, "To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I have spent so much time talking to him and reassuring him recently, but he's just not going to come."

Now it looks like Tony G will get the chance to exact revenge on the player he once wanted to take under his wing as he has agreed to play him over 2,500 hands of heads-up No Limit Hold'em and Pot Limit Omaha mixed with blinds of at least $50/$100. Both players having already escrowed $150,000 in anticipation for the match, which should be an epic encounter as both players are extremely loose-aggressive and at this time Isildur1 has been on a heater, being up by more than $350,000 in the past couple of days.

Since signing for his new sponsor, Isildur1 has been used as a marketing tool and has already played on of these so-called SuperStar Showdowns, the previous one was against Isaac Haxton and saw the latter run like Usain Bolt and walk away with $41,000 profit. Even Daniel Negreanu has been thinking of jumping on the Isildur1 bandwagon and has been practising playing four tables of $5/$10 heads-up to get used to the pace and how the game plays online. He has said he may take on Isildur1 during 2011 but would be more interested in playing mixed games, in particular 8-game with blinds of $400/$800.

The match will begin at 2100 UK time and we will have a recap and some highlights for you next week!