Trickett bested a group of players who were all vying for the coveted title and any one of them would have been worthy of becoming the European Player of the Year. When the nominations were announced a couple of months ago a large section of the poker community thought Andrey Pateychuk had the award sewn up after his 15th place finish in the World Series of Poker Main Event, winning the San Remo leg of the European Poker Tour and the Prague stop of the World Poker Tour but the judges thought, and rightly so this humble scribbler thinks, that Trickett’s achievements in 2011 outshone those of his fellow nominees.

The former professional footballer kicked off the year in great style by winning the $100,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions for a cool A$1,525,000. The following week he entered the $250,000 Super High Roller, again at the Aussie Millions and almost took it down before falling just short in second place to Erik Seidel. This result added a further A$1,400,000 to his already bulging bankroll.

From there Trickett made the final table of the €5,000 EFOP Diamond Championship, had deep runs in two $1,500 events at the WSOP, another deep finish in the inaugural Epic Poker League Main Event, final table appearances in the £20,000 EPT London High Roller and €5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event at the WSOPE before ending the year by taking down the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event for €1,000,000, his third seven-figure score of the year!

This award is going to be one of many that he picks up in his career and it is surely only a matter of time before Trickett adds an EPT, WPT or even a WSOP bracelet to his name, something we would bet on happening during 2012.

According to Hachem, his next venture had to be something that would keep him closer to Australia and would provide more opportunities. “I will be working with the Group in several areas, initially as a new ambassador for the Asian Poker Tour to further the growth of poker and to assist them with several strategic opportunities in Australia and the Asia Pacific Region,” said the 2005 WSOP champion.

“The Asian Poker Tour is already widely recognised as Asia’s only independent tour and we feel Joe will be able to help us expand this business,” added Tom Hall, Non Executive Chairman of AsianLogic, pictured above left, with Hachem.

In conclusion, Hachem gave the following statement: “The Group are already very successful gaming operators and have a carefully thought out strategy for poker and my role within this will be announced publicly later this quarter. There are separate elements here in light of potential regulatory change in Australia, which requires a different focus from that adopted for the general international poker market. I considered offers from several other brands, but this Partnership was the best fit for me as it gave me an active role and the ability to participate as the businesses evolve”.

“The Asia Pacific poker market is still in its infancy and as has in my opinion huge potential for growth compared to the European more mature markets. The United States are also going through an important phase and it will take a little time before things come into place and operators emerge. Working with a partner in the same time zone makes life a lot easier and whilst I am still going to be travelling to major poker tournaments, being able to spend more time at home is fantastic.”

The next major Asian Poker Tour event on the 2012 schedule will be the APT Asian Series Cebu at the Waterfront Hotel & Casino in Cebu, Philippines, on February 1-7, 2012.

One of poker’s most popular players, James Akenhead, has gone to bed with an extra $213,750 in his poker account after he took down the PokerStars Sunday Million in the early hours of this morning. Akenhead, playing under the alias “Asprin1” outlasted a field of 7,125 on his way to glory.

Akenhead was already a very well respected poker player when he was propelled into the spotlight in 2009 when he reached the final tables of both the World Series of Poker Main Event and the World Series of Poker Europe Main Events. He eventually finished ninth in the both for a combined score of $1,373,289 but since then he has been on the most horrendous of runs and anyone close to the 28-year old will tell you his luck has been quite unbelievable, but hopefully this victory marks the beginning of a fresh start and Akenhead can get back to dominating poker once again.

The former train driver entered the nine-handed final table third in chips but must have feared the worst when he made a misclick of epic proportions. The final table had already lost two players when Akenhead decided to raise to 800,885 with his KdTc but he actually typed in and bet 8,000,885 by mistake, leaving himself with just 1,530,000 behind. He must have been sat there praying to the poker gods that his ridiculously large bet would get through uncalled his prayers were not answered because “pnp23” made the call with what turned out to be a pair of queens. However, it appears the fictional gods did hear him because the flop came down Kc-10h-7s gifting him two pair. The rest of his stack went in, pnp23 snap-called and when the turn and river were both black nines Akenhead was catapulted into the lead with over 20,000,000 chips!

One by one the players headed to the virtual rail until only two players remained, Akenhead and ironically pnp23. Akenhead held a huge 56,844,921 to 14,405,079 chip advantage over his opponent and although pnp23 doubled up when his AsKh stayed in front of Akenhead’s Ah9s the final result was never doubted by any of Akenhead’s many railbirds who were typing in words of encouragement to their hero throughout the final table.

The final hand was pnp23 min-raise to 1,600,000 then call when Akenhead set him all in. It was a typical coinflip scenario with Akenhead’s KcJh needing to catch up against the pocket eights of his opponent. The 7s-6c-5s flop was no help at all to Akenhead but the 10c on the turn added some outs to a flush draw. The river card was the Ks, not a club but it improved Akenhead to a pair of kings, which were more than enough to eliminate pnp23 and award the win to Akenhead.

PokerStars Sunday Million Final Table Results

1st: James “Asprin1″ Akenhead (UK) – $213,750.00
2nd: pnp23 (Romania) – $157,277.25
3rd: Ansgar2000 (Germany) – $114,000.00
4th: Gambler4444 (Germany) – $75,525.00
5th: sigopi (Brazil) – $58,425.00
6th: Milana Jones (Russia) – $44,175,00.00
7th: shibinha (Brazil) – $30,637.50
8th: tyxerakias (Greece) – $17,100.00
9th: philipoo (Denmark) – $11,043.75

Over the past 18-months dozens of stories have emanated from Macau including Andrew “good2cu” Robl wining $1,000,000 in a single session only to lose the entire amount the following day, Britain’s Sam Trickett pulling off a $1,300,000 river bluff to scoop a $2,300,000 pot and Tom “durrrr” Dwan finding himself in the red by around $2,600,000 only to head back home a month later with the same amount in profit. Now it appears that Hansen has stopped off in Macau on his way to the upcoming Aussie Millions.

Hansen wrote in his blog, whilst in neighbouring Hong Kong, “I have heard a lot about the crazy action going on out there and now I will have a chance to see it with my own eyes. Whether I will be playing some serious high stakes poker in the next week or so is still up for debate? First of all I might not be able to get a seat and if I get a seat I might not want to play.”

Although Hanson seemed to be apprehensive about playing in the “Big Game” which features blinds the equivalent of $1,300/$2,600, reports on Poker Portal Asia say Hansen has been spotted playing in the cash game and has so far profited by approximately $258,000 from a single session.

The man known as “The Great Dane” has more than $9,300,000 in live tournament winnings but he is equally, if not more famous for his astronomical losses in online cash games, losses that totalled more than $7,000,000. However, in 2011 he went on a real tear and had started to recoup a large chunk of his losses, finishing 2011 as the player with profits of $3,941,703. This was almost $1,800,000 more than anyone else, a feat that was made even more amazing by the fact Hansen won this money between January 1 and May 28!

It is not known if Hansen will continue onto Australia for the Aussie Millions, the Main Event of which he won back in 2007, if he continues to be a winner in the Big Game but one thing is for certain his presence in the games will make the play looser than ever before!

“The ownership and management of the new Tropicana, as well as Jamie, have an incredible vision for this relationship,” commented Gold’s agent, Randy Kasper of Poker Players International. “This deal is by far the biggest of its kind and the poker world will be shocked by many of the components as they are unveiled.”

“For the past three years, I have been focusing on raising money around the globe for worthy causes,” said Gold, who has worked with such high profile organizations as the United Nations and Global Creative Forum. “It has been so rewarding; I couldn’t begin to put it into words. I will continue to live up to my nickname as ‘The Poker Philanthropist’ while at the same time getting back to the game I love which has given me countless opportunities.”

Gold is the latest addition to Tropicana Las Vegas’ recently completed $180 million comprehensive transformation of the resort, with further expansion announcements to come in the near future. The relationship with Tropicana marks the re-emergence of the poker champion, known for winning the most coveted honor in poker and the $12 million largest prize in sports history, to the live poker scene. In addition, the relationship is one of a string of deals this year for Gold who, in early 2011, signed with Poker Players International (PPI) and a plan was created to move forward with a number of business ventures including www.jamiegold.com and www.freegoldpoker.com.

“This deal with Tropicana covers everything I could have ever wanted in a relationship with a major Las Vegas Strip resort and it will serve as my anchor and the conduit to all of my future poker and philanthropic endeavors,” continued Gold. “I really couldn’t be more excited!”

“We’re thrilled to welcome Jamie to the Tropicana family,” stated Melissa Steinberg, vice president of entertainment and casino operations at Tropicana Las Vegas. “This new poker room is sure to not only create unique and memorable gaming experiences for our guests, but will also give them the opportunity of a lifetime to play with one of the most iconic poker players of our time.”

Two poker players, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Lex “RaZSi” Veldhuis entered a boxing ring in Marbella, Spain on Tuesday afternoon to settle a long-running prop bet between the pair. Back in 2009 they both, tongue in cheek, threatened to beat each other up and poker players being poker players, a prop bet was formed.

Due to a number of factors outside of their control, ElkY and RaZSi postponed the fight on several occasions but Tuesday saw the flight go ahead and what a fight it was. Straight from the second the bell was sounded Veldhuis went straight onto the attack, punishing ElkY’s left thigh with a low right-footed kick that Jean Claude Van Damme would have been proud of and from that moment on the Dutchman was on top of the fight.

ElkY was trying his best to get back into the bout but although he managed to connect some of his punches they seemed to lack the passion and venom that his Dutch opponent’s did. Maybe that has something to do with the fact Veldhuis had quite a few kickboxing fights when he was younger but ElkY’s only kickboxing experience comes from some lessons he has had since the flight was announced.

The Frenchman survived the first three-minute round, that despite having his head rocked twice in quick succession thanks to heavy right hooks from Veldhuis but the contest was brought to an abrupt close shortly after the restart for Round 2. First Veldhuis landed a wicked right-footed kick under the chin of ElkY to knock him to the ground and just seconds later, after ElkY rose back to his feet, Veldhuis raised his leg and kicked ElkY in the face again again flooring the Triple Crown winner but this time he was unable to continue and the referee stopped the fight.

Thankfully, apart from some bruising and a battered ego ElkY looks in otherwise perfect health and should be back to doing what he does best, picking up poker chips, and terrorising his opponents at the felt, probably as early as next week when the European Poker Tour, World Poker Tour and GSOP Live all descend on the picturesque city of Prague.

At approximately 1:45 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, Phil Ivey quietly walked into the PokerStars Macau Poker Room and sat down to play in a poker tournament.

The news shocked the poker world and most everyone from players to floormen at the PokerStars.net APPT Macau Main Event, much the same way it did back in May when Ivey issued a statement stating he would not be playing the 2011 World Series of Poker. He hadn’t played in a live event since.

On the felt, it was like he’d never left. Ivey navigated through the Day 1a field with relative ease, coasting to a comfortable 51,200 in chips by day’s end, almost doubling his 30,000 starting stack.

Once the Ivey aftershocks subsided, it was back to business as usual at Asia’s premiere poker event, inside Asia’s most luxurious gaming venue, Casino Grand Lisboa.

The field was loaded with notables including Team PokerStars Pros Alex Kravchenko (Russia), Raymond Wu (Asia) and Mickey Petersen (Team Online), all of whom survived to reach Day 2.

The opening flight attracted a healthy 269 runners, of which 155 survived to reach Day 2 on Friday. A similar field size is expected Thursday on Day 1b, which means we’ll be flirting with the record for the biggest main event field in APPT Macau history (Season 2 – 538 runners).

Shih Chieh Su from Chinese Taipei finished Day 1a atop the leaderboard with 171,800 in chips. Notably, 2007 APPT Sydney Grand Final champ Grant Levy also landed a spot in the overnight top ten, bagging 111,200 in chips.

Other notable Day 1a survivors include Nathaniel Seet (124,500), Jackson Zheng (97,300), Julian Powell (89,100), Ozzy Sheikh (72,900), David Steicke (69,500), Roger Spets (60,600), Jose Severino (54,900), Andrew Scott (41,200), Eric Liu (25,400) and Young Phan (17,000).

Notable Day 1a casualties include former APPT Sydney Grand Final champ Jonathan Karamalikis, Mark Vos, Michael Pedley, Emanuel Seal and Andrew Hinrichsen.
The Asia Player of the Year (APOY) will be decided in Macau, with a handful of players still mathematically in contention for the title at the time of this release. Taiwanese poker pro and 2011 Macau Millions champion Hung Sheng “Shaq” Lin has occupied the top spot on the leaderboard for a record eight months heading into the APPT Macau series, reaching nine final tables and collecting $1,245,690 HKD in the process. Still, the race is anything but over. Should one of the other top six players on the leaderboard win the APPT Macau Main Event, they could potentially leapfrog Lin (depending on the final field size) and take the lead; that is, if Lin fails to earn any additional points himself.

TOP TEN DAY 1A CHIP COUNTS

1: Shih Chieh Su, Chinese Taipei – 171,800
2: Erdenebold Begzjav, Mongolia – 142,100 (Pokerstars Macau Qualifier)
3: Thomas Ward, New Zealand – 133,600 (Pokerstars Player)
4: Nathaniel Seet, Singapore – 124,500
5: Renat Lyapin, Russia – 122,200 Russia
6: Johannes Haase, Spain – 115,700 (Pokerstars Player)
7: Vadim Belov, Russia – 112,300 (Pokerstars Qualifier)
8: Ligong Wei, Hong Kong – 111,400
9: Grant Levy, Australia – 111,200 (Pokerstars Qualifier)
10: David Hrdlicka, Slovakia – 105,600 (Pokerstars Qualifier)

The Premier League saw 12 of poker’s most recognisable poker players get split into two groups of six and play three separates heats. Each heat was a six-handed sit ‘n’ go played first to No Limit Hold’em, then Pot Limit Omaha and finally Pot Limit Hold’em, with players receiving points depending on their finishing position in each heat.

Frankenberger hit the headlines during the three heats due to his unorthodox style of play, a style that saw him literally bulldoze his way through his opponents. Whilst his style may not have been seen as “standard” by the internet masses, nobody can argue that is was effective and he ran out a deserving winner.

Everyone who reached the final table was guaranteed their $25,000 entry fee back, the first player receiving this amount of prize money being the November Nine member, Matt Giannetti. He lost a flip with AdKd against the pocket jacks of Andrew Feldman around two hours in be the first player to be eliminated but he gave a great account of himself and he will certainly be around for years to come.

Next to go was one of two Brits to make the six-handed final, James Dempsey. The Brighton-based pro found himself short-stacked and committed his stack with AcJc and ran straight into Frankenberger’s dominating ace-queen. Dempsey did hit a jack on the river but Frankenberger had already spike a queen on the turn.

Italian Max Pescatori was the fourth place finisher. He flopped a set of sixes on a 2h-6s-5h flop and all the money went in against Frankenberger, with the latter holding Ah7h for a heart flush draw. This was completed when the Th landed on the turn and when the river failed to pair the board, Pescatori was sent to the rail.

Three became two when Sorel Mizzi open-shoved for around 20 big blinds with QhTh and was snapped off by Feldman holding AdTs. Neither player improved but Feldman’s ace kicker came into play and it was time for the heads up battle between Feldman and Frankenberger, a battle that lasted two hours. Feldman started as the shorter of the two stacks, never really recovered and in the end he had no answer for Frankenberger’s relentless aggression, though the final hand saw Frankenberger get extremely lucky,

With the chips going in preflop, Feldman looked on course to double up as his KhQc was dominating the KdTs of Frankenberger but the final board ran out Jd-8d-9c-Ac-Qs to give the American an unlikely straight and the win, busting out a distraught Feldman.

This latest victory, worth $100,000, means Frankenberger now has more than $2,000,000 in live tournament winnings in the past two years and he shows no signs of slowing down just yet.

Final Table Payouts

1st: Andy Frankenberger: $100,000
2nd: Andrew Feldman: $65,000
3rd: Sorel Mizzi: $45,000
4th: Max Pescatori: $35,000
5th: James Dempsey: $30,000
6th: Matt Giannetti: $25,000

Although Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Lex “Raszi” Veldhuis are good friends and both team-mates due to being sponsored PokerStars Pros, they are going to be trying to kick the living daylight’s out of each other in Marbella, Spain on November 22! It is something that has been brewing for a while but now it is coming into fruition and it could be quite a spectacle.

You see, back in November 2009, during EPT Barcelona, Veldhuis was grinding tournaments online and ElkY was with a bunch of friends nearby and they were getting a little rowdy. Veldhuis asked them to keep the noise down but ElkY told him where to go. A mini almost tongue-in-cheek argument took place and somehow a prop bet on who would be able to beat who in a kickboxing fight was created!

For months the pair looked for a venue but due to them not wanting to wear helmets and shin guards there were few places that would allow them to fight and the ones that would wanted to charge a ridiculous amount of money. The Veldhuis injured himself and the fight had to be postponed once again but now, thanks to a TV crew who are already in Marbella filming, the fight is going to go ahead.

The fight will feature a fully qualified referee to ensure that both men stick to the rules, which include no biting, elbows, headbutts or kicks to the groin but spinning punches and kicks are allowed, as are sweep and kicks to the head! There will be five three-minute rounds and if both men are still standing at the end of the allotted time the challenge will be deemed a draw but should either be knocked out, give up or the referee stop the bout then the other man will be announced as the winner!

It is not the first time two poker players have stood toe-to-toe in the ring, a couple of years ago Gus Hansen and Theo Jorgensen had a boxing match to promote Hansen’s website but it was not well received at all due to the lack of actual action in it. Will this much hyped fight be any different? I guess only time will tell and we do not have long to wait to find out.

Take a look at the biggest British money earners from tournament poker and you will see the likes of Jake Cody, Neil Channing, James Akenhead, Roland De Wolfe and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott. But if you look right at the very top of the England all-time money listings you will see a certain Sam Trickett sat there, proud as anyone could be.

Until this weekend Trickett was in third place with a shade over $5,000,000 in live tournament winnings but now he has more than $6,300,000 thanks to taking down the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event for a cool €1,000,000. Most poker players will never have a seven-figure score in their entire career but Trickett has had three during this year alone!

Two of the three came at the very start of the year at the Aussie Millions when he took down the $100,000 High Roller for a score of $1,508,258. Just a week later and he finished as runner-up to Erik Seidel in the $250,000 Super High Roller event, a result that netted him a further $1,384,631! Add to this the fact he reportedly won more than £1,000,000 in high stakes games in London and then even more in Macau, more than $300,000 on PokerStars and over $330,000 in other live tournaments and it is easy to see why 2011 is Trickett’s year.

This latest victory came over the weekend when he beat a star-studded final table in emphatic fashion, despite suffering an early setback that saw him lose a massive percentage of his chips. Many lesser players would have panicked and just started splashing around in pots but Trickett played a patient yet aggressive game and not only rebuilt his stack but found himself heads up against the talented American pro Salman Behbehani.

The former professional footballer trailed Behbehani by a two-to-one margin but fought his way back level before the final hand took place. A raising war preflop saw Behnehani all in and at risk whilst holding ace-jack against Trickett’s pocket tens and the latter held to send the American to the rail and Trickett’s fans into rapture.

There is still plenty of time for Trickett to add to his year’s earnings with the upcoming EPT Prague, WPT Prague and other events before the year is out, could he surpass $7,000,000 in lifetime earnings by the end of 2011? I would not bet against the man who is probably the hottest property in poker right now.

Figures courtesy of hendonmob.com