Monday News Update

Feb. 27, 2012, Posted by Daniel.Smyth

In today's news update we check out the winner of EPT Copenhagen, preview PokerStars' Zoom Poker and get the latest on Poker After Dark. We also hear of Jerry Yang's potential movie and relive a classic moment from his WSOP win. 

Mickey’s “Mement” in Copenhagen

After a 6 hour heads-up marathon the plaudits finally went to Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen at the EPT Copenhagen. Playing in front of a home crowd Mickey bided his time at the start of the final, allowing Spencer Hudson, Steve O’Dwyer and Niels van Alphen to hit the rail in successive order.

Once the table was down to 5 it was time for Petersen to assert his authority, firstly rivering a flush against Jacob Rasmussen to send the Dane home with a cheque for €66,000. Next in line for some Petersen punishment was Aage Ravn who felt the chill of the cold deck when his A-K ran into Petersen’s aces.

Now firmly in control of the table, Petersen hot streak continued when the frozen deck hit him once again with a fortune Q-Q vs. J-J situation. Bjarke Hansen was the one nursing frostbite this time around, but with 135,000 to console himself with it’s unlikely he’s too disappointed.

With just Pierre Neuville standing in his way the young gun was eager to dispatch with the wily old Belgian, however Neuville had other ideas. The serial PokerStars qualifier dug in his heels and resisted Petersen’s aggressive strategy finding a series of timely double-ups.

Finally, just as the rail were ready to bring their duvets to the poker room floor, the online wizard called Neuville’s all-in with Ac-5h. With his opponent holding Ad-4s it was a tense moment for Dane, but he didn’t have to wait long as the dealer spread a 6h Jc Kc 3s 5d board to give Petersen the title.

The €338,000 prize was Mickey’s first in the offline arena and took his total tournament earnings over the $5 million mark. Indeed, at only 22 it looks as though Petersen has finally found his form on the live circuit.

Final Table Results:

1st          Mickey Petersen €338,000

2nd        Pierre Neuville €215,000

3rd         Bjarke Hansen €135,000

4th         Aage Ravn €99,500

5th         Jacob Rasmussen €66,000

6th         Niels van Alphen €52,500

7th         Steve O'Dwyer €39,000

8th         Spencer Hudson €26,000

 

PokerStars Zoom into Action

It’s been a race to see who could take hold of Rush Poker’s baton and run with it, and this weekend we finally got an answer. PokerStars announced this weekend that their much talked about Zoom Poker is now available for beta testing and if all goes well it should launch sometime in the near future.

Players who sampled Full Tilt’s Rush Poker will be familiar with many of Zoom’s features, including: fast-fold, player colour coding and an uncapped pool of players. In addition to these, PokerStars have created a “quick fade” system that makes transitioning from one to another even faster than its rival. An intuitive lobby and the provision for other non Hold’em games complete the Zoom Poker package and creates an exciting proposition for online grinders.

Indeed, in the testing phase players have been able to clock an average of 280 hands/hour per table, which would make achieving SuperNova infinitely easier. As yet there has been no official announcement of when the software will be incorporated into real money games, but if all goes well it shouldn’t be long before players are racing to play.

A New Dawn on Poker After Dark

It’s one of the most popular poker shows to hit the airwaves in the last few years but after the demise of Full Tilt Poker After Dark fell out of favour. However, due to the poker community’s thirst for action the NBC show is set to return in March with a series of previously unseen episodes.

Airing from March 5^th on NBC sports, the 5 week stint will include 24 cash game shows and 6 SNG tournaments. The majority of the action was shot in 2010 so you can expect to see a host of unadulterated high stakes action from a group of players as yet unaffected by the curse of Black Friday.

For those unable to access NBC the episodes should be available PokerTube in the very near future.

Side Action

He took the WSOP by storm in 2007 with his “1 mirrion” raises and now poker fans may have the chance to relive those moments in glorious Technicolor. Jerry Yang is in talks to have his book: All-In – From Refugee Camp to Poker Champ, made into a movie.

The revelation came in an interview with Short Stack Radio last week and has already caused a buzz on the forums. Whether this epic will become a blockbuster or not is uncertain, but if Jesus has anything to do with it then Yang may be collecting an Oscar this time next year.