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Poker Playing “Loser” is a Winner; it’s All About the Name

This is a story one of my U.K. scribes sent me the other day.

It obviously happened in Europe, but I think it’s pretty funny.

The definition of lower is: a person with a record of failing; someone who loses consistently.

Ok, I’ll buy that.

It would hardly be considered the most flattering name for a poker player to be saddled with, but one man determined not to live up to his name is German player Manig Löser.

But Loser recently did well at the European Masters of Poker tournament in Bulgaria last week.

Manig Löser succeeded in outlasting a field of 260 players at the Crystal Crown Casino, to win the 1,100 euro buy in event and walk away with the 49,080 euros first place prize.

Not bad for a Loser, eh?

As the tournament eventually played down to just nine players, Löser then plahyed a solid game and maintain his stack, while others busted out around him.

Finally, Löser eliminated Romanian George Draghici in third with his Q-8 badly dominating his opponent’s J-8, to force a heads-up encounter against Israeli player Shani Vahnun.

It took less than an hour before the final hand of the competition was played, after Loser was dealt K-6 to his opponent’s 9-8. With the flop falling  Q-J-6, Löser bet out 55,000 euros with bottom pair, only for Vahnun to push all-in over the top for his remaining 700k with a gut-shot straight draw.

The turn and river of A-2 failed to improve the Israeli’s hand and he had to content himself with the runner-up prize of €35,000, instead.

Manig Löser thus became  the 2010 EMOP Bulgaria champion.

Löser has now won $60,311 from four live tournament cashes, all coming this year.

A loser no more.

Bankers Busted in Hong Kong for Playing Poker

Did you know that playing poker in Hong Kong is illegal?

Well, it is.

And that’s what got Michael Tan Boon Suan, a Merrill Lynch banker, in trouble. He was busted along with seven others y for participating in an illegal game of Texas Hold ‘em. The news of the bust came from the Wall Street Journal.

The game was run by two Hong Kong women and two Nepalese women, all in their 20s.

Tan Boon Suan is a 42-year-old licensed securities trader and corporate finance adviser for Merrill Lynch.

The others included a banker, two investment consultants, two company directors, a businessman and a bank teller.

Also, the proximity of Macau, “the Vegas of Asia,” which welcomes poker games and is right nearby Hong Kong and, just makes the seven look sloppy or lazy.

We think it’s a small time crime…but since it is illegal, their punishment will be determined in a court appearance in August or September.

For now they’re out on $1,000 bail.

So next time you’re in Hong Kong, be safe. Don’t play poker.

OK?

The Young Guns and the Main Event; The Final Table Should Be Enormously Entertaining

I usually don’t run INDUSTRY ARTICLES because they are pure P.R. and my job, as I see it, as a poker lover, is to give you MY opinions on things, find answers for YOU and entertain YOU. Point you in the direction of some cool things.

But this industry blog is good because it is about the main event of poker.

Here is how it starts: The oldest casino promotion in the history of the U.S. casino business keeps taking on a younger and younger look.

Eight of the nine players earning seats at the final table of the 41st World Series of Poker’s main event are 25 years of age or younger.

They were not old enough to play in a casino when Chris Moneymaker made big time tournament poker a game for the masses with his 2003 final table victory at the World Series.

This includes 22-year-old Jonathan Duhamel; the Canadian who has nearly $66 million in chips as he awaits his Nov. 6 return to the Rio, when the final table will play down to the winner who will enjoy an $8.9 million payday.

It will all be part of a two-hour made for ESPN event.

And I’ll be glued to my TV for that; if I’m not there in person.

Even Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, easily the best known of the final table nine, is only 29. Each of the nine has received ninth place money of $811,823.

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