Shane Crosby leads Day 1 of UKIPT Dublin

Shane Crosby leads Day 1 of UKIPT Dublin





The Irish don't do things in small measures. Large, loud and enthusiastic is the general way of carrying on their business - so it was no real surprise to see such a huge turnout here in Dublin for the latest stop of the PokerStars UKIPT. Nearly 600 packed into the Burlington Hotel, most forking out the €500 entry fee while around 150 satellited their way in online at PokerStars.

With only one Day 1 flight, the poker room was crammed while the adjoining hotel bars maintained a healthy trade in Guinness. Healthy as in business, of course - the brewer can no longer say 'Guinness is good for you' in its advertising.

While the distractions in Dublin are plenty, the large prizepool means the players will be at least trying to concentrate on the poker. Most, anyway. Dan Heimiller was playing in the $215 Razz WCOOP event on PokerStars inbetween hands at his table. It didn't do him much harm - he finished the night bagging up a nice stack of 59,400 and was still going strong in the Razz.



Dan Heimiller

At the end of play, with around 330 players left, Ireland's Shane Crosby took the chip lead with 120,200. "Even if I don't go on to cash, it's great to have been the chip leader tonight," he said. Not far behind is Simon Bernsten on 106,800, Team PokerStars Pro JP Kelly on 101,300, and David Carberry on 97,125. Team Pro Vanessa Rousso bagged up 20,975 after struggling with a short stack for most of the day, while former Ireland international footballer Tony Cascarino ended with 29,200.



Shane Crosby



JP Kelly



Vanessa Rousso

But while they'll be enjoying a rest tonight before returning at 1pm tomorrow, plenty more will be finding other things to do in Dublin after their tournaments ended much sooner than they had hoped. Team PokerStars Pros Jude Ainsworth and Julian Thew won't be back, while former Ireland rugby international Reggie Corrigan and former world snooker champion Ken Doherty, both sponsored by PokerStars, also bit the dust.



Julian Thew



Ken Doherty

We'll have the full official chip count with you as soon as it is made available by tournament staff. It will be up on the chip count page. Until then, take a look at our coverage by clicking on the following links:

Looking for a profitable RoI in the RoI

Levels 1 & 2 updates

Levels 3 & 4 updates

Levels 5, 6 & 7 updates.

Thanks to fellow writer Rick Dacey and to photographer Mickey May for their fine work today, while videos, much like the one below of a jovial Andy Black, can be found at pokerstars.tv





Until tomorrow, it's goodnight from us, and goodnight from this little leprechaun...



A leprechaun. Today


http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/ukipt/2010/the-irish-dont-do-things-073286.html

WCOOP profile: Inside the matrix with Xaston

WCOOP profile: Inside the matrix with Xaston





Poker champions play the numbers. There is only so much feel or instinct that goes into it. The good players know the math is eventually going to win.

Among those people is Jaime "Xaston" Kaplan, the winner of WCOOP Event #6, a $215 no-limit hold'em turbo freakshow of a tournament. Kaplan won more than $200,000 for first place in that event on talents he acquired reading a few books back in the day.

"I read Winning Low-Limit Hold'em. This taught me to fold bad hands," Kaplan said. "Then I read Super System. This taught me to continuation bet even if I didn't fop top pair or a good draw. Then I read The Theory of Poker. This taught me everything else I ever learned about poker."

So, he's got a solid foundation in the game. He's read the important books. He's made his bones among the best. He's done what he needs to do. Of course, as far as he's concerned, it could all be just a bunch of meaningless bits and bytes.

"I think that there's about a 15% chance that we are all in a computer simulation of 2010 right now, being run on a supercomputer at some point in the future," he said.



Chew on that for a second while we go back over Kaplan's past.

See, the kid learned draw poker before he was eight years old. Some years later, he would learn all the dealer's choice games like Guts and Anaconda. Then his neighbor saw Chris Moneymaker win the 2003 WSOP and introduced hold'em to the mix.

"I hated it. There were no wild cards and you couldn't trade any of your cards for new ones!" Kaplan admitted. "But I was super competitive. All he was better than me at was swimming and pogo sticking, and I wasn't about to let him claim no-limit hold'em as another. So, I bought a book on the game and never looked back."

Now 24, years old Kaplan can look back on that time with a smile. See, in 2009 he took fifth in the WCOOP Main Event for $482,400, to this day his biggest win. Despite that and several other big finishes in his career, Kaplan never had a big first place finish until this week's bracelet victory. It was a back-climbing monkey he was happy to shake off.

It's not always been so easy for the young man. He says that as an adolescent he had some inpatient therapy for a while.

"I thought life sucked," he said, "but then I saw people who had real problems and have loved life ever since."

It's a philosophical diet based on the TV series The Wire, the novel Shantaram, and the comic strip Calvin & Hobbes, and one that's led him to look at poker as a simple game, a three-act play in which he plays the protagonist. He looks at what he has, figures his opponents' range, and then combines the two to make the best play based on that he knows.

"Rinse and repeat," he said.

Thus, it's a happy, easy life Kaplan leads these days. He'd call himself a full-time pro (because he only earns his money playing cards) but he says he's too lazy to even call what he does working. Still he has the money to buy a Chevy Volt in a couple of months and, if he manages to double what he's won so far in this year's WCOOP, he plans to book a $200,000 Virgin Galactic space flight.

As of this moment, Kaplan sits atop the 2010 WCOOP leaderboard. As far as many other people are concerned, he could as easily be sitting atop the world.

But then there's that whole playing-the-numbers thing. If we're to accept Kaplan's self-professed assumption that we are 15% likely to just be part of a matrix-ish simulation, the math would tell us to proceed as if we're not.

But then you have to think about it a little bit. Here we are, a bunch of addled poker players playing a simulation of the game on a computer. Our money and buy-ins go across the table as little packets of simulated information. To a degree, we're controlling the money's destiny and conducting our own little three-act plays on virtual tables in a virtual poker world. And yet, it's as real as the $2 million the winner of the main event will get in a couple of weeks.

So then, even if we are a simulation as Kaplan suggests is a possibility, should we act any differently than we would if all of this were real?

"It's interesting," Kaplan concludes.

For more on Kaplan's victory, see Xaston speeds to expedited victory in Event #6 NL Turbo Rebuys

LAPT Grand Final set for Argentina

LAPT Grand Final set for Argentina





The Latin American Poker Tour is ready close out its biggest and best season yet with a final stop in the exotic city of Rosario, Argentina. The Grand Final main event runs September 23-36 and is expecting hundreds of players from around the world to one of South America's most luxurious casinos.

The $5,000 Grand Final is set to go off in an historic city befitting the continent's biggest poker event. After a full season that took LAPT players form Costa Rica to Uruguay to Lima to Florianopolis, the Rosario stop at the City Center Casino is expected to be an even like none other.



So far this season the LAPT has awarded more than $3,500,000 in prize money, crowned three new champions, and celebrated Team PokerStars Pro Jose "Nacho" Barbero as the tour's first double champion.

Now it's off to Rosario where PokerStars will once again be throwing a lavish party on the eve of the event.

"I don't think we could get better than this," said David Carrion LAPT President "The beautiful city of Rosario; the fantastic City Center Casino; hundreds of the best players in the world, all making for a fitting finale to what has been a truly memorable year on the LAPT."

Among the big names scheduled to attend: Team PokerStars Pros Chris Moneymaker, Victor Ramdin, and Dennis Phillips.

You can still qualify for your spot on PokerStars and earn your seat, accommodations, and money towards travel costs. If that doesn't work, there will be live satellites in Rosario on the day before the Main Event, giving players a last chance to secure their spot.

"It is going to be a fantastic finale for LAPT season three," said Team PokerStars Argentina Pro Leo Fernandez. "Argentina has great players and this prestigious event is going to have an outstanding presentation and playing field. City Center is quite a setting. It is going to be the most important poker tournament in all of South America".

Numerous side events will run alongside the main event, giving players a second chance of a big score. In addition to a deep stack event, the schedule boasts bounty tournaments, $2,000 events, re-buy tournaments, a 6-max tourney, and a ladies event.

There will also be a charity event featuring a roll call of local celebrities, such as Susana Gimenez, International soccer hero Juan Verón, the national hockey team's Luciana Aimar as well as tennis stars Gaston Gaudio and Mariano Zabaleta. A televised High Roller with a $10,000 buy-in will wrap up the week in Rosario.

Fore more information on all of it, visit LAPT.com.