Seidel was the runner-up in last year’s Championship where he was bested by Annie Duke and had to settle for second place.  This year he would not be denied as he beat World Series of Poker 2003 Champion Chris Moneymaker in the final.

His road to victory included wins over top poker players Allen Cunningham, Jennifer Harman, Phil Gordon, Vanessa Selbst and Andrew Robl.

This win means Seidel is poker’s biggest winner ever, having surpassed Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu to take the top spot.

Seidel has had one of the most amazing years in poker and it is still only the beginning of March!  He has already made $4.3 million for the year in just over two months of poker!

Earlier this year he won the Aussie Millions Super High Roller event for $2.5 million and placed third in the Aussie Millions $100,000 High Roller event for $625,000.

He also placed 4th in PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller event for $300,000 and took another third place in the $5,000 6 Max event for $47,000.

In the run up to this Championship, he won the L.A. Poker Classic $25,000 High Roller event for $145,000.

In late 2010, he was also inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame joining poker’s all-time greatest players and becoming a living legend.

His streak in early 2011 solidifies his standing in the Hall of Fame and proves that is he is one of today’s top stars.

He appears in the top spot controversially ahead of PokerStars’ front man Isai Scheinberg.

The Power 20 list was based on a polling of 100 gaming media and industry leaders which may partially explain the results.  Lederer is no doubt, a better known name that Scheinberg and Full Tilt Poker has rapidly risen to the #2 spot in online poker.   In addition, the fact the Scheinberg keeps a low profile while Lederer appears on televised poker shows and in big tournaments makes all the difference.

Despite this, PokerStars remains in a dominant pole position over their rival, dominating the tournament format of the game and now challenging Tilt’s supremacy at the high stakes cash games with their latest signing of Viktor “Isildur1” Blom who has drawn much action over to PokerStars.

Poker players who found their names included on the list are Full Tilt’s Phil Ivey in #6 beating out PokerStars’ Daniel Negreanu at #7.  Doyle Brunson, the Godfather of Poker, made #10 on the list while poker’s young gun Tom “durrrr” Dwan came in at #12.

Poker brat and WSOP record bracelet holder Phil Hellmuth finished in 16th place on the list.

Other top spots were taken by Ty Stewart, the VP of Caesar’s Entertainment and Director of the World Series of Poker. 

Las Vegas Senator Harry Reid takes 4th place for his recent legal push to regulate the online gaming industry in the U.S.

In 5th place is player agent Brian Balsbaugh who represents the most famous poker players in the world including Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Phil Hellmuth and Gus Hansen to name a few.

The Power 20 offers an interesting insight into the poker industry’s titans and most influential players from year-to-year.

The much hyped SuperStar Showdown between PokerStars’ two most popular Team Pros saw Daniel Negreanu lose his entire $150,000 in just 1,439 hands of the scheduled 2,500 hands for the day’s session.  What is more, the plan was to play another 2,500 hands next Sunday.  This match-up marks the first SuperStar Showdown where a player went bust before completing the allocated number of hands.

In all fairness to Daniel, Viktor “Isildur1” Blom had the cards fall his way all session long, looking completely unbeatable throughout the challenge.   Of the 14 pots they played for over $20,000, Blom took down 12 of them!  His draws always seemed to connect and his good fortune definitely contributed to Daniel tilting and being thrown off his game in the process.

During the match, Daniel tweeted “This has been pretty disgusting so far. Can’t imagine running any worse.”  And it is true.

Fans weren’t certain if his demise meant that next Sunday’s second part of the Showdown would be off.  Daniel is a good sport and has deep pockets, what’s more, is that he seems to be itching for a rematch as he knew the cards were not on his side during the session.  He let fans know he’d be back next weekend via his Twitter account “Ok, officially shook off the loss. Back to the grind this week and a rematch with a fresh 150k next week.”

Fans can now look forward with eager anticipation to next Sunday’s rematch at the PokerStars online felt.

This victory means that Blom has now beaten four of the five challengers that he has faced since signing with PokerStars.  He is a remarkable heads-up player and has proven himself to be one of the game’s best.

He is on poker’s biggest hot streak of all time, having launched a winning streak for over $7 million since September 2010.  At that time, he had the notoriety of being online poker’s biggest loser having lost almost $10 million at the high stake cash games on Full Tilt Poker.

In a shocking turn of events, Hansen clocked tens of thousands of hands each month and racked up a huge winning streak to reduce his lifetime online losses to only $2.5 million.  It was poker’s ultimate comeback. 

The widely regarded online fish has now become one of poker’s most feared high stakes players.   Back in 2010, fellow online pros would line up to take their shot at Gus as they thought they would have a big edge over him and be able to pocket thousands from a session against him.  Fast forward to the present when even the fearsome Daniel “jungleman12” Cates has passed on heads-up games against Hansen who seems to be getting the better of him.

The turnaround came shortly after he won his first WSOP bracelet at the World Series of Poker Europe in the heads-up tournament.  From this point on, he seemed unstoppable online.

Gus Hansen is no doubt one of the best live tournament players of all time having won three World Poker Tour titles and a WSOP bracelet.  He has won over $9 million in live poker tournaments and is known for his aggressive, unpredictable style of play.

Hansen’s hot streak is enjoyed by poker fans and online railbirds because of his willingness to play poker at the highest stakes against all challengers.  In addition, he is willing to play all types of poker from Pot Limit Omaha to Draw Poker.

Gus Hansen has showed no signs of slowing down since his unbelievable turnaround.  One wonders just how far he can go and how much more he will win!

In second place for the month is Gus Hansen with $1.5 million in winnings.  Hansen has been on a massive online heater since October 2010 winning around $7 million online since that time.  He has been playing at the highest stakes on Full Tilt Poker and is crushing the games.  Hansen continues to put in hours and hours of work at the tables and played over 30,000 hands in March.

Phil Ivey, who is widely considered the best poker player in the world won just under $1 million in March.  He only played a mere 4,500 hands for the entire month.

Another familiar name and big winner in March is 2010’s biggest winner online Daniel “jungleman12” Cates who won $750,000.

Biggest Losers

The biggest losers from March also feature three well known top pros.

The biggest loser was Scott “URnotINdanger2” Palmer who lost $1 million in the month. 

Tom “durrrr” Dwan, one of Full Tilt Poker Pros lost

$900,000 after continuing his heads-up challenge with jungleman12.  He suffered further losses which made up the largest portion of his month’s losses.  The two contenders in the Durrrr Challenge are almost 20,000 hands in and jungleman12 has a massive $1.25 million lead over Dwan.  The challenge has consistently gone jungleman12’s way and it remains to be seen how Dwan will turn things around.

Online legend and PokerStars Team Pro Viktor “Isildur1” Blom also had a rocky time in March losing $900,000.  This huge loss comes despite his big $150,000 win over Daniel Negreanu in the SuperStar Showdown.

March provided great high stakes poker action with the biggest names in online poker being amongst the biggest winners and losers for the month.  April promises to provide poker fans and railbirds with more exciting action as Phil Galfond is now highly motivated and will be playing a lot in April as well as Gus Hansen who is showing no sign of slowing down.

Hopefully, the Durrrr Challenge will also continue in April so fans can enjoy the action as poker’s top heads-up players face off.

Isildur1’s SuperStar Showdown seems to be taking place almost weekly now as more and more challengers step forward to their shot at the online legend. 

April promises to be a great month for online railbirds and poker fans.

The $100,000 package deal means that you can win:

•    Front row seats to any sporting event in the world
•    You can bring as many friends as you want
•    Travel and accommodation are all covered

Have you always dreamed of sitting in the front row with all your buddies cheering on your favorite team in the final?  Whether you love the football, basketball, baseball or tennis, whatever your favorite sport, you can win a dream trip when you play at PokerStars.

That’s not all; there will be an additional $1 million in cash up for grabs.

Win Front Row Tickets Today!

To get your shot at a dream sports trip, simply login in to your PokerStars account, or create one if you don’t have one already.  The software is free to download and it is free to play.

In the Lobby, go to the Tourney tab and then go to the “Freeroll”/”Satellite” area and enter the freeroll tournaments.

There are 20 tournaments running daily until May 21, so make sure to enter as many as you can to increase your chances of winning the ultimate sports vacation.

Players can also skip the satellite tournaments and qualify for the final directly when they make a real money deposit.

If you are a first time depositor, you can use code “GOYLFDB” and a minimum deposit of $10 is required to get a ticket to the final freeroll.

If you already have an account, use reload code “GOYLRELOAD” and a minimum deposit of $50 is required. 

So what are waiting for?  Live the poker dream today!

The founders of these three sites are being charged with “bank fraud, money laundering, and illegal gambling offenses.” 

Visiting the domain names for these sites will bring up the Department of Justice and F.B.I. crests with the following message:

“This domain name has been seized by the F.B.I. pursuant to an arrest warrant in Rem obtained by the United States Attorney’s Office

“Conducting, financing, managing, supervising, directing, or owning all or part of an illegal gambling business is a federal crime.”

PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker have now willingly stopped American players from playing on their sites as they maintain that they always follow the law.  Absolute/UB Poker which is hosted by the Cereus network continues to allow Americans to play.  However, deposits and withdrawals from the site are temporarily suspended, so there is not much benefit to playing there if you cannot withdraw your winnings. 

Site traffic tracker Poker Scout has reported a shocking 23% decline in poker traffic. 

The decline of the Big Three poker sites is as follows:

•    PokerStars -25%
•    Full Tilt Poker -48%
•    Cereus Network -39%

The American facing sites that have been unaffected have been the biggest beneficiaries of this move with traffic jumping by leaps and bounds:
•    Merge Gaming Network +23%
•    Bodog +26%
•    Cake Poker Network +19%
•    Everleaf Gaming Network +8%

European only sites that have not accepted U.S. players since 2006 have also benefitted a little bit as European players have moved back to their sites away from the affected U.S. sites:
•    PartyPoker +9%
•    iPoker Network +4%
•    Ongame Network (no change)
•    888Poker +5%
•    PKR +21%

It remains to be seen exactly how this will play out in the long run.  America is known as the home of poker with games like Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha being named after American states where they became popular.  It is really a sad situation when a government that supposedly stands for freedom clamps down in a regime style seizure.  In stark contradiction, American gamblers may continue to bet on horse races and NFL fantasy sports if they choose!

PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker said from the beginning that their players’ funds were safe and that they would be returning them which is no surprise given the outstanding reputation of these sites for being honest players in the online poker market.

In return for a formal agreement with the Department of Justice to protect American funds, both the PokerStars.com and FullTiltPoker.com domains will be returned to the companies as part of the agreement.  The sites are no longer accepting U.S. players and Absolute/UB has now followed their lead.

According to the press release, the domains have been returned to “Allow for PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker to use the pokerstars.com and fulltiltpoker.com domain names to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. players’ funds held in accounts with the companies.”

International Players Can Continue to Play

Some international players have left the named sites for fear that they are no longer safe to play at.  However, this is not the case and the U.S. action will not affect players from outside the U.S.  The Department of Justice has said that “The agreements do not prohibit, and, in fact, expressly allow for, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker to provide for, and facilitate, players outside of the United States to engage in playing online poker for real money.”

As this situation plays out, it is likely that international players that jumped ship in a state of panic will begin to return to these well established sites.  In the meantime however, their online challengers have been trying to grab a large share of the action by offering special promotions to all players who have jumped ship.

No amateur players will be allowed in sharp contrast to the World Series of Poker Main Event where anyone can play once they pay the entry fee.

Ironically, the FS+G was founded by Jeffrey Pollack, the former WSOP Commissioner who coined the popular phrase “Anybody can enter, anybody can win.”

The idea behind the FS+G is to pit the top poker players against each other in the competition which means that the audience and poker fans will get to see the best players take on each other in a high skills competition.  Pollack says that the league is about “celebrating the best live event tournament players in the world.”

The star studded line-up includes the most popular and successful players in the world including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Erick Seidel, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Doyle Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Gus Hansen, Mike Matusow and Antonio Esfandiari.

Superstars from 2010 that are included on the list include Tom Marchese and Sorel Mizzi. 

The most notable exception is World Series of Poker 2010 Champion Jonathan Duhamel who has had an amazing record since winning the championship event.  However, with such a short history on the poker scene it seems as though he fell just short of meeting the required criteria.  However, with results from this year’s upcoming WSOP counting towards qualification, Duhamel will have a chance to make the cut. 

Other WSOP Champions who didn’t make the cut include Chris Moneymaker whose amateur victory at the WSOP in 2003 revolutionized the game and caused it to explode worldwide.  Apparently, he is very close to qualifying and could do so if he has a good 2011 Series.  Jamie Gold, who has remained an amateur player, also did not qualify.

The FS+G league will kick off at the Palms Casino Resort on August 19th in Las Vegas. 

Major sponsorship and TV deals are still to be announced.  The recent poker crackdown is expected to have little effect on the FS+G as it is made for a mainstream TV audience with a huge line-up of poker stars.  It is expected to attract mainstream sponsors for products beyond poker just as the World Series of Poker has in the past.
 

The Team PokerStars Pro outlasted a total of 57 players and a star-studded final table to win the event bringing his total lifetime earnings to over $7,380,000.

The final table was littered with top pros including fellow PokerStars Team Pro Vanessa Rousso, Juha Helppi, Ben Spindler, Peter Jetten and this year’s PokerStars’ Caribbean Adventure Champion Galen Hall. 

Galen Hall came into the final table as chip leader but would see his hopes of scoring another big win dashed as he crashed out in 7th place.  After busting Hall, Ben Spindler became the new chip leader and would dominate and bully the table until the action got heads-up against ElkY.

In contrast, ElkY would quietly navigate his way into the final three without much involvement or big confrontations at the table.   ElkY would then bust Helppi when he held QQ to Helppi’s JT shove.

When the action got heads-up, ElkY was trailing with a third of the chips in play.  However, his experience as France’s all time money leader shone through and he was able to mount a comeback against the young poker whiz kid Ben Spindler. 

The final table payouts are:

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier -  €525,000
Benny Spindler – €316,000
Juha Helppi – €185,000
David Sands – €135,000
Vanessa Rousso – €100,000
Alex Repik – €72,000
Galen Hall – €57,500
Peter Jetten – €45,000

ElkY is regarded as one of the top poker tournament players on the circuit and his big win over fist class competition at the High Roller event proves just how good he is once again.