Kevin Schulz has defeated Diego Ventura, in heads-up action, to take the first prize of $1,491,580 in the $10,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event in the Bahamas.

[mage Credit: Pokerstars & Neil Stoddart]

816 entrants entered, 119 made the money, but when all was said and done it was a battle between two online grinders, from two very different American continents, who would take the lion share of the cash in the final of the $10,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event.

Last year, the final table was a 16-hour slugfest – this year it was a six-hour knockout punch. When the final bell rang it was the American Kevin Schulz with his hand held high, but his runner-up Diego Ventura had plenty of reasons to smile.

“I’m pretty happy. I had some pretty good reads on everybody, but you never know what’s going to happen. I love skydiving but this is maybe one of the most intense things I’ve done in my life! I don’t have any plans in mind for the money right now … I’ll take some time to think about it all – and try to make sure I don’t blow it because that seems to happen a lot!” Schulz told PokerStars after his win.

Predictably, it was Schulz’s biggest win of his career. The 26-year old was amongst a score of online grinders who fled to Mexico, in the wake of Black Friday, and his PCA victory tops his fourth place finish in a World Series of Poker$5k No-Limit Hold’em (NLHE) event, where he earned $267,792 back in 2012.

When the final day started five out of the eight players were American, two were from South America, and then you had the bog standard presence of a German. Chance Kornuth had the chip lead, and he was one of the most experienced players at the final table – with two previous scores in excess of half a million bucks – but he would finish in third for a not too shabby looking $641,140.

Ilkin Garibli wins the $25,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller after beating Joe Kuether, in heads-up action, to take down the $1,105,050 first prize.

Poker is all about taking those chances when they come. Ilkin Garibli has just done that in spectacular fashion by winning the $25,000 High Roller event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA). It was his first-ever live tournament score.

Garibli, a cash game player by trade, was on holiday when the PCA came to town. A few friends convinced him to throw his hat in the ring. He’ll be upgrading it now. The 26-year old from Azerbaijan topped the largest ever PCA $25k event, and the seventh largest $25k in poker’s history. 269 entrants (69 of them re-entries), once again showing the poker planners that the re-entry format is a popular concept.

The final day started with 11 souls: Dominik Nitsche, Bryn Kenney and Lee Markholt a sample of the talent to hit the rail before the final table was created. What a final table it was.

The Ukrainian Oleksii Khoroshenin – a former European Poker Tour (EPT) Main Event champion – moved to fifth place in the Ukraine all-time money list after his third place finish, but it was the Americans that made most of the money.

The former PCA Super High Roller champion Scott Seiver had an impressive festival: making final table appearances in both high rollers for a combined score of $600k+; not a bad start to 2015 as he tries to make it three consecutive years with $4m+ annual hauls.

Seiver wasn’t the only one enjoying himself in the Bahamian heat. Nicholas Petrangelo added a sixth place finish to his $5k side-event victory, just a few days ago, and walks away from the PCA with over $400,000 in earnings.

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The Australian Poker Hall of Fame has announced their nominations for the 2015 induction ceremony, and the general public get in on the action for the very first time.

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) has ended, and the players with enough money, and motivation, will now be heading to Australia for the second major tournament of 2015: The Aussie Millions.

The 2015 Aussie Millions will be a hotbed of action, but it’s also the time to honor the players, ambassadors and integral parts of the poker furniture that have made Australian and New Zealand poker what it is today. I am, of course, talking about the Australian Poker Hall of Fame (HOF).

The concept began in 2009-2010. Being the big bang it was decided to pad it out a bit: Joe Hachem, Jeff Lisandro, Billy Argyros, Gary Benson, Lee Nelson, Mel Judah, Tony Guoga, Maurie Pears and Marsha Waggoner the original nine.

Leo Boxell and Danny McDonagh would follow in 2010-2011; Jason Gray and David Gorr likewise in 2011-2012, and Graeme Putt slowed things down as the sole entry in 2013-2014.

So who’s likely to end up in the HOF in 2015?

The smart money seems to be on Grant Levy. 2014-2015 is the first year that the committee has sought the opinion of the general public, and the initial feedback points to Levy as being the strongest candidate.

According to a poll of four investment houses conducted by Business Daily, gaming revenues in Macau will likely decline 16.5% in January.

The estimates in the decrease of revenue by all four investment houses-HSBC, Daiwa, Wells Fargo and Stern Agee- range from 13% to 20%. The forecasted decline still has a considerable margin of error but if the market predictions are correct, Macau casinos will have their best month since September.

Wells Fargo, which gave an 18% forecast, said in a note to clients this week that daily gaming revenue during the second week of January was MOP743 million, 22% behind January’s first week (MOP950 million) and 1% down from December’s daily average.

Macau casino revenue fell 2.6% to 351 billion patacas ($44 billion) in 2014, after a record a 30.4% drop to 23.3 billion in December, the seventh straight month of decline. Last year is also the first annual decline since the special administrative region began releasing financial figures in 2002.

Sterne Agee says gaming revenue totaled MOP8.7 billion in the first 11 days of January, a drop of 13% from a year ago. Macau gaming operators recovered some ground in the stock market on January 13, with shares improving around 1.5% (except Melco Crown, which lost 1.2%).

This week saw the arrest of more than 100 people in Macau related to a prostitution ring, including Alan Ho, nephew of casino tycoon Stanley and other executives and will have to remain in prison while waiting for his trial, said Macau’s prosecution office.

Alan Ho and other senior executives of Hotel Lisboa (pictured) were arrested over the weekend for allegedly running a prostitution ring at the property.The police estimate those involved made more than MOP400 million (US$50 million) over the past two years.

Lee Davy gives you a sound bite of all the week’s poker news and stories including a run down of the most impressive results from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, PokerStars Spin & Go’s first $1m winner, and much more.

The story that picked up the most press coverage, this week, was the magnificent performance of Ronaldo in the $10,000 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event.

The Brazilian footballing legend’s impressive run ended in 26th place, and the PokerStars marketing department must have been rubbing their hands with as much verve and vigor as a witch checking out the kids as they start munching on her chocolate flavored brass knockers.

This is what it’s about.

This is why online poker rooms pay the big money to attract the stars of sport. They finish 26th and the brand of PokerStars is spread wider and further than any poker player could take it.

The winner of the event was the Kevin Schulz. The American beat the number one Peruvian online wizard, Diego Ventura, in heads-up action, to take the $1.4m first prize. A good kid and a great poker player. But I doubt he goes down in the box with the enthusiasm of Ronaldo.

The PCA ended with their largest ever $25k High Roller event. 269 entrants, and the winner was a young man who doesn’t even play live tournaments. In fact, his million-dollar victory is the only piece of writing on his Hendon Mob CV. Cash game player, Ilkin Garibli, was on holiday, in the Bahamas, when friends convinced him to play. Wise choice.

Is it at all possible that we might just be underestimating the Indianapolis Colts and the Green Bay Packers? As soon as the Divisional Round games of the NFL playoffs concluded, a lot of people seemed to have penciled in the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks to meet in Super Bowl XLIX.

Both teams even opened in the -7 range as favorites against the Colts and Packers, both high numbers given how deep we are in the playoffs. But just when it appeared that momentum for a Seahawks-Patriots Super Bowl was getting some steam, bettors are singing a slightly different tune by giving the Colts and Packers a lot of love.

The Colts, in particular, are getting a lot of action, enough at least to push the spread against the Pats down to -6.5. All this is happening despite the fact that Andrew Luck is 0-3 against the Pats in his young career, getting blown out each time on his way to losing by an average of 26 points per game! That’s not a misprint, nor is it an exaggerated version of the truth. It’s just facts stating facts.

But the spread is where it’s at because the public isn’t buying this lopsided trend. Some people even believe that Indy’s peaking at the right time, especially Luck who had two good games against the Cincinnati Bengals and the Denver Broncos to set up this encounter with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.

Even at -6.5, there’s belief among sharps that the number is still inflated leaning towards New England. So if you’re betting on the Colts, now may be a good time to take the splash before the spread goes down even more.

Prediction: Pats 28, Colts 24

Over to the NFC Championship game, the game between the Seahawks and the Packers opened at -7.5 for the defending champs. A few days later, the line has bounced up and down marginally, but for the most part, it still sits at that number with a few sportsbooks now offering the Seahawks at -7 with an extra squeeze of juice attached to the favorites.

Clarion Events, the organizer of numerous high-profile gambling conferences and expos including ICE Totally Gaming, Global iGaming Summit and Expo (GiGSE) and the Excellence in iGaming (EiG) summit, has been acquired by global asset management firm Providence Equity.

The transaction is reportedly worth in excess of £200m, with sources suggesting that Providence fought off competition from a number of rival bidders including conference and exhibition organizer ITE Group and private equity firm Carlyle Group.

Clarion, which can trace its origins back to 1947, was owned by private-equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson, which bought the company from HgCapital for 120.5 million pounds in 2008. Clarion also organizes the Counter Terror Expo and Forensics Europe Expo at Olympia, London.

Jersey to exhibit at ICE Totally Gaming 2015

Jersey eGaming has announced that it will be exhibiting at ICE Totally Gaming, which be held at Excel London on Feb 3rd-5th.

Jersey is the newest tier-one eGaming jurisdiction to emerge, offering lost cost, high quality services.  Key features of Jersey’s eGaming proposition include:

“Jersey’s eGaming offering has gone from strength to strength in recent years and is now arguably the most attractive of any tier one jurisdiction. Our recently announced highly competitive licensing environment, investment in telecommunications, depth of technology skills and our reputation as a leading finance centre makes us the compelling new option for eGamingorganizations. We are also fortunate to have a supportive government position in relation to eGaming, and Jersey’s Assistant Chief Minister, Senator Philip Ozouf, will be attending the ICE event on the 5th February to speak personally to businesses who may be interested in doing business with Jersey,” said Andy Jarrett, Director of Digital Jersey.