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The PokerStars ANZPT Melbourne has begun and poker pros are out in full force. The 2009 Melbourne Poker Championships is currently underway at the Crown Poker Room with 218 players posting the $2,700 buy-in to compete for the title win.

Several PokerStars players entered the event including Lee Nelson, Grant Levy, Tony Hachem, Eric Assadourian and Celina Lin. Former ANZPT Champions Paren Arzoomanian and Karl Krautscheider were also among the star studded field of competitors.

The tournament got off to a slow start as players were given 20,000 in starting chips and the tables were stacked heavy. The first to be eliminated from the competition was Leo Boxell after going up against pocket aces. Boxell had taken a hit earlier with pocket queens against pocket queens so he was set up for the downfall.

Paren Arzoomanian the Sydney ANZPT champion would also exit early. Tomorrow will begin day 2 play and only sixty nine of the original 218 players will be returning. Players are competing for the AUD$545,000 prize pool.

When day 2 play begins Jie Gao will be sitting pretty as he is currently in the chip lead. He took down two large pots before the day ended to gain the chip lead with more than 250,000 chips. Gao took down James Brown and then KOing and then two other players in the final hand of play to gain the chip lead.

Second to Gao is Heath Chick who won his seat through PokerStars. Chick is the only other player next to Gao who has over 200,000 chips leading into day 2 play. Chick says his strategy for day 2 is to “fold all the way”.

When play begins on day 2 the players will compete to the final table and the top eighteen players will cash out which includes the $158,050 first place prize.

Top Ten Chip Leaders:

Jie Gao – 257,400

Heath Chick – 214,100

Chris Kittos – 146,000

Tino Lechich – 119,500

John Apostolidis – 113,000

Salvatore Fazzino – 109,900

Trevor Mccarthy – 109,100

Johnny Huynh – 105,100

Jarrod Graham – 103,300

Brent Thomas – 99,800

The most popular online poker room available on the web has released new software and server updates. PokerStars.com is one of the best in the business and many would say “The Best” and to keep their players happy the online poker room is constantly listening to players suggestions and using those suggestions to better the gaming experience. Several changes have been made to give players the best of what the online poker room has to offer.

Security options have been upgraded at the poker room to insure player security. A layer of security has been added to the player login by adding a security PIN number. The PIN is entered through a “virtual keypad” instead of a keyboard and the numbers are moved at random each time a player logs in to add an extra measure of security.

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Another option for players is the RSA Security Token. The token can be purchased for 6,000 Frequent Player Points at the VIP store. The token is linked with the PokerStars login and will continually change a password that is synched to the secure server. If you have a token, no one can access your account even if they have your password.

Changes have been made to certain games as well that will benefit the players competing. With Sit & Go’s players will see a new rematch prompt after a game has been completed. This will allow players to begin a new tournament without having to visit the lobby. Ring games have a new highlighted feature that will show a player if they are sitting in a game or on the waiting list. Red stands for playing status and pink stands for waiting.

New Time Zones have been added for players in Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, Russia and New Zealand and all major European and Cyrillic languages have been added to the PokerStars site as well.

Online poker’s largest poker room has announced they will be sponsoring the seventh season of the World Poker Tour. PokerStars will now take over the sponsorship duties for the tour as it travels through the Americas and Europe.

The World Poker Tour stated in a press release that PokerStars will receive title sponsorship, brand integration in all of the WPT season seven original episodes that will air in Canada, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands and exclusive in-show educational or gaming site mentioning. The two will also work together to create a Portuguese and Spanish language commentary for the program when it airs in Latin America.

Steve Lipscomb the CEO, President and Founder of the World Poker Tour commented on the partnership stating: “TV sponsorship is an important part of our business, so having the biggest company in the poker industry jump onboard is an exciting way to start international distribution of Season VII. We look forward to working with PokerStars as we roll out the latest WPT programming to fans in these territories.”
This deal between the WPT and PokerStars is similar to the one created a while ago between WPT and Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt is the on-felt sponsor in the United States as the logo of Full Tilt is prominently displayed on-screen as well as at the middle of the table during game play.

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Along with the new deal, the World Poker Tour also recently announced their Q1 2009 results. The results showed lower losses than previously expected which was a loss of only $521,000 for the first quarter of the year which is significantly lower than the $2.3 million loss the company saw in the first quarter of 2008.

Three hundred and forty seven players competed at PokerStars Super Tuesday tournament which was just a little short of the guarantee which created a small overlay of $3,000. Several online poker pros competed in the event included members of the PokerStars pro team. But it was Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy who earned the win and the $68,000+ first place prize.

When final table play began Josephy would find himself in the middle of the pack with the chip counts. It would not matter though as Josephy would fight to make it to heads up play. The first player to be eliminated from the competition would be Benjamin Zamani when he called John Kranyak’s all in. Zamani held A-J against Kranyak’s Q-10 and Kranyak earned a straight and knocked Zamani out of the competition in ninth place.

Kranyak stayed on a roll and knocked out online player Detroitj6 in seventh place. Ronald Grauer would go out next in sixth place after going all in with K-10 against Treadinwater’s pocket fives. Gaining no help from the broad Detroitj6’s day was over.

The next few players to go would be SmoothTiltin in sixth, Jose “papadelpoker” del la Guardia in fifth, Treadinwater in fourth and John “johnnykran” Kranyak in third. That left Josephy and Jonyctt to begin heads up play. Josephy had a slight lead of almost 100,000 chips and would take the win after just eight hands of heads up play.

On the final hand Josephy opened the betting and Jonyctt called which led to the flop of 9-8-A. Jonyctt bet this time and Josephy called which gave a 4 on the turn so jonyctt checked which made Josephy bet which jonyctt called. A 10 on the river put jonyctt all in and Josephy called showing 8-5 against jonyctt’s Q-J. Josephy got a flush and the win the PokerStars Download tournament.

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Final Results:

1. Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy — $68,250

2. jonyctt — $51,625

3. John “johnnykran” Kranyak — $38,500

4. Treadinwater — $29,400

5. Jose “papadelpoker” de la Guardia — $20,125

6. SmoothTiltin — $15,750

7. Ronald “ronaldgrauer” Grauer — $12,250

8. detroitj6 — $8,750

9. Benjamin “xthesteinx” Zamani — $6,125