It is always interesting to see what new stars online poker rooms will sign to their poker teams or as ambassadors for the site. Some poker rooms choose very obvious stars while others make you think outside the box. But whatever their reasons, online poker rooms are constantly filling their rosters with unique and interesting people.

The latest poker room to announce a new player to their site is PokerStars. PokerStars is the number one poker room available online today and they have a long list of poker pros and ambassadors for their site. The latest addition to the poker room is Gianluigi ‘Gigi’ Buffon. Buffon is a nine time Italian goalkeeper of the year and he currently plays for Juventus.

Buffon will serve as an Italian ambassador for PokerStars. Buffon will be competing in the World Cup in South Africa this summer on the Italian national football team in the hopes of winning a second medal.

Buffon commented on joining with PokerStars by stating: “I love living life to the full. I know there will be many commitments, but I love playing poker and the opportunity to join Italy’s (and the world’s) largest poker site is an honor and a great challenge. I can’t wait to play against Team PokerStars Pros and I’m ready to have lots of fun playing against everyone who wants to take me on.”

Buffon will join the other sports stars at PokerStars. Those on Team PokerStars Sports Stars include: Mats Sundin, Boris Becker, Sebastien Chabal, Sami Selio, Fatima Moreira De Melo and Gael Monfils. Buffon will make a nice addition to the team and it will be interesting to see how well he does at the poker table, it will be quite different than the football field.

The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker was in full swing last week and a group of Australian players have been playing very strong in the competition. Jarred “FlopNutsOnYou” Graham is the leader of the Australian group of poker players by having cashed out in four SCOOP events.

Graham earned $50,000 in just one week by cashing out in four SCOOP tournaments. His best finish came in event #17 which was a $1,575 Pot limit Omaha Six-Max event with re-buys. Another player who has earned four cash outs is James “AndyMcLEOD” Obst whose best finish was with Event #4 where he earned $15,000.

Grant Levy, a PokerStars Team Australia member, made the final table in event #8 which earned him just over $12,000 while “CNT_CRUSHER” also of Australia, earned a 9th place finish in event #12 where he earned $14,000.

Two final table finishes during the SCOOP would go to Rayan ‘rkrouk’ Nathan when he participated in Event #13 and Event #17. He would earn 4th and 7th respectively and earn a total of $37,531 for his efforts.

Several poker pros are from Down Under and many more are sure to finish in the money as the SCOOP finishes up. A few players from Australia are: Tony G, Jefferey Lisandro, David Saab, Marsha Waggoner, Mel Judah, Gary Benson and Billy Argyros.

The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker is a large poker tournament series where each event has three levels of play. Players will find a low buy-in, a medium buy-in and a high buy-in for each event. The entire series is offering a guaranteed prize pool total of $45,000,000 so players are sure to earn nice paydays from each event. Players from all over the world compete in the event including many poker pros.

PokerStars was busy with the Spring Championship of Online Poker this past weekend but they still squeezed in a regular event. The Sunday 500 took place as normal at PokerStars this past weekend amidst all of the frenzy of the SCOOP.

The Sunday 500 is a $500 guaranteed tournament that has a buy-in of $500 plus 30. Players can pay the buy-in to compete in the tournament or they can choose to play in online qualifiers to gain a seat to the event by paying a much lower buy-in. Qualifiers are offered at PokerStars for just a few dollars, which is a nice option since many players may not have the $530 buy-in that the tournament requires.

This past Sunday’s tournament had 1,023 players competing and the prize pool was increased by a small amount, just over $11,000 and it paid out prizes to the top 153 spots. The top seven players earned a five figure pay day so if you made it to the final table you would have been a happy camper. Making it to the end of the tournament would be tough though as the competition was fierce.

In the end it was online player’s adametes and SchneidsFish who would compete in heads up play. The two would go back and forth with the chip lead before an adametes would gain the final chip lead and make a move. It would prove to be the right decision and adametes would log off of PokerStars as the winner of the Sunday 500.

Final Results:

Visit Poker Stars

adametes - $88,285

SchneidsFish - $63,938

toweliestar - $48,593

J_HasTheNuts - $35,600

Zackattak13 - $25,319

snake8484 - $20,204

cmontopdeck - $15,089

IgorFederal - $9,974

Danny98765 - $5,627

The 2010 PokerStars European Poker Tour Grand Final has finished up and it was SuperNova status Nicolas Chouity who earned the win. Chouity held a large chip lead when final table play began to help him earn the first place finish.

Chouity played quite a game to earn the EPT title win. He worked his opponents well using his chip lead to force them to make quick decisions. Chouity would take down six of the seven players he faced to earn the win.

First to go in final table play would be Mesbah Guerfi who would be followed close by Roger Hairabedian, Aleh Plauski, Andrew Chen and Herve Costa. This would leave Dominykas Karmazinas, Josef Klinger and Nicolas Chouity in three way play.

Karmazinas would be the short stack and he would eventually call an all in by Chouity. Karmazinas held A-7 while Chouity showed A-6. The board fell Q-5-3-6-K to give Chouity the hand and knock Karmainas out in third place.

This would leave Chouity and Klinger to compete in heads up play. Chouity held a significant chip lead with just over 17,000,000 more chips than Klinger. In the end Klinger would go all in with pocket eights only to be called by Chouity who held pocket aces. All Klinger could do was shake his head as the board fell K-10-9-4-Q and he was knocked out in second place. Chouity had played an awesome game and the first place finish was well deserved.

Visit Poker Stars

Final Results:

1. Nicolas Chouity - 1.7 million EUR
2. Josef Klinger - 1.0 million EUR
3. Dominykas Karmazinas - 700k EUR
4. Herve Costa - 500k EUR
5. Andrew Chen - 400k EUR
6. Aleh Plauski - 300k EUR
7. Roger Hairabedian - 200k EUR
8. Mesbah Guerfi - 140k EUR

Visit Poker Stars

PokerStars recently announced they have signed four new pros to their Canada poker team. Pro Team Canada now has new players to join Daniel Negreanu and Darus Suharto who are already part of the team. The new players signed are: Greg DeBora, Patrick Pezzin, Anh Van Nguyen and Marcello Del Grosso.

The four pros will make a great addition to Team Canada and all have impressive poker records. Greg DeBora is from Toronto and he has been playing poker since he was nineteen years old. The pro is known for playing online and at the Commerce Casino in LA.

DeBora has been playing professionally for over eight years and he has won more than $350,000 in live tournaments. Patrick Pezzin is also from Toronto and he turned pro in 1995. The forty year old pro is a great mixed game player and he has earned almost $700,000 in live tournament play.

Marcello Del Grosso is from Ontario and he turned pro in 2006. Del Grosso has earned almost $400,000 in tournament winnings during his career. Anh Van Nguyen is from Vietnam originally and moved to Canada at the age of 10. The pro has been playing poker for fourteen years and has been pro for about eight. He began his career as a dealer and then moved on to pro poker. Van Nguyen has earned almost $700,000 as well playing poker.

Poker Stars has pros that represent almost every area in the world. The Canada Team has grown from two players to four in an instant and PokerStars will add more to the Canada Team as well as their other teams when they see players exhibiting the traits they like to see in their sponsored pros.

The largest online poker room available, PokerStars, recently announced they have made changes in regards to buy-in levels for their cash games. The site decided to change the buy-in ranges on several stakes of cash games and many are welcome to the change.

Visit Poker Stars

PokerStars made the change to accommodate all types of players. The site will be changing the buy-in levels for the No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha cash game tables. The low end of the buy-in changes will be 20 to 40 big blinds and the buy-in default is 40.

The middle buy-in changes will be 40 to 100 big blinds and a default of 80. The highest level will be 100 to 250 big blinds and a default buy-in of 200. This set of blinds will also have an ante that is equal to 20% of the big blind.

The changes PokerStars made to the buy-in levels will make it easier for players to find tables they wish to compete against. Each table will have the level of blinds clearly labeled for the player to see. Players can hover the mouse pointer over the table name to see the detailed information about the table.

Players will also have to wait at least sixty minutes to be able to return to a table after they leave. This is an increase from the previous thirty minute waiting period. The changes were made to help restore balance to the poker tables at the PokerStars poker room.

Players could enter in a table with 20 to 100 big blinds and short stackers would be in a tough position. This will help players all around and make the cash game experience better for every member of PokerStars poker room.

Becoming a Supernova Elite player at PokerStars is a daunting task. Players must earn one million VIP Player Points in one calendar year before they will be named to the Supernova Elite status and it can be quite hard to earn that many points. But for one PokerStars player it seems to come quite easy.

Visit Poker Stars

George ‘Jorj95’ Lind reached Supernova Elite status in March of2008 which was the fastest that any one has ever earned the status title. Lind also finished the year with three million VPPs which is another amazing feat. This year it took Lind three months to earn the Supernova elite status. On March 30th Lind gained enough points to become a Supernova Elite member.

Lind has estimated that he plays about 650 hours, 80,000 sit and gos and 836,402 hands to earn the status. It averages out to about 50 hours of poker per week which is longer than many regular people’s work week.

Supernova Elite status offers players several rewards that are well worth the extended playing time. Supernova Elite members get free entries to exclusive weekly, monthly and quarterly free rolls. The free rolls have guarantees of $30,000, $100,000 and $1 million. The special players also get a free entry into the World Championship of Online Poker Main Event and any two packages to compete in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, World Series of Poker Main Event, European Poker Tour Monte Carlo Grand Final and the Asian Pacific Poker Tour Sydney.

In his PokerStars Blog, Lind writes, “I don’t really know the reason that I get so motivated by accomplishments like this, but whatever the reason is, I’m glad it exists. While playing poker online is normally pretty fun, doing it every day can become a bit of a grind if you don’t find ways to motivate yourself. I tend to set lots of little goals for myself just to get myself to put in more hours, such as trying to play a certain number of SNGs in a day, or trying to get a certain number of VPPs in a week or month.”

Visit Poker Stars

The poker scene in Australia is booming and online poker room PokerStars has helped the game become popular in the country. With the launch of the PokerStars Australia New Zealand poker Tour, more opportunities have arose for those in Australia and the citizens are taking advantage. To further the game in the country PokerStars has offered up an opportunity for one lucky player to become a poker pro as part of their Dream Job Australia promotion.

PokerStars.com hosted several free rolls and thousands of players have now been narrowed down to just a few to see who will win the Dream Job Australia position. Ten players remain to see who will earn the $100,000AUD sponsorship package on the ANZPT. This position includes a $5,000AUD a month salary for the winner as well.

The ten finalists must meet with PokerStars Team Australia pros Grant Levy, Emad Tahtouh and Tony Hachem and prove they are worthy of the appointment. The finalists must attend ANZPT events and go through a poker knowledge test as well as prove to Australia that they are the one for the position.

The finalists can market themselves on Facebook, Twitter and blogs to try and get a vote from the fans. Fans and poker players can cast their votes for the player of their choice at PokerStars by registering for the candidate of their choice with their tournament ID. Below is a list of the hopefuls:

Nigel Brine (Adelaide, SA) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888078

Lloyd Zischke (Brisbane, QLD) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888079

Chris Sheehan (Hobart, TAS) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888080

Anthony Walker (Ulladulla, NSW) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888081

Raija Thapper (Springfield, NSW) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888082

Peter Eccleston (Sydney, NSW) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888083

Darrin Marr (Drouin, VIC) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888084

Chris Farrugia (Port Pirie, SA) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888085

Peter West (Dubbo, NSW) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888086

Garth Bailo (Sunshine Coast, QLD) – Voting Tournament ID: 257888087

High stakes poker games are some of the most exciting games to watch and follow, so it is no wonder that the television show High Stakes Poker is so popular on the GSN network. But the show may soon find its popularity diminishing as PokerStars is preparing to launch their own high stakes poker show called The Big Game.

The Big Game will have big name pros competing, large buy-ins and all the makings of a hit poker show. The show will air on the FOX network and be called the PokerStars Big Game. The show will feature a table of poker pros playing no limit hold’em with $200/$400 blinds and a minimum buy-in of $100,000.

PokerStars has yet to announce the lineup for the shows as well as who will be hosting and other details but it seems as though Daniel Negreanu is behind the marketing of the show and the site has enough poker pros to create shows for decades.

So the show will feature poker pros and one online qualifier. The online qualifier will have their $100k buy-in staked by PokerStars and if the player wins they will get to keep their winnings. The qualifier will be called Loose Cannon and will be chosen in a two step process.

Visit Poker Stars

Players will first compete in a series of free rolls which are located in the lobby as Big Game qualifiers. The top 200 players will then be eligible to send in a casting video to PokerStars. PokerStars will then choose one player to go to Vegas and participate on the show.

Round one qualifier will take place from March 26th to June 25th and no specific dates have been released on the Final Round qualifiers. A timeline for the casting call has also not been released. More information will be released by PokerStars as the show gets closer to fruition.

PokerStars recently announced the third stop on the North American Poker Tour. The tour will be stopping at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut to host the third stop and the poker festival will last for sixteen days.

Visit Poker Stars

The top events of the stop will be the $25,600 two day High Roller Bounty Shootout. This tournament will see players earning $5,000 each time they knock out an opponent and the player who knocks out the most players will earn a seat at the next High Roller Bounty Shootout. This prize is worth $30,000 and it includes accommodations.

The tour stop will take place in April and on the 12th the bounty tournament will take place. The High Roller tournament will have two rounds. The first round will involve nine tables of nine players. The first place of each table competing will compete in a winner takes all final on the 13th. Each finalist will get $50,000 and the remainder minus the bounties will go to the overall winner.

The Mohegan Sun will be hosting a special $5,250 Super Satellite on April 11th. PokerStars is guaranteeing 10 $25,600 entries as prizes in the Super Satellite ant 2 entries of $51,200 will be added to the prize pool. One in five entrants will be guaranteed to win a seat to the High Roller event with more available in the field is large.

The Tour stop will have thirty seven poker events that take place over the sixteen days. The main event will take place from the 7th to the 11th and more than 600 players are expected to compete. Team PokerStars.net Pro Daniel Negreanu commented on the High roller event by stating, “I had the opportunity to play in the first High Roller Bounty Shootout at NAPT Venetian in February and I have to say it’s an incredibly exciting format. I am really looking forward to the chance to play again at NAPT Mohegan Sun – and reach the final this time! It’s going to be a great event.”