France gives wings to slot online indonesia .fr and lands WSOPE

WSOP.fr has been awarded an online gaming license in France, by regulator ARJEL. Caesars Interactive Entertainment partnered with Groupe Lucien Barrière to create the site. This marks a major step forward in offering poker players what they are really after: real-money play. Barrierepoker.fr will serve up WSOP real-money tournaments, including slot online indonesia  qualifiers for events in Europe and the U.S. The online French gambling market is new, and this deal will likely be one of its most lucrative for 2011.

“Lucien Barrière Hôtels & Casinos is a well-run organization,” Mitch Garber of Caesars Interactive Entertainment said. “We are excited to work with them to access the French market with high-quality and reputable poker events both in their hotels and casinos, and online with BarrierePoker.fr.”

Announced at the same time, the World Series of Poker Europe will be making a move to France. Instead of London, Caesars Interactive Entertainment announced that it will take place in Barrier’s Cannes casinos: the Casino Barrière de Cannes Croisette and the Hôtel Majestic Barrière. This is the first location change in the event’s five year history. An added bonus will be the tournament’s new capacity for 75 tables, effectively doubling the tournament’s capacity. The 2011 tournament will feature seven bracelet events, instead of the former five.

Caesars and the World Series of Poker Europe will also be collaborating on a new Barriere Poker Tour. The tour will offer eight regional stops through the France, including Lille, Toulouse, Nice, Dinard, Enghien, Trouville, Bordeaux, and Cannes.

Gus Hansen Wins WSOPE High Roller Championship

One of the world’s most popular poker professionals has taken down the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe High-Roller Event. Gus Hansen, known for his aggressive and interesting tournament style, outlasted one of the strongest fields in all of poker to win the £10,000 buy-in event. This high-roller tournament was a bit different than your typical championship as it  was a heads-up structure which pitted players against one another in a single-elimination format. Hansen was joined by more than 100 other high-stakes professionals looking to take down a prize worth more than a quarter-million pounds. Amongst the notable professionals on hand were Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, and FlopTurnRiver’s very own Daniel “IowaSkinsFan” Steinberg.

Both Ivey and Lederer, co-owners of FullTilt Poker, ended up making the Sweet 16 and found themselves inside the money. Unfortunately neither player could find their way to the next level as they both were bounced in the round of 16 earning £22,847 apiece. One of the best heads-up players in the world, former WSOP Main Event Champion Huck Seed, got one step closer than Ivey and Lederer but busted in 7th place in the quarterfinals. Joining Seed was Daniel “kidpoker” Negreanu who just missed out on the Final Four after being eliminated in 5th place. All of the quarterfinal losers took home £47,045 for their efforts.

Once the final four was set it was tough to tell who was the favorite.  Hansen was joined by a pair of strong professionals in Ram Vaswani and Andrew Feldman. Rounding out the semi-finalists was Jim Collopy who is well known online as “MrBigQueso” where he has taken down numerous championships including the Sunday $500k on PokerStars for more than $87,000. While he may not have been as established of a live professional all of the hours playing big buy-in MTTs proved to be great experience as he made the final against Hansen.

The final match-up was a great battle which saw Collopy finally succumb to Hansen’s relentless pressure.  After a raise from the button from Gus Hansen to 91,000 chips Collopy decided to bluff-shove all-in for more than 1,200,000 tournament chips. Unfortunately Gus had an actual hand and one that had Collopy’s K4 suited dominated. While Gus took some time to call he ultimately pulled the trigger and tabled pocket 4s leaving him as nearly a 2:1 favorite against his younger foe. The flop, Js 5c 6d, was no help and when the Ten of Spades hit the turn Collopy needed either a spade or King to stay alive. Luck was not on his side as the harmless Three of Diamonds fell on the river giving Hansen the pot, a £288,409 pay-day, and a WSOPE bracelet.

Congratulations goes to all 16 players who made the money in the WSOPE Event #4 High-Roller Championship!!